Cheney All Along?
Posted on | February 10, 2007
After nearly four years, we are finally being told that the exposure of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent was in fact orchestrated by the vice president. All the lies, all the spin–all apparently part of the struggle to keep Cheney’s fingerprints off the cynical use of intelligence assets for political assassination. We may never know who has already died as a result of the reckless destruction of Plame’s operations, but we can add those to the long list of the dead for which the Administration is directly responsible.
Testimony and documents in the trial show Rove joining Cheney in trying to undercut Wilson’s claim that the administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
“We’re a day late in getting responses to the story,” Rove told a staff meeting, according to Libby’s notes.
“Get the full story out,” Cheney told aides, according to Libby’s grand jury testimony…
In questioning Libby before the grand jury, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald juxtaposed Bush’s public statements condemning leakers and Libby’s contacts with reporters, some of whom have testified against him.
“Were you at all concerned that while the president was stating that there’s no White House involvement in any leaks whatsoever, that you were one of the people who may have been referred to” in press reports about possible White House leakers? asked Fitzgerald.
Remember those qualified pledges Da Prez has made over the years? First, the leakers were to be fired. Then, it was anyone “committing a crime” or who had “leaked classified information” that would get the axe. Counting on the nebulous nature of the law, and on his ability to rewrite history by declassifying after the fact, President Bush has, it seems, been slowly preparing us for a revelation that yes, indeed, the White House was behind it all.
Can it be entirely coincidental that Cheney’s staff are now proclaiming themselves an fourth branch of government, and presumably above the law?
…The reporting requirements for disclosing classification and declassification activity fall under a presidential executive order.
“Basically the definition says that any entity of the executive branch that comes into possession of classified information is covered by the reporting requirements,” says Leonard. “I have my understanding of what the executive order requires, and I’m going to the attorney general to ascertain if my reading of the executive order is correct.”
However, Megan McGinn, Cheney’s deputy press secretary, says the vice president’s office is exempt.
“This matter has been thoroughly reviewed,” McGinn told U.S. News, “and it has been determined that reporting requirements do not apply to the office of the vice president, which has both legislative and executive functions.” Under the Constitution, the vice president serves as president of the Senate.
Can you guess where this is headed?
