Cheney didn’t know that Joseph Wilson had been sent to Niger by the C.I.A. It’s in the marginalia in his copy of the New York Times:
The way they planned it, how it was supposed to go, Plame’s identity would leak, then Cheney would deny knowing anything about Wilson’s trip, and that would be that. Wilson would look like a ‘girly man.’ The source of the leak would be a non-issue.
When Cheney was writing "because of the incompetence of others," what was he talking about? No one has ever explained that. Either he was talking about the incompetence of Richard Armitage shooting off his mouth to Robert Novak, centering the leak in the Administration, or the incompetence of not knowing Plame was covert early enough in the game.
They’d sent Scooter Libby off to leak things to Judith Miller and he was nervous about it. He checked to see if the NIE really was ‘leakable’ or not. And Judith was already in hot water at the New York Times. She’d gone tearing around Iraq dressed in fatigues looking for WMD she’s helped the Administration sell being there, and she’s taken her information from some pretty shady sources that had turned out to be nothing but lies. Judy was "used up," "leaked out," but they hadn’t figured that out yet. A month or so earlier, she’d been forced to write a retraction on some of her claims, and the editor had apologized for others.
So when Patrick Fitzgerald came along, Libby became appropriately frightened that he’ was going to be thrown under the bus – and he was. Cheney got Bush to commute Libby’s sentnce, but he couldn’t bring off a pardon. The centrality of Bush and Cheney in the leak is now a matter of record, at least among people who care. So what’s the big deal about releasing Cheney’s Interview?
| As I said below, I think the person they don’t want to read that interview is I. Lewis Scooter Libby. I expect that it will show that the Vice President who sent Scooter out to do his dirty work not only didn’t back him up, he greased the path for Libby to slide under the moving train. Why would Cheney sacrifice the guy he asked to put his head in the meatgrinder? To cover his own rear end. And I expect that Libby knows enough to either get Cheney convicted or at the least publicly shamed. A loud and singing Scooter Libby who was there for the lead-up to the war, for the torture program, for the N.S.A. Surveillance Program, for the Plame outing would be quite a media event. But even if Scooter kept his head in the sand, Cheney would still look like what he is – a bottom feeder who is the Dark Side… |
So Cheney’s public show of displeasure that Bush didn’t pardon Libby was just that — show. Could be. If your scenario is correct, then he would have to pretend to try to get a pardon for him from a balking bush; otherwise the whole charade would become apparent.
exactly…
Mickey, I sent you something through a comment about 2 hrs ago while I was out of town and the comment isn’t there but I don’ know why. Please check out consortiumnews.com and click to the wedding article. I think the answer to why Cheney thought he might be able to get away with so much is in that article.
Joy,
I found it. It was “waiting for approval” because of the address. Interesting article. I’m thinking about it…