Does "hush, hush, this is on the QT" equal "classified information"?... This diary may seem passé or premature, either one, since much of this was covered in 2005 and who knows where it goes after Libby's perjury trial. But with the testimony of Ari Fleischer today, we now have an official court record that strongly, strongly states that Libby knew Plame was covert - AND that Libby outed her in full knowledge of that. That will provide legal grist for further indictments of Libby, possibly Cheney, too.
Summer of 2005: the furor on the blogosphere was whether or not Plame was actually covered under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) and whether it was provable in court that any of the outers (intentionally plural) knew she was covert. Both legal requirements now seem to have been met.
Fleischer seems to have opened that latter door today, and in the same statement (as it was worded in what I read) seems to have confirmed that Plame was covert, too. In addition, there also may be sufficient evidence to show conspiracy and more that includes Cheney as well, since Cathy Martin earlier testified that Cheney wrote the leak to Matt Cooper that was to be attributed to Libby. More below the fold...
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