US Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald writes that former Vice President's Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, has testified to a grand jury that he disclosed classified contents of the National Intelligence Estimate to reporters and that such disclosures were authorized by his "superiors."
This is just one of many striking revelations that are buried in documents Fitzgerald has released in the last week in reponse to sweeping discovery requests from Libby's lawers. Quoting from Fitzgerald's letter of January 23, 2006 to Libby's lawyers, John Byrne and Ron Bynaert note in Raw Story Court filings shed more light on CIA leak investigation
Fitzgerald writes, "As we discussed during our telephone conversation, Mr. Libby testified in the grand jury that he had contact with reporters in which he disclosed the content of the National Intelligence Estimate ("NIE") to such reporters in the course of his interaction with reporters in June and July 2003 (and caused at least one other government official to discuss the NIE with the media in July 2003). We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors."
Readers here and Kos himself have warned us all to be highly cautious about RawStory's credibility, this paragraph is directly from Fitzgerald's January 23, 2006 letter, More caution is warranted, however, when Bryne and Bynaert go further with the perhaps obvioius but still tantalizing suggestion that these superiors may be George Bush and Dick Cheney themselves.
Finally, Fitzgerald alludes to "authorization" by Libby's "superiors" - who may include President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney - who may have allowed him to disclose information about a then-classified report on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction to the media.
I bring up the need for caution here because althought Libby reported directly to Cheney, it is possible that during grand jury testomony Libby may have included Chief of Staff Andrew Cards, any of the Cabinent Secretaries, National Security advisor Hadley and perhaps others as possible "superiors."
Additional revelations that are receiving increasing attention include that "a third Times reported has been named, that Joe Wilson will not be called in Libby's case, and reported elsewhere, significant numbers of White House Emails from the critical period were apparanty "mishandled."
In the spirit of maximum caution I also call readers atttention to the fact that the sections of Fitzgerald's letter I have fact checked personally refer to Libby's testifying that his superiors authorized disclosures from the NIE, but Byrne and Byneart make the statements this "hints at" the outing of Valerie Plame. This may be so, and they may have the specific evidence, but I have not yet had time to verify any more the words "NIE disclosures? in Fitzgerald's letters.
Moreover, the documents reveal that no formal damage assessment has been done with regard to how the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame affected the agency's operations worldwide. They also hint that Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby may have outed Plame on the orders of his "superiors."
Fitzgerald's Jan. 23 letter was penned in response to a series of telephone conversations, letters, and motions filed by Libby, who was indicted for obstructing justice in the Plame investigation. Libby has sought to force the prosecutor to turn over more information about his case to bolster his defense.
In the letter, Fitzgerald notes that a third Time Magazine reporter - who now serves as Slate's chief political correspondent - had conversations with Administration officials about a trip conducted by Plame's husband to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium from Niger.
"We also advise you that we understand that reporter John Dickerson of Time magazine discussed the trip by Mr. Wilson with government officials at some time on July 11 or after, subsequent to Mr. Cooper learning about Mr. Wilson's wife," Fitzgerald writes. "Any conversations involving Mr. Dickerson likely took place in Africa and occurred after July 11."
Matt Cooper, also a Time reporter, testified that Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove had cautioned him to play down the Wilson trip. Wilson, an ardent Bush critic, said he found no evidence to support claims that Iraq had sought to obtain uranium in order to build a nuclear weapon. Such claims were a keystone in the Administration's efforts to convince the United States and Congress to support a pre-emptive war.
These are still striking revelations in any case, but if it turns out that Libby is testigying that either Cheney or Bush, or even other administration officials specificcally authorized him to out Valerie Plame
Tomorrow should be another big day for new information as" Fitzgerald says he'll tell Libby by tomorrow which journalists he expects to call at trial. "
"We will be providing to you prior to February 3 copies of subpoenas and pertinent correspondence relating to reporters referenced in the Indictment and/or whom we expect to call at trial," Fitzgerald wrote Libby.
Let's hope that the steady stream of sordid details being revealed by this investigation reaches a sufficient threshold that our Congressmen finally decide it's time to start their own investigations.