Editor’s Note: Special thanks to our videographer Truthtelling007 who has a great compilation of Larry Johnson’s appearances on television. (See a list, and the link to all, in the right column.)

With the closing down of Countdown, I can now say I have a fairly complete archive of the show. Regardless of the opinions people have against/favor of Keith Olbermann…it was the guests that I was looking for. Guests over those 8 years included Larry Johnson, Lawrence Wilkerson, Matthew Alexander, Malcolm Nance, The Wilsons, and many others that I think we can agree are valuable experienced voices. I don’t let hosts distract me if possible.

From the archive: Larry appeared on Countdown in April 2006 to discuss the attack on his former boss, Mary McCarthy and comments on Porter Goss, Valerie Plame and others:

COMMENT FROM LARRY–I enjoyed going on Keith’s show before he turned into a pompous parody of a serious newsman. It is one thing for Keith to rant at George W. Bush. Bush deserved every rant in my book. But Keith missed his chance to occupy the high ground in the middle. Instead he became (or always was) a venomous partisan. I stopped getting invites to appear on Keith’s show once I came out in favor of Hillary. In this aspect MSNBC and FOX are just alike. Fox put me on the persona non grata list after I had the audacity to speak out about the ideological influence guiding the Fox team behind the scenes.

One big difference between Fox and MSNBC. Fox is successful. I don’t know shat Olbermann plans to do next but like Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg we have seen his highwater mark. It is now clear that Keith is no Edward R. Murrow.

What we’re looking at here is one of the most blatantly dishonest, rigged elections seen in any country in recent years, including (fill in the name of a banana republic here). You thought Lyndon Johnson’s ballot box 13 episode stunk? Or that the Florida recount was a travesty? Well pull up a chair, folks, and get a good look at Election 2008.

This is not the ranting of a bitter, gun-clutching, God-lovin’ Obama hater. This is fact.

Florida and Michigan are still unaccounted for. Repeat: There is still no solution to the Florida and Michigan mess. Oh sure, Howard Dean promises to “do” something, but all that we’ve seen is that in this case inaction IS action; keeping Florida and Michigan out of the calculus is achieving the goald that so many in the party and press long for.

And yet, and yet. Despite features with adorable, fair and balanced titles like “Hillary Deathwatch”, the senator CONTINUES to blow Obama out of the water in key states. And no, she’s not Reanimator. She’s what we in the biz call “a candidate” participating in a thing called a “campaign”, where you don’t throw in the towel until all the goddamned votes are counted and there’s a clear winner. And what a nudnick her husband is! Only an insufferable blowhard would say the following about the Florida and Michigan mess:

“The Democrats said, ‘We’re going to decapitate them, smudge them, step on them, act like they never existed, act like they never voted,’” the former president said. “It’s very strange that the Democrats would be more authoritarian and more hostile to the voters.”

Good God! Who does this man think he is?? But then again, according to the Obamatrons, he’s just a racist anyway so whatever he says is driven by his twisted, KKK-mindset.

Just think about what happened after Florida 2000. Michael Moore became a gajillionaire. The Democrats becamed the wronged party, the party that stands for one-person-one-vote. Now Michael Moore is uncharacteristically silent on the subject of enfranchisement and Democratic leaders are shrugging their shoulders or, in the case of Donna Brazile, sending out unhinged e-mails to critics. We’ve come a long way, baby.

And for those of you who are bitchslapping Larry for speaking the truth, well, screw you. If he was a standup guy for, well, standing up for Valerie Plame and calling bullshit on Iraq, well then maybe, just maybe, you oughta give him the benefit of the doubt on this politics thing. They taught him a lot of cool stuff at the Farm besides how to stalk and kill people (not that I would know first hand that this is what they teach at that place, but I saw The Recruit).

Meanwhile, the DNC plans to empty the clown car hold a meeting of the rules committee on May 31 to decide…something. Maybe when to meet next. Or what sort of snacks should be provided in the VIP skyboxes in Denver.

And what, may I ask, will they decide that couldn’t have been arrived at weeks, if not months, ago? And what exactly constitutes a “fair solution” to this problem? A do-over? How about handing all the delegates over to Obama outright, and canceling the upcoming matches in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota and calling it a day? Or how about turning over all of Hillary’s delegates won in contests that “aren’t important”, like races in hillbilly states?

Nothing would surprise me at this point. Except, of course, for a fair, equitable solution where voters are enfranchised and the delegates are apportioned fairly and small-d democratically. But the fix is in. Don’t hold your breath.

“Obama aide wants Libby pardoned“: Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) top lawyer publicly made the case yesterday for a presidential pardon for convicted White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Obama general counsel Robert Bauer did not ask his boss, a presidential candidate, for permission to write the article, published on HuffingtonPost.com. But Obama’s campaign said the senator would not ask for Bauer’s resignation, adding that he is “still our lawyer.” Obama’s campaign and Bauer told The Hill yesterday that Bauer was not speaking on behalf of Obama when he wrote the piece, and the blog entry carries a disclaimer to that effect. “Never at any time have I written for a candidate or asked a candidate’s approval, and I have not done so in this instance,” Bauer told The Hill. “The truth of the matter is, to sound humbly, I’m just his lawyer.”

“Humbly.” Get me a barf bag. Is this a sign of the true “change” and that fairy tale about getting everyone in D.C. to love each other? Where the guilty go free, and the man who outted a key C.I.A. agent and destroyed her brilliantly-run network gets a pardon from President Kumbayah? Jane tells it like it is:

This may be well and fine for a Presidential candidate trying to massage a potential pardon into position as a campaign issue, but it’s an extremely cynical argument, and I really can’t imagine what the Obama campaign was thinking. This is about the rule of law, not political posturing. And as much as all the “liberal progressives” Bauer is preaching to at arms’ length would like to see Bush publicly tied to the scandal, at this point in time we’d rather see some respect for the judicial process.

Jane concludes:

If you want to tie Bush and Cheney to the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity, it needs to be done in the appropriate legal context. We already have a judicial system, fragile though it may be at the moment. We believe in making it work.

P.S. While Jane Hamsher’s crew did a superb job of covering Scooter’s trial, nobody dissected the issues as well as our own Larry Johnson.

HOLD THAT FULL TUMMY BEFORE YOU READ THIS:

Nuts

It would seem that, despite leaving the White House, Scott McClellan’s testicles remain in protective custody.

From one of GQ‘s men of the year, Josh Marshall.

We might as well just laugh. It was too good to hope for, wasn’t it.

LASTLY: I spent a bit of time today checking out the great deals that Amazon is offering for its “Back Friday” sale without the “dark parking lots.” The deals are fantastic, and let you shop at home in your comfy clothes in front of your ‘puter and sneaking leftovers out of the fridge. Plus, this gave me an excuse to play around with a new “widget.”

CLICK “LIGHTNING DEALS” to see hourly changes, and “Our Best Deals” for more savings:

Memo to the Obama campaign from the regulars at No Quarter who know what Novak is capable of and who followed every minute of “Plamegate”: CONSIDER THE SOURCE! Jesus! Would you PLEASE consider the source! Robert Novak? You take Robert Novak’s slime as gospel? ASK US AT NO QUARTER all about Robert Novak. Ask Joe and Valerie Wilson. (Or are you so desperate to turn the tables on HRC that you’d use Novak’s “throwaway item” — as the very savvy Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher calls it correctly — to try to smear her? Would you consider the advantage that Novak is trying to create for the eventual Republican presidential nominee by going after HRC, particularly within days of her successful put-down of Edwards for “mud-slinging”?)

By the way, I have a theory about the origin of Novak’s “item” but am hesitant to say it out loud. I don’t think Novak is so bereft of journalistic standards that he’d make something up out of whole cloth, but I’m sure it didn’t come from HRC’s camp since they’re too sharp and they know how insidious and dangerous Novak is. Then there’s that no other journalist but Novak has heard the “whispers,” which is telling. For example, Eleanor Clift was on MSNBC this morning and said that NO OTHER JOURNALISTS have gotten the rumor, and she was begging the source to call her up and tell her about the “whispers.” I think someone from a Democratic candidate’s staff did call Novak, but not anyone on HRC’s staff. And I’m further speculating that that someone did it with the intent to maim both HRC and Obama (who now has to deal with doubts about him and some unknown “scandal” — perhaps an infidelity?). Who would have a lot to gain? After all, Iowa looms and it’s time to unsheath the daggers.

You tell ‘em, Frank: “What ‘That Regan Woman’ Knows” — “NEW Yorkers who remember Rudy Giuliani as the bullying New York mayor, not as the terminally cheerful “America’s Mayor” cooing to babies in New Hampshire, have always banked on one certainty: his presidential candidacy was so preposterous it would implode before he got anywhere near the White House. …” (Frank Rich’s Sunday NYT column, which everyone can read now)

TPM UPDATE: I’m so glad these people watch MTP because I find it very difficult to sit through … “Skipping the fact-checking” — “The journalist roundtable on “Meet the Press” this morning considered Rudy Giuliani’s Kerik problem — but forgot to even consider whether Giuliani’s defense was true. (Here’s a hint: it’s not.) Greg Sargent has the details and the video clip. BACK TO THE ORIGINAL:

Go get him, you TRUE 9/11 experts: “9/11 Firefighters and Family Members Plot Anti-Giuliani Ad Campaign” (ABC News)

If you’re John Negroponte, …

If you’re John Negroponte, and you’re drinkin’ a stiff one on the flight home from Pakistan, do you think you have any strategy left for this poker hand? Hold ‘em, fold ‘em, bluff, invent a fake “tell”? What in the hell do you do? Especially since your, um, boss hasn’t got a clue what to do? (See: “Bush Failed to See Musharraf’s Faults, Critics Contend.”)

Musharraf Refuses to Say When Emergency Will End

By DAVID ROHDE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sunday, Nov. 18 — Continuing to defy the United States, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declined to tell a senior American envoy on Saturday when he would lift a two-week-old state of emergency, Pakistani and Western officials said.

In a two-hour meeting, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte urged the president to end the emergency. But General Musharraf said he would do so when security improved in the country, the officials said. Mr. Negroponte is the United States’ second highest ranking diplomat.

“The president said, ‘I have noted your concerns and I think I will address all of these,’ ” a close aide to General Musharraf said.

In a news conference before he left Pakistan on Sunday, Mr. Negroponte said it would take time to determine whether the American message had an impact.

“In diplomacy, as you know, we don’t get instant replies,” he said. “I’m sure the president is seriously considering the exchange we had.”

The state of emergency remains a major embarrassment for the Bush administration, which has given more than $10 billion in aid to General Musharraf’s government since 2001 and declared him a valued ally. Ten days ago, President Bush personally telephoned General Musharraf and asked him to end the state of emergency, with no result. … READ ALL.

By the way, Richard Armitage was a guest this week on the new BBCAmerica hour-long news program, BBC World News America, and he is in the realists’ school of thought on Pakistan: He said that Pakistan is really four countries and that the military is the sole structure that ties the nation together. If Musharraf can’t maintain power, it is time to get another one of the secular generals to take over. Armitage said that various U.S. officials are in contact already with some of those generals who they feel they can trust.

762′s Fatal Flaw Mimics That of 43: Barry Bonds “could have walked, free to break Babe Ruth’s record and Henry Aaron’s record without this infamy hanging over him. Americans love a good confession. But the truth is not in Barry Bonds, who is so far outside the limits of reality that he did not see the advantage to a little show of humility, a little flash of honesty.” (George Vescey, NYT) Reminds me of a certain president. And, re Mr. Stuck-at-762: Fans of the game, your thoughts?

Feinstein finally does the right thing, and the Dems have eliminated telecom exec immunity from FISA bill: Californians I know have been in shock that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, known for her great record on civil rights, was for granting immunity to telecom executives as part of the new FISA bill. She has reversed, and majority leader Harry Reid’s aides have confirmed that immunity has been stripped out of the FISA bill.

Bush has dishonored his gentleman’s agreement with Reid on recess appointments, and Reid has stuck it to him (WTG, HARRY!): Last summer, Reid and Bush made a deal that Bush wouldn’t pull his recess-appointment stunts. Bush, typically, didn’t live up to the agreement. Last night, with regular “Broken Government” guest John Dean, Keith Olbermann discussed Reid’s threat to keep the Senate in “pro forma” session through Thanksgiving weekend. Now comes the first word that Reid is going to do it — and this is “breaking news”:

THE STATEMENT of Harry Reid, reported on AmericaBlog:

The Senate will be coming in for pro-forma sessions during the Thanksgiving holiday to prevent recess appointments.

My hope is that this will prompt the President to see that it is our mutual interests for the nominations process to get back on track.

While an election year looms, significant progress can still be made on nominations.

I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me half way.

But that progress can’t be made if the President seeks controversial recess appointments and fails to make Democratic appointments to important commissions.

As Democratic leader, I recommend nominees to the President for many important commissions like the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

These independent agencies are required by law to have Democratic representation.

As a result, the President has a statutory obligation to honor my recommendations and move on them in good faith.

And, up until recently, the President has generally discharged that obligation.

In the last several months, however, the administration has been stalling progress on Democratic appointments.

This problem existed before the August break.

In an effort to solve it, I worked hard to confirm over 40 administration nominees in exchange for a commitment by the President to make progress on a number of important commissions.

When we reconvened after August break, I also worked to quickly move on the President’s new Attorney General.

I did this despite my own opposition to that nominee.

Even with all this hard work on our side, the commitments the administration made to me before August break were not met.

In the almost three months since that break, we have received no Democratic nominees to full-time commission positions.

For some, in fact, absolutely no discernable progress has been made.

With Thanksgiving break looming, the administration informed me that they would make several recess appointments.

I indicated I would be willing to confirm various appointments if the administration would agree to move on Democratic appointments.

They would not make that commitment.

As a result, I am keeping the Senate in pro-forma to prevent recess appointments until we get this process back on track.

(Special thanks to Susan T in Michigan for e-mailing this announcement to me.)

It’s a fascinating conversation between two seasoned intelligence professionals, highly regarded by their peers, full of insight and humor.

To pick up on a point that both Larry and Valerie make: Following WWII, politicization of the U.S. administrative branch of government has run in one direction: it just gets worse. It’s been a serious problem at the State Department for decades, where successive administrations place political appointees at increasingly lower levels. With increasingly stupid policy outcomes. At the Defense Department, costs of useless but politically valuable weapons systems are legendary — indeed, the only natural correction there may be national bankruptcy. Now, it seems, the intelligence community is headed down the same path. Particularly at CIA with Mike Hayden. What we tend to forget is that the people who organized or re-organized our national security institutions after WWII had the discipline to be able to impose certain constraints on political influence. And while the institutions can perpetuate that ethos, and have done, in and of themselves they can’t regenerate it. Stand-alone reforms ain’t the answer. The big picture strongly suggests the need for government-wide overhaul, and imaginative proposals salted with the wisdom of our experience.

SECRET/NOFORN/NOMORONS/NOREPUBS/NOPOLITOCOS/NOHACKS

TO: CIA STATIONS WORLDWIDE

FM: LEGAL COUNSEL – LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

RE: DISMISSAL OF WILSON/PLAME DISCLOSURE CASE – SUMMARY

REF: Valerie Plame Wilson et al v. I. Lewis Libby, et al.

As you are no doubt aware, last week Judge John D. Bates of the federal district court in WDC dismissed the Wilson case. While you operate overseas in a cover capacity and risk your life and that of your family members in various Third World “armpits” around the globe, please know that we here in WDC are fighting for you. Our battle here in Washington is with a White House that thinks it is above the law and a federal bureaucracy and national media that backs them up. None of the key players in Office of the President or Vice President have any clandestine experience. In fact, hardly any have even a military background. We make this point to make sure you are aware of what we here are up against.

Simply put, we are under attack from all quarters from very effective morons that can’t get their arms around the covert intelligence collection process. The examples are endless. We all know that we were right on with our assessments on Iraq, yet those portions of our product that contradicted White House policy were suppressed and the facially supportive sections declassified and released to the public. The Bozos trying to play spy at the Pentagon, like Doug Feith, were allowed to get away with the largest swindle of American public opinion we can remember. And we have recently been confronted by another “useful idiot” of the conservative right-wing nuts, Rowan Scarborough and his book “America’s Enemies Within the CIA,” who questions our patriotism.

It is not a good day to risk your life for our country. But you probably already know that. And you have more than a full understanding of the countless misperceptions of our work. After all, many of you have lived these events, not from the comfort of your living room in the good ole US of A. But you are as resilient as you are committed to this country and therefore can take yet another blow from your own government.

The following is a summation of the ruling in the Wilson case. Substantial internal contradictions and other absurdities have been ignored to present a mere general overview.

• Wilson can’t sue because the only way to preserve national security is to protect those people that breach national security from ever talking about it because talking about breaching national security would breach national security and breaching national security is very, very serious.

• The Vice President cannot be sued for violating the Privacy Act and/or the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 and/or the United States Constitution because those things are clearly within the scope of the Vice President’s employment.

• In purely legal terms there is no distinction between an overturned denial of social security benefits (OP. pg. 13 and 14) with catching a .45 magnum slug at the base of your skull in Cairo.

• While the Wilson claims “pose important questions” (like life and death in the clandestine service) they are trumped by the apparently even more important procedural questions like the following:

• A violation of a constitutional right claim cannot be brought where there is another possible course of action or remedy, like the Privacy Act. But, while a Privacy Act claim cannot be brought against the Office of the Vice President, it can serve as a reason to dismiss the constitutional claim against him. Get it? (OP. pg. 25).

• A covert agent is not entitled to Equal Protection under the law because he or she would have to show that he or she was treated differently than other covert agents. Wilson “would need to introduce evidence pertaining to the Government’s treatment of other covert agents whose espionage relationships have not been acknowledged — evidence that might reveal the identities of those agents.” (OP. pg. 31 and 32) [Henceforth, if you are killed in the line of duty, before we can carve your star in the wall, there will be an official headcount of all Agency personnel still alive].

• And that Due Process thing. Forget it. Wilson’s “substantive due process claim depends upon whether (the White House by revealing her covert identity) increased the danger of third-party violence against (them).” The resolution of these claims therefore might require an exploration into Mrs. Wilson’s specific duties as a covert operative.” (OP. pg. 33). [Apparently, Tony “No Teeth” Zamboni from Brooklyn was not available to testify as an expert witness as to the danger of being exposed].

• In a brilliant moment of clarity it was stated that “Even a small chance that some court will order disclosure of a source’s identity could well impair intelligence gathering.” (OP. pg. 33 and 34). Well we certainly don’t want that to happen….again. Case dismissed.

• It was concluded that the “alleged tortious conduct, namely the disclosure of Mrs. Wilson’s status as a covert operative, was incidental to the kind of conduct that (members of the White House) were employed to perform.” (OP. pg. 39). You should take confidence in knowing that we have initiated full corrective measures. When the President underwent his delicate procedure this past Saturday, Mr. Cheney was not given the real nuclear alert codes on the chance that he may have “incidentally” handed them over to the Chinese.

• In 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court (Bivens v. Unknown Federal Agents) stated that “it is . . . well settled that where legal rights have been invaded, and a federal statute provides for a general right to sue for such invasion, federal courts may use any available remedy to make good the wrong done.” In other words, where there is no remedy, the court may provide one. We are confident that the Wilson decision will be overturned on appeal since the 43 page opinion dismissing for lack of a remedy is also the best case for why the court should provide one.

First Amendment? No. Equal Protection? No. Due Process? No. Now some of you may interpret this as a CIA undercover officer having no more rights than the detainees of Guantanamo and other facilities. That is absolutely not the case. Let me make a number of clear distinctions as to why this is not so 99dh
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FHMS/nnnntnnntnntnntnntnntnJnA’[ASLlslLmIIislllaooaooOahngGNWU&%()#)0

(If any portion of this message appears garbled please see your systems administrator).

It’s been repeated throughout history that laws are like a spiders’ web, which may catch small mosquitoes but lets wasps and hornets break through. This is nothing new and these times will pass.

Finally, let’s redouble our efforts in our fight to protect this country and the cherished constitutional principles upon which it was founded.

Good luck and God speed.

FIELD RECOMMENDATION NOTE: WHILE THE REPUBLICANS CONTROL THE WHITE HOUSE, KEEP TWO HANDS OVER IT.

SECRET/NOFORN/NOMORONS/NOREPUBS/NOPOLITOCOS/NOHACKS

[Thursday], in a “rare public appearance,” U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “submitted himself to questions as a guest on Chicago Public Radio’s comedic quiz show, ‘Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me.’” Although “Fitzgerald flunked the quiz, a (scripted) appeal overturned the answer of the final question, commuting it to a win. When asked by host Peter Sagal why such a tight-lipped public official would come on the show, Fitzgerald said, “Literally, I was trying to get tickets to the show.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that in the Chicago-based show’s segment, “Not My Job,’ “Fitzgerald submitted to a quiz on scooters — such as the Segway.” After the quiz, host Peter Sagal awarded Fitzgerald a child’s scooter “engraved with the words: ‘To Patrick Fitzgerald, USA, This one will stay where you put it‘.” (Click on the thumbnail to view the full image at the New York Times‘s story.)

Want to catch the show? It airs on Seattle’s KUOW today at 10am PT. Check NPR for more local listings. The show’s Podcast is available at a later date.
 

More stories:

U.S. attorney allows himself to be quizzed, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune video — doesn’t show the actual quiz

There are 70 more news stories via Google News.

What’s on your mind?

During July 18′s Hardball, Chris Matthews called on Judith Miller for her expertise on the just-released NIE (read Larry’s assessment instead), on Al Qaeda, and her “report for the Manhattan Institute‘s ‘City Journal’ on how the New York and Los Angeles police departments are working to prevent another terrorist attack.” Matthews began:

Judy, you‘re a hero to the press. You are definitely a woman to be trusted with secrets. And thank you for coming on this program. Let‘s talk about what matters more to people than press shields and all the rest that we care about. I‘m in Los Angeles right now. I‘m up there in a—I was up in a Renaissance Hotel the other night, looking down—actually, when I got up this morning—seeing this whole city, crowded city, below me. Is it safe?

There’s more:
 

Matthews asked her a number of softball questions about terrorism, which she responded to with stock answers that any twit could come up with — like this:

MILLER: Look, terrorists have to be lucky only once to succeed. The defenders have to be lucky and good all the time.

That’s deep. Then Matthews closed the interview with this:

MATTHEWS: Judy, I believe in you. You‘re great. And by the way, I didn‘t ask you about Scooter Libby because—because the president didn‘t let‘s make it clear what happened here. If he had pardoned the guy, we could talk because there‘d be no further legal action against him. But because he‘s now floating around there in limbo, as the guy with clemency commutation but still appealing his case, you can‘t talk about the case.

MILLER: That‘s right.

MATTHEWS: I completely understand that. I sympathize with you.

MILLER: Thank you, Chris.

MATTHEWS: And I sometimes even sympathize with Scooter Libby.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Anyway, thank you, Judy Miller.

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: Thank you, Chris Matthews.

MATTHEWS: OK.

P.S. Butters tells me that there’s a rumor that Kate Beckinsale may play Judith Miller in a movie. Beckinsale’s fans are having a fierce debate about the ethics of playing a woman who sold the administration’s lies that took us to war.

AND: What’s on YOUR mind?

UPDATE: Uh, judy, it’s touching you’re investigating how police departments in major U.S. cities are preparing for terrorism, but the war you falsely peddled is what is SUCKING UP most of the money to fight terrorism:

Cost of the “war on terror” keeps rising

A new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimates that the price tag could reach $758 billion — most of that is for Iraq.

Read all at Salon.

Larry C Johnson

Today’s decision by one judge who dismissed the civil suit Joe and Valerie Wilson filed against Dick Cheney and others for the leak of Valerie’s covert identity is not unexpected and entirely procedural. If you are really interested you can read the opinion for yourself. I was particularly intrigued that Judge John Bates referred to the claim made by Bush apologists–”that “Valerie Wilson sent her husband to Niger”—as “erroneous” (see page four of the opinion).

Opinion Dismissing Civil Suit

Wilson, Simon and Schuster vs CIA Statement of Facts by CIA

Number 1, and most significant, the Director of Operations for the CIA, Stephen Kapsis, provides a sworn affidavit detailing Valerie’s cover status. Anyone who continues to insist that Valerie was not undercover and not involved in sensitive operations is a goddamned liar, pure and simple.

Kapsis Affidavit Affirming Valerie’s Classified Status

Number 2, check out the statement of facts that the U.S. Government accepts. Most notable is their confirmation, again, that Valerie was an undercover operations officer.

The legal wrangling is far from over. One fact, though, is indisputable—Valerie was an undercover CIA operations officer working to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and she was betrayed by the Bush Administration.

VIEW LIVE WEBCAST
Wednesday 07/11/2007 – 12:00 PM | 2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Full Committee Hearing on: The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials | By Direction of the Chairman
(List of Witnesses – also listed at the end of this post)

Statement of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV (ret.)

To the House Committee on the Judiciary

July 11, 2007

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking member, members of the Committee,

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you at this hearing on the possible abuse of Presidential authority in the commutation of I. Lewis Libby, convicted on four counts of lying to federal investigators, perjury and obstruction of justice. I am not a lawyer, but I have understandably followed this case closely. This matter, after all, involves the betrayal of our national security, specifically the leaking of the identity of a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, my wife, Valerie Wilson, as a vicious means of political retribution.

After it became apparent in Spring of 2003 that one of the key justifications for war in the President’s State of the Union address was not supported by the facts, I felt an obligation and a sense of responsibility to the American people and to our men and women in uniform to share my first-hand knowledge about the unsubstantiated allegations of uranium yellowcake sales from Niger to Iraq. Accordingly, In a New York Times article on July 6, 2003, I disclosed the deliberate deceptions surrounding the justification for the invasion, conquest, and occupation of Iraq. Eight days later Valerie’s status as a CIA operative was made public in a newspaper column by Robert Novak. We now know from testimony and evidence presented in the United States vs. I. Lewis Libby that Novak’s column was the end product of a process that was initiated by Vice President Cheney who directed his chief of staff, Scooter Libby to supervise it.

Never in my twenty-three years as a member of the diplomatic service of the United States did I ever imagine a betrayal of our national security at the highest levels.

Fifteen years ago this week, I was sworn in as George Herbert Walker Bush’s Ambassador to two African countries – Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. Seventeen years ago I served as his acting Ambassador to Iraq in the first Gulf War. I was the last American diplomat to confront Saddam Hussein about his invasion of Kuwait prior to Desert Storm. As acting Ambassador, my embassy was responsible for the safe evacuation of over 2,000 Americans from Kuwait and Iraq and the release of close to 150 Americans held hostage by Saddam and his thugs.

I was proud to serve my country mostly overseas, for twenty-three years, in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and to promote and defend the values enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. I was honored to be then President Bush’s envoy to Iraq and to have been part of the foreign policy team that managed the international crisis created by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Members of that foreign policy team remain among my closest colleagues and friends.

Given my service, it has been therefore disconcerting to see my family and my targeted in the crosshairs of a character assassination campaign launched by the Vice President and carried out by his chief of staff, and by the President’s chief political aide, Karl Rove, among others.

Ultimately, this concerted effort to discredit me, ruining my wife’s career along the way, has had a larger objective. This matter has always been about this administration’s case for war and its willingness to mislead the American people to justify it. In order to protect its original falsehoods, the Vice President and his men decided to engage in a further betrayal of our national security. Scooter Libby sought to blame the Press, yet another deception. He was willing even to allow a journalist to spend eighty-five days in jail in a most cowardly act to avoid telling the truth.

President Bush promised that if any member of the White House staff were engaged in this matter, it would be a firing offense. However, the trial of Scooter Libby has proved conclusively that Karl Rove was involved, and although he escaped indictment, he still works at the White House. We also know as a result of evidence introduced in the trial that President Bush himself selectively declassified national security material to attempt to support the false rationale for war. The President’s broken promise and his own involvement in this unseemly smear campaign reveal a chief executive willing to subvert the rule of law and system of justice that has undergirded this great republic of ours for over 200 years.

Make no mistake, the President’s actions last week cast a pall of suspicion over his office and Vice President Cheney. Mr. Libby was convicted of, among other crimes, obstruction of justice – a legal term used to describe a cover-up. The Justice Department’s Special Counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, has said repeatedly that Mr. Libby’s blatant lying had been the equivalent of “throwing sand in the eyes of the umpire”, thereby ensuring that the umpire, the system of justice, cannot ascertain the whole truth. As a result, Fitzgerald has said, “a cloud remains over the Vice President.” In commuting Mr. Libby’s sentence, the President has removed any incentive for Mr. Libby to cooperate with the prosecutor. The obstruction of justice is ongoing and now the President has emerged as its greatest protector. The President’s explanation for his commutation that Mr. Libby’s sentence was excessive turns out to be yet another falsehood because the sentence was quite normal, as Special Counsel Fitzgerald noted. The President, at the very least, owes the American people a full and honest explanation of his actions and those of other senior administration officials in this matter, including, but not limited to the Vice President.

In closing, let me address the question of the underlying crime. Mr. Libby’s attorneys and his apologists have tried to downplay his conviction on the grounds that nobody was actually indicted for the leak of Valerie’s status as a covert CIA officer. Libby’s propaganda is an effort to distract from his crime – his obstruction of justice, his cover up. Who is he protecting?

I would like the committee members and all Americans to think about this matter in this way: If senior American officials take time from their busy schedules to meet with a foreign military attaché for the purpose of compromising the identity of a CIA covert officer, what would we call that? Although that scenario is hypothetical, the end result is no different from what happened in this case – the betrayal of our national security.

I look forward to answering any and all legitimate questions.

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List of Witnesses

The Honorable Joseph C. Wilson IV

Former Ambassador

Rogert C. Adams

Office of the Pardon Attorney U.S. Department of Justice

David Rivkin

Baker & Hostetler LLP

Professor Douglas A. Berman

Moritz College of Law The Ohio State University

Tom Cochran

Assistant Federal Public Defender Middle District of North Carolina