The Aspens Will Already Be Turning Options

[painter]

Libby trial witness leaves White House reeling

Mark Tran
Friday January 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

President Bush's administration was today preparing for damaging repercussions from testimony by one of its own officials in the perjury trial of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former chief of staff to the US vice-president Dick Cheney.

Cathie Martin, Mr Cheney's former spokeswoman, yesterday told a court that she clearly remembered telling Mr Libby the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, whose husband, Joseph Wilson, had attacked the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq.

Mr Libby faces five felony counts of lying to a grand jury and FBI agents for claiming that he learned of Valerie Plame's identity from reporters. Her name was first disclosed in a column by the conservative columnist Robert Novak in July, 2003, just days after her husband had written a comment in The New York Times accusing the Bush administration of distorting intelligence to bolster the case for invading Iraq.
Mr Wilson had been sent to Africa to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger for his nuclear weapons programme. He reported back to the state department and the CIA that the reports were untrue, yet the claim surfaced in George Bush's state of the union speech in January, 2003.

Mr Libby is not being tried for the leak itself, but for the subsequent cover-up. The former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage subsequently admitted leaking Ms Plame's identity to Mr Novak and to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. But Mr Armitage says he did not realise Ms Plame's job was covert.

Ms Martin was the fourth prosecution witness in a trial that could prove highly embarrassing for the White House by shedding light on its deliberations in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Her testimony could be especially damaging as she worked closely with Mr Libby and Mr Cheney.

A staunch Republican, Ms Martin was recruited to work for Mr Cheney by Mary Matalin, a close friend of Mr Libby and Mr Cheney. She is married to Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and is currently the deputy director of communications for policy and planning for Mr Bush.

Her account of events backed up the prosecution's case that Mr Libby found out Ms Plame's identity from administration officials rather than from reporters, as he told investigators.

According to US reports of the trial, Ms Martin said she learned that Ms Plame worked for the CIA after Mr Libby told her to call the agency to get more information about Mr Wilson's trip to Niger. Ms Martin said she quickly passed on Ms Plame's name to Mr Libby and Mr Cheney.

Ms Martin also told the court of the White House's media strategy - including "strategic leaks" - personally directed by Mr Cheney to reject charges that Mr Bush had misled the public in his January, 2003 speech.

But Ms Martin said that neither man had suggested that Ms Plame's identity be revealed as part of the White House plan. She said that she had no knowledge of either actually doing so.

Theodore Wells, Mr Libby's chief lawyer, in his cross-examination of Martin, tried to challenge her memory, as he has done with other witnesses. Her cross-examination will continue when the trial resumes Monday. She will be followed on the witness stand by Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary.

Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1999552,00.html

Libby's criptic message to Judith Miller, "Out west where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them," was a forewarning: 'If they get me, they get everyone.'

[Sanders]

B)


(IMG:http://pilotsfor911truth.org/forum/style_emoticons/default/cheers.gif)

[waterdancer]

Aspen, huh? I wonder if Scooter might be dyslexic? Perhaps he was thinking of the PNAC but accidentally wrote to Judy about PANDO instead? We just hate to see it when the Aspen all turn at once, now don't we?

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJ...August_1015.htm archive http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJ...er_Workshop.htm archive

This post has been edited by waterdancer: Jan 27 2007, 06:43 AM

[jo56]

You know it takes a lot of energy to keep a LIE going. This White House spends so much time in this area, they have no time for anything they're really supposed to be doing. The human body will buckle eventually under these HUGE LIES, as the pressure is so great from within. They are their own worst enemy. This is especially true of Cheney, with his heart condition.

This post has been edited by jo56: Jan 27 2007, 12:41 PM

[mo fiya]

This is especially true of Cheney, with his heart condition.

what's the condition?

2 sizes too small?

(IMG:http://www.cel-ebration.com/TWO-SIZES-TOO-SMALL.jpg)

[Sanders]

[laugh]

Yeah, Cheney has a "heart condition" all right.



(Nice one, mo fiya - laughed my socks off - Cheney kinda looks like the Grinch, don't ya think?)