Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair

[Catchme]

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?

Further, the highly explicit nature of Cheney's comments not only hints at a rift between Cheney and Bush over what Cheney felt was the scapegoating of Libby, but also raises serious questions about potentially criminal actions by Bush. If Bush did indeed play an active role in encouraging Libby to take the fall to protect Karl Rove, as Libby's lawyers articulated in their opening statements, then that could be viewed as criminal involvement by Bush.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107Z.shtml

[guyser]

I will have to take a wait and see on this one. Want to make sure that what they are saying is the way it is. (yea I know..makes no sense)

If true however, oh boy for George. Got some 'splainin to do.

[jdobbin]

I will have to take a wait and see on this one. Want to make sure that what they are saying is the way it is. (yea I know..makes no sense)

I agree. I'm watching this. For many months the Whitehouse has been playing this down but it doesn't look. We'll see what the rest of the testimony offers.

[Guthrie]

The Buschistas will be brought down the same way Nixon and his CREEPS were. Death by a thousand cuts.

and the blades are out

[Figleaf]

We all know this administration is crooked, vicious, and consider themselves morally exceptional.

I'd say America got what it deserved, if the Bushites had actually won either of the elections. As it is, one has to consider the nation a victim of these bastiches.

[Catchme]

And then we had the FBI testify and further damage Bush, Libby Cheney. Yet more lies.

An FBI agent who interviewed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby during the CIA leak investigation testified today that the vice president's then-chief of staff did not reveal that he had repeatedly disclosed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters and insisted he was surprised when another journalist later told him about her.

FBI agent Deborah S. Bond told jurors in Libby's perjury trial that he said he did not come across a hand-written note he had taken during a telephone conversation with Vice President Cheney until he was preparing to be interviewed as part of the investigation. The note made clear that, shortly before June 12, 2003, Cheney had told him that Plame worked at the CIA's counterproliferation division and was married to a former ambassador who was an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/02/01/f...li_n_40200.html