Oh, the tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. They are playing eight hours of Scooter Libby grand jury testimony in the courtroom today. The most interesting thing so far is excerpted for you below. Fitzgerald is discussing the White House reaction to Joe Wilson’s article and MTP appearance (July 6th). Stephen Hadley was then the Deputy National Security Advisor and he was working with the OVP and Karl Rove to get George Tenet to release a statement disputing Wilson’s charges and taking the blame of the 16 words upon himself. I’ll discuss the implications of Libby’s testimony below.
Fitzgerald: Do you recall Hadley saying on July 9th that we need to do something about Wilson now, discredit him?
Libby: I don’t recall that specific phrase, but I’d have to check my notes.
F: Do you remember that concept coming across, regardless of specific words?
L: Yes, to discredit what Wilson was saying. Don’t recall about discrediting him personally.
F: (pulls out notes) Do you recall Rove complaining that Wilson was viewed as a credible expert?
L: Remember wanting to discredit his story, but not him personally
F: Were people saying, “Let’s be careful to discredit his story, but not discredit him personally”?
L: Don’t recall any statement like that.
F: Do you recall an effort to push back on Wilson’s credibility that week?
L: Yes, trying to get statement from Rice and Tenet explaining that Wilson’s findings didn’t really undermine intelligence, but supported it (gives the whole spiel again)
F: Did you consider Wilson’s wife working at the CIA as something that undermined his credibility?
L: No, I thought he was credible to do what he did.
F: Do you believe it reflected nepotism in his hiring?
L: I… I don’t think I knew then why he was hired. That didn’t come out until later, with the Rove report.
F: You’re clear that you didn’t give this information with Ari Fleischer
L: I don’t recall it. I’m sorry to keep repeating this, but all I recall is being surprised when I talked about it with Tim Russert.
F: (pulls out note from conversation about Tenet statement, with references to Cheney, Hadley, plus Harlow/McLaughlin on CIA)
F: Does this say, “Wilson is declassified”?
L: Yes.
F: Does this say, “The president is comfortable”?
L: Yes.
F: And the next line:
L: Hadley saying it’s the NIE should be leaked.
F: Did anyone say it was OK to leak the NIE that week?
L: I had already talked to Judith Miller, with the President’s approval.
F: Did you tell Hadley this?
L: No.
F: Why not?
L: Because the VP was there, and he knew, and didn’t say anything.
I don’t know what ‘the Rove report’ refers to. It’s the first I’ve heard of it. It looks like the Firedoglake crew is also surprised. Not sure, yet, what it means.
Scooter Libby discussed classified portions of the 2002 National Intelligence Report with NYT’s reporter David Sanger on July 2nd and he leaked more classified information to Judith Miller on July 8th. Ordinarily that would be illegal, but Libby, Cheney, Bush, and David Addington have testified that Bush authorized Libby to leak selected NIE information as a way to rebut Ambassador Wilson.
What this testimony reveals is that a week after Libby leaked NIE intelligence to David Sanger and a day after he leaked NIE intelligence to Judith Miller, Stephen Hadley didn’t know about those leaks. And he was arguing strenuously that leaks should be made. Cheney just sat there quiet as a mouse and didn’t mention a word about unilaterlly declassifying NIE intelligence. Cheney and Libby were operating under very deep cover indeed.
Then there is one more interesting tidbit in this testimony. There are some notes that have two lines in them that, taken together, might implicate the President directly in the outing of Valerie Plame.
The notes say “Wilson is declassified”? and “The president is comfortable”?. This could mean the CIA’s report on Wilson’s trip is declassified, it could mean Valerie Wilson’s job is (or has been declassified). And the President was comfortable with that.
There was another interesting piece of information that came out yesterday from Scooter Libby’s grand jury testimony. And it slightly contradicts Larry Johnson’s theory of when the WH really started paying attention to Joe Wilson. You might remember that Wilson was an anonymous source for a May 6th article by NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof, called Missing in Action: The Truth. You might think the President doesn’t read the paper. He’d like his base to think he is too busy clearing brush and riding bicycles to bother with the New York Times. The following testimony makes it clear that Bush was all over the Kristof column. It did not slip by his attention at all.
Fitzgerald: The first check on the item on this page, does this show that the President was interested in the Kristof article and the State of the Union?
Libby: Yes.
F: Did you ever discuss the President’s interest with the VP?
L: No.
F: Did you ever discuss it with the President?
L: No
F: Who would have told you about it?
L: Could have been senior staff meeting.
We tend to blame everything on the Vice-President. More and more evidence is coming out that implicates the President himself in the outing of Valerie Plame and the campaign against Joe Wilson.