BigBadBrian
11-06-2005, 07:32 PM
In Light of The Fitzgerald Indictment-Let’s Remember A Few Things
By Seth Leibsohn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the Libby indictment, perjury and obstruction of justice charges are serious charges, and should not be discounted. We should take heart that in light of those charges, no long, national nightmare will take place, Scooter Libby has stepped down. But, as National Review reminds: Friday was the prosecutor’s day, and Libby will have his day in court too. He may be innocent, he was not proven guilty and Fitzgerald said as much in his press conference four times by my count—more than any prosecutor in a press conference I can recall. Now, let’s get back to the origins of what happened here:
1. Karl Rove was not frog-marched out of the White House, as Joe Wilson hoped and salivated for; indeed, he was not even indicted.
2. The VP’s Chief of Staff is high level, but can anyone tell me off the top of their heads who the last Chief of Staff for Vice President was, or the one before that?
3. Joe Wilson isn’t getting the scrutiny he deserves for his role in this: he is raising the rooftops for two years about his wife’s identity being outed and on Friday puts out a release saying he wants his family’s privacy respected. But:
4. Wilson went on a mission for the CIA. He then starts telling reporters about his mission (like Nick Kristoff). Indeed in his NYT op-ed he even writes about being they guy (“that’s me”) others have been citing in pouring doubt on Bush’s 16 words in ‘03 SOU. There was no legit or compelling reason for him to write an oped in the NYT.
5. If his wife was so confidential and if he cared so much about it he a) should not have been talking to reporters and b) writing an op-ed about himself—his 8 full days in Niger. Bill Buckley did a mission for the CIA in the 50s (no war was at stake by the way) and still won’t say what he did.
6. In short order, reporters try to find out who this guy is and how he got the job—pretty natural they’d want to find that out. It leads to his wife, which Wilson repeatedly states had nothing to do with it. Well, everyone now knows she suggested him, and the Sen. Intel Cmte Report (signed off by John Edwards) says as much.
7. In short order Wilson has a book (the most inaptly titled book in history: The Poltiics of Truth). Before the book is published, he poses with his wife in a glam shot for Vanity Fair as if he’s Jimmy Stewart and she Grace Kelly. Some concern for her secrecy!
8. While Wilson makes a meal of the Uranium allegations the famous 16 words, remember what they were: “The british government has learned….” and guess what?! British intelligence still stands by the allegation that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Niger in their Lord Butler investigation and report. Annenburg School/FactCheck.org reported Bush had cause to believe the charge. The Senate Intel report says Wilson’s findings were not much help to the CIA and “shed no new light.” AND actually “lent more credibility to the original CIA” understandings of a Niger deal than not. The CIA rates Wilson’s findings in Nigeria, his efforts, his report as “good” a mid-level rank, below “excellent” and “outstanding”.
9. Wilson and wife were highly partisan figures: As early as 1999, Mrs. Wilson is a donor to the Gore campaign; as early as May 2003 (before primaries, before his own op-ed, before Novak) Joe Wilson becomes an advisor to the Kerry campaign; in Sep. of 03 he officially and publicaly endorses Kerry.
10. He is a scourge for leaking about his own mission, for writing about it, and then making hay about his oh-so-important concern for his wife’s secret identity. I have heard that many CIA agents are furious that he was allowed to write up his mission in the NYTIMES in the first place. Did he think people would not want to know more about him, his mission, how he got it? He then mugs for cameras, with his wife, writes a book, takes her on tour, preaches about Rove being frog-marched out of the White House, then says leave my family alone, they want their privacy. Sorry, he started this, no one else did, he is not only the proximate cause of his wife’s identity being blown, he was the direct cause: were he not so partisan, were he not so anxious for publicity, she never would have come to light—and he put her in the light.
Link (http://www.avot.org/article/20051030063500.html)
By Seth Leibsohn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the Libby indictment, perjury and obstruction of justice charges are serious charges, and should not be discounted. We should take heart that in light of those charges, no long, national nightmare will take place, Scooter Libby has stepped down. But, as National Review reminds: Friday was the prosecutor’s day, and Libby will have his day in court too. He may be innocent, he was not proven guilty and Fitzgerald said as much in his press conference four times by my count—more than any prosecutor in a press conference I can recall. Now, let’s get back to the origins of what happened here:
1. Karl Rove was not frog-marched out of the White House, as Joe Wilson hoped and salivated for; indeed, he was not even indicted.
2. The VP’s Chief of Staff is high level, but can anyone tell me off the top of their heads who the last Chief of Staff for Vice President was, or the one before that?
3. Joe Wilson isn’t getting the scrutiny he deserves for his role in this: he is raising the rooftops for two years about his wife’s identity being outed and on Friday puts out a release saying he wants his family’s privacy respected. But:
4. Wilson went on a mission for the CIA. He then starts telling reporters about his mission (like Nick Kristoff). Indeed in his NYT op-ed he even writes about being they guy (“that’s me”) others have been citing in pouring doubt on Bush’s 16 words in ‘03 SOU. There was no legit or compelling reason for him to write an oped in the NYT.
5. If his wife was so confidential and if he cared so much about it he a) should not have been talking to reporters and b) writing an op-ed about himself—his 8 full days in Niger. Bill Buckley did a mission for the CIA in the 50s (no war was at stake by the way) and still won’t say what he did.
6. In short order, reporters try to find out who this guy is and how he got the job—pretty natural they’d want to find that out. It leads to his wife, which Wilson repeatedly states had nothing to do with it. Well, everyone now knows she suggested him, and the Sen. Intel Cmte Report (signed off by John Edwards) says as much.
7. In short order Wilson has a book (the most inaptly titled book in history: The Poltiics of Truth). Before the book is published, he poses with his wife in a glam shot for Vanity Fair as if he’s Jimmy Stewart and she Grace Kelly. Some concern for her secrecy!
8. While Wilson makes a meal of the Uranium allegations the famous 16 words, remember what they were: “The british government has learned….” and guess what?! British intelligence still stands by the allegation that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Niger in their Lord Butler investigation and report. Annenburg School/FactCheck.org reported Bush had cause to believe the charge. The Senate Intel report says Wilson’s findings were not much help to the CIA and “shed no new light.” AND actually “lent more credibility to the original CIA” understandings of a Niger deal than not. The CIA rates Wilson’s findings in Nigeria, his efforts, his report as “good” a mid-level rank, below “excellent” and “outstanding”.
9. Wilson and wife were highly partisan figures: As early as 1999, Mrs. Wilson is a donor to the Gore campaign; as early as May 2003 (before primaries, before his own op-ed, before Novak) Joe Wilson becomes an advisor to the Kerry campaign; in Sep. of 03 he officially and publicaly endorses Kerry.
10. He is a scourge for leaking about his own mission, for writing about it, and then making hay about his oh-so-important concern for his wife’s secret identity. I have heard that many CIA agents are furious that he was allowed to write up his mission in the NYTIMES in the first place. Did he think people would not want to know more about him, his mission, how he got it? He then mugs for cameras, with his wife, writes a book, takes her on tour, preaches about Rove being frog-marched out of the White House, then says leave my family alone, they want their privacy. Sorry, he started this, no one else did, he is not only the proximate cause of his wife’s identity being blown, he was the direct cause: were he not so partisan, were he not so anxious for publicity, she never would have come to light—and he put her in the light.
Link (http://www.avot.org/article/20051030063500.html)