‘THIS PRES’ IMPLICATED IN LIBBY CIA LEAK BY CHENEY’S HAND-WRITTEN NOTE

Brad Friedman

January 31, 2007, 1:24pm
PT

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Are the wheels finally beginning to come off this thing?

TruthOut’s Jason Leopold and Marc Ash get a great scoop from the Libby/CIA Leak Trial as George W. Bush appears to be dragged into protecting the identity of the CIA leak via a hand-written note from Dick Cheney…

From TruthOut:

Copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by defense attorneys for former White House staffer I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case.

Bush has long maintained that he was unaware of attacks by any member of his administration against [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson. The ex-envoy’s stinging rebukes of the administration’s use of pre-war Iraq intelligence led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson’s wife’s covert CIA status to reporters in July 2003 in an act of retaliation.

But Cheney’s notes, which were introduced into evidence Tuesday during Libby’s perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial, call into question the truthfulness of President Bush’s vehement denials about his prior knowledge of the attacks against Wilson. The revelation that Bush may have known all along that there was an effort by members of his office to discredit the former ambassador begs the question: Was the president also aware that senior members of his administration compromised Valerie Plame’s undercover role with the CIA?
…
Libby’s defense team first discussed the notes – written by Cheney in September 2003 for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan – during opening statements last week. [Libby’s attorney Theodore] Wells said Cheney had written “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others”: a reference to Libby being asked to deal with the media and vociferously rebut Wilson’s allegations that the Bush administration knowingly “twisted” intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq.

However, when Cheney wrote the notes, he had originally written “this Pres.” instead of “that was.”
…
Thus, Cheney’s notes would have read “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy this Pres. asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.” The words “this Pres.” were crossed out and replaced with “that was,” but are still clearly legible in the document.

Late in the TO article, there is also this little chestnut which catches my eye…

Moreover, Wells insinuated Tuesday that Cheney’s note [seemingly] implicating President Bush in the discrediting of Wilson was one of the 250 pages of emails and documents the White House failed to turn over to investigators who had been probing the leak for more than two years.

So there are at least 250 more such pages and documents yet to come out as they’ve been protected, so far, by the White House. And yet, Libby’s team seems to have access to at least some of them.

Unless I miss my bet, this could get ugly in a hurry as it seems to me that long ago Libby, for whatever reason, has ditched the idea of receiving a Presidential pardon. This seems to quickly be devolving into every man for himself, as the concept of protecting the White House has apparently gone out the window long ago. At least that appears to be the strategy of Libby’s defense. Even as these guys always seem to have more up their sleeves than initially apparent…

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