Cheney Could Not Recall Key Events About His Role in CIA Leak

By GottaLaff

My friend Jason Leopold wrote up a piece on Dickless McHeartstent's 2004 interview with the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case. As usual, Jason's reporting is well worth a read:

A month before Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status as a CIA operative was revealed, Vice President Dick Cheney told his then-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and his press secretary, Cathie Martin, that Plame Wilson worked at the spy agency.

But according to a 28-page summary of Cheney’s May 8, 2004 interview with the special prosecutor probing the leak, Cheney did not recall having that conversation.

"Cheney has no recollection of Cathie Martin entering his office at some point while Scooter Libby was present and advising both of them that [Plame Wilson] was employed by the CIA," states the interview summary, released late Friday by the FBI after a lengthy court battle between the Bush and Obama administrations and the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). [...]

Cheney described the CIA's decision to dispatch Ambassador Wilson to Niger as "amateur-hour" and he disparaged the CIA's handling of Iraq intelligence, which Cheney, Libby and others in the Office of the Vice President pressured agency analysts to manipulate in an attempt to portray Iraq as posing an immediate threat.

Cheney said he could not recall playing any role in the campaign to attack Wilson. But former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his memoir, What Happened: Inside The Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, that the White House’s behind-the-scenes campaign to discredit Wilson heated up in June 2003. “The vice president and Libby were quietly stepping up their efforts to counter the allegations of the anonymous envoy to Niger...," McClellan wrote. [...]

In fact, Cheney stated that he did not recall more than two-dozen key events he was involved in [...]

That's just a nibble. Go devour the whole piece here.

And after you do, you won't have an appetite for days.

Liveblog: Face the Nation, Leahy v. Sessions on Cheney, special prosecutor

By GottaLaff

I'm liveblogging Face the Nation, with Bob Shieffer, is on now. He's talking to Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Jeff Sessions:

Leahy: I still prefer a truth commission. The inquiry would go into everything, while special prosecutors are narrowly focused. Eric Holder is a superb A.G., but I don't want to see the higher ups break the law, but punishment for the lower level troops. I won't interfere with his decision, but I'd like to see the inquiry, and may have problems doing both... immunity issues.

Sessions: It would be sad to me if the A.G. decided to use a special prosecutor...

Leahy: I admire the CIA agents on the front line, but remember Abu Ghraib. The lower echelon got punished, not those who condoned the actions. If someone higher up broke the law, we need to know.

Shieffer: What about the V.P., allegedly, told the CIA not to tell Congress...

Sessions: Sources, sources... leaks from unnamed sources don't turn out to be what they appear to be. I don't know what the facts are, but Cheney served his country with fidelity... outstanding record.

Leahy: We can't leave it lay. It's either true or not true. Nobody is above the law.

Attorney General Holder's Very Important Promise

By GottaLaff

I am inclined to trust Attorney General Holder on this one:

As Attorney General Eric Holder left an appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday I spoke loudly from the third row as he prepared to leave the room:

"We need a special prosecutor for torture, Mr. Attorney General. Americans like the rule of law. The rule of law for everybody."

He replied as he approached and walked by, surrounded by bodyguards:

"And you will be proud of your country."

I was joined by others in replying simultaneously:

"Yes, we want to be proud of our country. We're ready. No need to wait."

Holder knew exactly what it would take for me to be proud of my country, and he told me directly that I would be.

Let's hope he wasn't crossing his fingers.

H/t: Chris

Nadler-- Impeach Torture Memo Author: "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law."

By GottaLaff

The groundswell is groundswelling:

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Monday for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the principal authors of the torture memos released last week by the Obama administration.

"He ought to be impeached," Nadler said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law. [...]

Nadler is meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday to argue that the release of the torture memos further buttresses a call he had made earlier for a special prosecutor on torture.

"Any special prosecutor on torture would have to look at the authors of those torture memos," said Nadler. "And certainly you have real grounds to impeach him once the special prosecutor took a good look at that. I think there ought to be an impeachment inquiry looked at in any event. Which should happen first, I'm not sure." [...]

"He should be a target. Yoo should be a target. There are a number of targets," said Nadler, referring to for Bush administration counsel John Yoo, who also authorized torture and is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Bybee, noted Nadler, "is the only one who's a federal court judge now." [...]

"This whole call of looking forward rather than backwards -- you can't say that. The fact is, if crimes were committed, we are duty-bound under our law, we must -- the United States must investigate torture if it happened in America. That's the law. And the fact is, the law specifically says that instructions from higher officials is not an excuse. And we are obligated to investigate and, if indicated, to prosecute. The failure to at least investigate would be a violation of law," he said.

Fasten your seatbelts.

VIDEOS: Obama on appointing special prosecutor to investigate Bush crimes, + Jonathan Turley on Rachel Maddow Show

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As I said in Comments, I'm with Jonathan Turley on this. I think Obama is being shortsighted. It's a huge mistake to not go after BushCo, because it sets a terrible precedent.

That said, Obama didn't specifically rule out an investigation, but unfortunately, he sure sounded like he was leaning the other way.

However:

Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s choice to lead the Office of Legal Counsel, rejects Obama’s “look forward” approach. In March 2008, she told “the next president” to avoid “any temptation to simply move on”:

We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation’s past transgressions and reject Bush’s corruption of our American ideals. Our constitutional democracy cannot survive with a government shrouded in secrecy, nor can our nation’s honor be restored without full disclosure.

And there's this:

But let's not leave this to chance. Let's all tell Attorney General Eric Holder what we want through a petition to Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush's crimes:
http://www.democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimes

I've already signed it. I urge everyone to do the same.

Obama Demands Special Prosecutor Investigate GOP Voter Fraud Activities

By GottaLaff

UPDATE-- One reason why this is so important:

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month. [...]

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. [...]

The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."

McCain's comments provoked a response from ACORN.

"I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence," Kettenring said, "but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish. We would call on Senator McCain to tamp down the fringe elements in his party."

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

GObama!

Charging that the FBI probe of ACORN represents an “unholy alliance” between Republican operatives and potentially illegal conduct by law enforcement targeting voter fraud, the Obama campaign demanded Friday that the U.S. special prosecutor looking into the U.S. attorneys scandal investigate the matter.

General counsel Bob Bauer sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey charging that coordinated “misconduct” by McCain campaign representatives and GOP officials were relevant to the special prosecutor’s work, because the activities may relate to the dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys in late 2006.

The letter requests that the special prosecutor’s inquiry “include a review of any involvement by Justice Dept. and White House officials in supporting the McCain-Palin campaign [and RNC's] systematic development and dissemination of unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud.”

Every time we start to wonder if the Obama team is on top of things, they show us that they're ahead of the game, and then some.

This whole ACORN issue is fraudulent. Meaningless. Dangerous. Apparently, Barack Obama agrees and is doing something about it.