The following was written by Fred Gregory in the Greensboro (NC) News & Record. Fred is a regular Colossus reader.
I am writing to express my outrage over the perverse prosecution of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to the vice president, by an out-of-control, overzealous special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, whose investigation, in the words of a Washington Post editorial, "arose from a scandal remarkable for its lack of substance."
This was monstrous overkill over a series of lies cooked up by dissembling blowhard Joe Wilson and his wife to undermine an administration in the middle of a war.
Within a few days of his appointment Fitzgerald knew that the so-called outing of CIA analyst Valerie Plame was done by State Department hack Richard Armitage and that the act itself was not a violation of the Foreign Intelligence Identities Act because Plame was not covert. The sensible thing to do at that point, as other special prosecutors had done in the past, was to pack up and go home.
But no, not "Fitzfong," who for two years scoured the White House and terrified (and jailed) reporters, searching for a process crime, any crime, even lacking an underlying illegality. Finally, to the delight of the Bush haters, poor Libby was nailed for spitting on the sidewalk.
Now take a look at what happened to Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, who stole and destroyed original, irreplaceable classified documents from the National Archives. No doubt, if these documents had come before the 9/11 Commission they would have shown blunders in dealing with threats posed by al-Qaida and would have been embarrassing to the previous administration.
After first denying his crime, Berger gets a misdemeanor sweetheart deal, no jail time, a puny fine and, just in time for the next Democratic president (God forbid), the right to obtain a security clearance. By the way, Berger's plea bargain included an agreement to take a polygraph test, which he has yet to undergo. Shame! President Bush, pardon Lewis Libby now.
Scooter Libby was found guilty by a jury of his peers for perjury and obstruction of justice. Moreover, as we learned afterwards, the jury was extremely painstaking in their deliberations. Check out the video "Juror speaks out on decision" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17479718/
Where were Cheney and Rove, who were up to their eyeballs in this entire affair? Obviously, the WH knew that they had misbehaved in a vindictive, which is why Libby felt he had to play the scape-goat role in this case.
Your anger is misdirected, and should be directed instead toward Cheney, whose uncontrolled anger at Wilson spawned the order to out his wife. After her outing, Plame had to be removed from her classified work on WMD's. Doesn't that tell you anything?
Regarding Berger, his case is unrelated, so there was no reason that I can see to bring him into your rant against Fitzgerald.
Don't worry, Hube, Scooter will be pardoned! Now how is that for justice served?
Posted by: Perry Hood at April 6, 2007 08:25 PMI don't know, Perry. Maybe you can direct your question to Fred, who actually wrote this post if you bothered to read the top of it.
Sheesh.
Posted by: Hube at April 7, 2007 08:46 AMPerry,
You really should check out this
Why is Fitzgerald fighting an AP request to the Court of Appeals for unsealing the affidavits he filed in support of compelling testimony of two reporters who had conversations with Libby even after the Special prosecutor already knew the identity of the person who gave Novak Plame's name ?
Posted by: Fred Gregory at April 7, 2007 02:21 PM