October 7, 2003

Q: Mr. President, how confident are you the investigation will find the leaker in the CIA case? And what do you make of Sharon’s comment that Israel will strike its enemies at any place, any time?

THE PRESIDENT: This is the dual question. (Laughter.) I’m trying to figure out if I want to answer either of them, since you violated a major rule. (Laughter.) At least it’s not a cell phone. (Laughter.)

Randy, you tell me, how many sources have you had that’s leaked information that you’ve exposed or have been exposed? Probably none. I mean this town is a — is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don’t know if we’re going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there’s a lot of senior officials. I don’t have any idea. I’d like to. I want to know the truth. That’s why I’ve instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators — full disclosure, everything we know the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we’ll find out who the leaker is — partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers. But we’ll find out.

Large administration: check
A lot of senior officials: check
Instructed the staff to cooperate fully: huh?

October 25, 2005

I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

So, on day one, Dick Cheney could have told the President that he was the source of the information on Valerie Plame, and that his chief-of-staff was leaking her name to Judith Miller and other reporters. Libby and Hadley could have told the President that Karl Rove was in on the game. Karl Rove could have told the President that he was leaking to Cooper and other reporters. Well, either they told the truth to the President and he signed off on an extensive stonewalling campaign, or they lied to the President and launched an extensive stonewalling campaign.

In the former case, the President and Vice-President must be impeached. In the latter case, the Vice-President must resign or face impeachment, and the administration must be purged of all the people that have engaged in a cover-up.

It doesn’t matter whether or not Dick Cheney broke any laws when he passed on information about Valerie Wilson to Scooter Libby. He obviously did not offer that information voluntarily to the prosecutor, or Scooter Libby would not have told the prosecutor that he first learned of Valerie Wilson from reporter Tim Russert.

As for Cheney’s legal liability? Judge for yourself:

Mr. Cheney was interviewed under oath by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what the vice president told Mr. Fitzgerald about the conversation with Mr. Libby or when Mr. Fitzgerald first learned of it.

Meanwhile (below the flip) Cheney is doing his best to assure that torture remains an instrumental tool in the War on Phantoms…er…I mean the war on al-Qaeda’s number three and Zarqawi’s number two…er…the perpetual war on everyone anywhere who doesn’t appreciate being tortured.

The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody.

The proposal, which two sources said Vice President Cheney handed last Thursday to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the company of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, states that the measure barring inhumane treatment shall not apply to counterterrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by “an element of the United States government” other than the Defense Department.

Cheney’s proposal is drafted in such a way that the exemption from the rule barring ill treatment could require a presidential finding that “such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack.” But the precise applicability of this section is not clear, and none of those involved in last week’s discussions would discuss it openly yesterday.

McCain, the principal sponsor of the legislation, rejected the proposed exemption at the meeting with Cheney, according to a government source who spoke without authorization and on the condition of anonymity. McCain spokeswoman Eileen McMenamin declined to comment. But the exemption has been assailed by human rights experts critical of the administration’s handling of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’m sick of this shit. Let the frog-march begin.