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Libby claims Cheney approved classified media leaks
Thu Feb 9, 11:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indicted former top White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby will argue that Vice President
Dick Cheney authorized him to leak classified information in 2003 to bolster the case for the US-led war against
Iraq, US news media reports.
Libby, who has been charged in a federal investigation into the outing of a
CIA agent, will in part base his defense on the claim that Cheney had encouraged him to share classified information with reporters, NBC television news said, citing sources familiar with the case.
Libby's attorneys discussed Cheney's authorization with federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and the judge handling the case in a recent teleconference call, NBC News reported.
The online edition of the magazine National Journal reported that Libby had testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney and other White House "superiors" had "authorized" him in mid-2003 to leak classified information to defend the administration's prewar intelligence assertions in making the case to go to war with Iraq.
The magazine quoted attorneys familiar with the matter and court records as sources.
Libby also argued that Cheney authorized him to release details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the magazine reported, citing sources with firsthand knowledge.
Senator Edward Kennedy of the opposition Democrats called the new revelations, if true, "a new low" in the "sordid case".
"The vice presidents vindictiveness in defending the misguided war in Iraq is obvious. If he used classified information to defend it, he should be prepared to take full responsibility. President (George W.) Bush has clearly said he would clean house of everyone who had anything to do with the Plame leak," Kennedy said in a statement.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, denies charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in an intrigue bound up in the US drive to war with Iraq.
His trial will be held in January 2007, after November's crucial mid-term US elections.
The case arose from a federal probe into the outing of
Central Intelligence Agency spy
Valerie Plame, during the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.
Critics charge that senior US officials deliberately blew Plame's cover to punish her husband, ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson, for criticising the White House's rationale for war.
Both NBC and the National Journal say that much of Libby's defense will be based on Cheney's alleged authorization to discuss the documents.
The president's top political guru, Karl Rove, is still under investigation over the leaking of Plame's name.
but hold on a sec.....
Bush says U.S. foiled L.A. attack
By DEB RIECHMANN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Under fire for eavesdropping on Americans, President Bush said yesterday that spy work stretching from the U.S. to Asia helped thwart terrorists plotting to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast.
''It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot,'' Bush said. ''By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland.''
Some information about the foiled attack was disclosed last year, but Bush offered more details to highlight international cooperation in fighting terrorists.
He did not say whether information about the West Coast plot was collected by his administration's program to monitor - without court warrants - some calls to the U.S. from terror suspects overseas.
The White House said that issue was not the point of the speech, but the president and his advisers have been vigorously defending the legality of the program, which has been questioned by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
After weeks of insisting that divulging details of the monitoring program would hinder intelligence gathering, the White House relented Wednesday and began briefing some additional lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the president's monthlong campaign to convince Americans the government's eavesdropping program is essential to the war on terrorism appears to be making an impact.
In a new AP-Ipsos poll, 48 percent now support wiretapping without a warrant in cases of suspected communications with terrorists, up from 42 percent last month.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, four Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement with the White House on minor changes in the Patriot Act, hoping to clear the way for renewal of anti-terror legislation that Bush says is essential in the fight against terrorists.
In his speech, at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, began planning the West Coast operation in October 2001. One of Mohammed's key planners was a man known as Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is affiliated with al-Qaida.
''Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on Sept. 11, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed sought out young men from Southeast Asia - whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion,'' Bush said.
As the plot was described, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, a 73-story building since renamed the US Bank Tower.
operative.
(Published: February 10, 2006)
Thu Feb 9, 11:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indicted former top White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby will argue that Vice President
Dick Cheney authorized him to leak classified information in 2003 to bolster the case for the US-led war against
Iraq, US news media reports.
Libby, who has been charged in a federal investigation into the outing of a
CIA agent, will in part base his defense on the claim that Cheney had encouraged him to share classified information with reporters, NBC television news said, citing sources familiar with the case.
Libby's attorneys discussed Cheney's authorization with federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and the judge handling the case in a recent teleconference call, NBC News reported.
The online edition of the magazine National Journal reported that Libby had testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney and other White House "superiors" had "authorized" him in mid-2003 to leak classified information to defend the administration's prewar intelligence assertions in making the case to go to war with Iraq.
The magazine quoted attorneys familiar with the matter and court records as sources.
Libby also argued that Cheney authorized him to release details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the magazine reported, citing sources with firsthand knowledge.
Senator Edward Kennedy of the opposition Democrats called the new revelations, if true, "a new low" in the "sordid case".
"The vice presidents vindictiveness in defending the misguided war in Iraq is obvious. If he used classified information to defend it, he should be prepared to take full responsibility. President (George W.) Bush has clearly said he would clean house of everyone who had anything to do with the Plame leak," Kennedy said in a statement.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, denies charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in an intrigue bound up in the US drive to war with Iraq.
His trial will be held in January 2007, after November's crucial mid-term US elections.
The case arose from a federal probe into the outing of
Central Intelligence Agency spy
Valerie Plame, during the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.
Critics charge that senior US officials deliberately blew Plame's cover to punish her husband, ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson, for criticising the White House's rationale for war.
Both NBC and the National Journal say that much of Libby's defense will be based on Cheney's alleged authorization to discuss the documents.
The president's top political guru, Karl Rove, is still under investigation over the leaking of Plame's name.
but hold on a sec.....
Bush says U.S. foiled L.A. attack
By DEB RIECHMANN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Under fire for eavesdropping on Americans, President Bush said yesterday that spy work stretching from the U.S. to Asia helped thwart terrorists plotting to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast.
''It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot,'' Bush said. ''By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland.''
Some information about the foiled attack was disclosed last year, but Bush offered more details to highlight international cooperation in fighting terrorists.
He did not say whether information about the West Coast plot was collected by his administration's program to monitor - without court warrants - some calls to the U.S. from terror suspects overseas.
The White House said that issue was not the point of the speech, but the president and his advisers have been vigorously defending the legality of the program, which has been questioned by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
After weeks of insisting that divulging details of the monitoring program would hinder intelligence gathering, the White House relented Wednesday and began briefing some additional lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the president's monthlong campaign to convince Americans the government's eavesdropping program is essential to the war on terrorism appears to be making an impact.
In a new AP-Ipsos poll, 48 percent now support wiretapping without a warrant in cases of suspected communications with terrorists, up from 42 percent last month.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, four Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement with the White House on minor changes in the Patriot Act, hoping to clear the way for renewal of anti-terror legislation that Bush says is essential in the fight against terrorists.
In his speech, at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, began planning the West Coast operation in October 2001. One of Mohammed's key planners was a man known as Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is affiliated with al-Qaida.
''Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on Sept. 11, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed sought out young men from Southeast Asia - whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion,'' Bush said.
As the plot was described, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, a 73-story building since renamed the US Bank Tower.
operative.
(Published: February 10, 2006)