Conyers: Libby revealed Plame's identity to Miller in June '03 meeting

[paineinthearse]

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000267.htm

Blogged by JC on 10.07.05 @ 10:00 PM ET



Reuters is now reporting that Judith Miller has produced notes from a June 2003 conversation with Scooter Libby in which he revealed Valerie Plame's identity. This timing places Plame's outing well before Wilson's New York Times editorial and would seem to indicate a longer and more deliberate campaign was waged by the administration to undermine those two. The full story is here.

Reporter turns over notes in CIA leak case By Adam Entous
Fri Oct 7, 7:30 PM ET

A New York Times reporter has given investigators notes from a conversation she had with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney weeks earlier than was previously known, suggesting White House involvement started well before the outing of a CIA operative, legal sources said. Times reporter Judith Miller discovered the notes -- about a June 2003 conversation she had with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- after her testimony before the grand jury last week, the sources said on Friday. She turned the notes over to federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and is expected to meet him again next Tuesday, the sources said.

Miller's notes could help Fitzgerald establish that Libby had started talking to reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, weeks before Wilson publicly criticized the administration's Iraq policy in a Times opinion piece, the sources said. Wilson asserts that administration officials leaked his wife's identity, which damaged her ability to work undercover, to discredit him for criticizing President George W. Bush's Iraq policy in 2003, after a CIA-funded trip to investigate whether Niger helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad.

One source involved in the investigation said Miller's notes could help Fitzgerald show a long-running and orchestrated campaign to discredit Wilson, which could help form the basis for a conspiracy charge. Fitzgerald has yet to indicate whether or not he intends to bring indictments, but lawyers close to the investigation said there were signs he may be moving in that direction.

Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, plans to make a fourth appearance before the grand jury next week and prosecutors have told him they can make no guarantees he won't be indicted. The outcome could shake up an administration reeling from criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and the indictment of House of Representatives Republican leader Tom DeLay of Texas on charges related to campaign financing.

MUCH more....

[emulatorloo]

1. long-running and orchestrated campaign. . .basis for a conspiracy charge.

From Reuters article

<snip>

One source involved in the investigation said Miller's notes could help Fitzgerald show a long-running and orchestrated campaign to discredit Wilson, which could help form the basis for a conspiracy charge.

<snip>

[Me.]

2. Was A Time

When you could barely find/or hear a sentence in the media about the Plame affair. Now there's a volcano. Wonder if the hurricane after effects are being felt here, because now everyone seems to be on the story? Conyers must feel vindicated that his efforts to bring the truth into the light of day is beginning to bear fruit.

[joemurphy]

3. Hmmmm....Ummm Mr. Fitzgerald, I found these notes that I

forgot all about before...you know, when you asked me for them two years ago...I must have mislaid them. And look! They show that I spoke with Mr. Libby in June, just after word on Wilson's trip became public...after Nick Kristoff, from my paper, wrote an article about it...and I must have interviewed Scooter...er, I mean Mr. Libby...and look, whaddayaknow, they show that he knew Mrs. Wilson worked for the CIA back then...Do you think they're possibly important? Ooooo. I'm such a ditz. I must have misplaced them. They were in a pile of interviews I had with Mr. Chalabi....Well, better late than never, eh?

[samdogmom]

4. Hmmm. I wonder if the speculation that Plame's firm was onto

some dastardly thing BushCo. was up to (i.e. maybe planting weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) and had to be exposed before they could reveal the plot is true after all?

[halobeam]

5. Reminds me of the name David Kelly, how about you? .

I'd like to know if his name came up in court.

[samdogmom]

9. I'm thinking the same thing!

Although I read her testimony was going to be limited to Scooter only--so can Fitzgerald even get into this area? If they were plotting BEFORE Wilson's article even appeared, then outing Plame in retaliation for the article makes very little sense. I hope this can all be explained properly someday.

[Spurt]

15. The Kelly case....

....haunts me.
That was the lesson that taught me that the UK gov't was as bad as the US. I used to hold faith that the UK gov't was still more accountable, and importantly, that the UK people wouldn't have stood for that whole con job.

Kelly died (was taken out) because he said the Iraq WMD case had been "sexed up".

He was correct.

Another uncounted war casualty.

[Straight Shooter]

6. IIRC, Wilson was making noise long before NYT article was published.

He was probably going through D.C. diplomatic channels to try to convince those in the Monkey Palace not to push the "yellow cake" allegation. Push came to shove, and he ended up writing the "What I Learned In Africa" article.

Then the WH shoved back, with a plan they had simmering on the back burner just in case.

Well, that's my take on it, anyway. They always have a plan for those who won't go along with their agenda, just so they can unleash it at a moment's notice. Rove hates to be caught flatfooted, so to speak.

[Garbo 2004]

11. Yes, Wilson was an unattributed source for articles that spring about the

Niger letter and his trip. And he had tried via informal channels to inform/warn Administration types like Condi that their info was wrong. Perhaps still believing that they were simply uninformed/misinformed. Perhaps not quite realizing that they already knew and simply didn't care.

Wilson mentioned long ago that he'd been told that the WH had folks doing a "work up" on him well before he actually went public. I thnk I recall Wilson specifically mentioning June 2003.

[paineinthearse]

13. The timing will not be better to see Joe Wilson next Monday night

I am so psyched! Everone within a day's trip to Massachusetts should attend. See the Mass forum for details.

[Straight Shooter]

19. Thank you for the precise clarification.

My memory was hazy as to details. I hope he kept good notes of all his contacts :)

[katinmn]

7. A newsy blog all the way around!

Thanks for re-posting.

[bee]

8. Theyre soooo busted. n/t

[writes2000]

10. Fantastic!!! Libby's Roasted & Rove just got burned!

Now there is proof that Libby knew about Plame in June WEEKS before Novak's article and supposedly Rove heard about it from a reporter in July????

C'mon. Conspiracy. Perjury. The Espionage Act.

Fitzgerald may have them all by the balls.

[paineinthearse]

12. Perhaps this is why Cheney looked especially vile today.....

[mike_c]

14. nah-- that 10 year old virgin...

...whose veins he sucked dry last night probably gave him gas or something. Maybe his sunlight treatments are wearing off, or someone managed to get near him with some garlic....

[BlueEyedSon]

16. Maybe going after Plame had nothing to do with Wilson's trip (initially)..

[ClassWarrior]

17. Can we say Brewster Jennings and the Middle East?

NGU.

[seemslikeadream]

18. Yes we can and have been doing so for quite some time!

Merry Fitzmas ClassWarrior















It's in the signline August 8,04

[Stephanie]

22. We need a new thread about Brewster Jennings

When everyone was doing the research the threads got so involved I gave up following them. I would love to see a new thread from one of you with a summary of the BJ speculation.

This is getting good!

:popcorn:

[ClassWarrior]

23. All I know is what I heard on Randi...

It was a legitimate oil company that was also a CIA asset. Valerie Plame was an executive there. Being an oil interest meant that its covert beat was the Middle East, particularly uncovering WMD.

Of course we can all speculate what they uncovered there that the Bush** Crime Family wants hushed-up.

NGU.

[paineinthearse]

20. .

:kick:

[omega minimo]

21. kick nom-- Thanks pita

:bounce:

[lovuian]

24. Conspiracy charges getting a boost

today!!!

[FourStarDemocrat]

25. Sounds to me like Judy's lawyer is leaking...which might help protect Rove

Which is NOT good. Here, Judy's lawyer- probrably at her behest-leaks to the press what's in her notes..and this happens before Rove goes back to the GJ and testifies. This can help Rove nail Libby and skirt out of trouble himself..maybe line up his testimony with Judy's notes. I don't like it.

[oregonindy]

26. black hoodie time. the more I read the angrier I get.

there will be a point I think in the near future where the wave of corruption will be too much and the pitchforks and torches will come out.