Yesterday, I did a post based on an article in Truthout.org regarding some “revelations” that Bush lied to the American people and may have lied to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald when “the President was not only briefed that Joe Wilson was trying to discredit the Saddam/Niger uranium story by going public but also that he was told that Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame was a CIA agent and had recommended sending him on the Niger trip.”
OOOOPS! My bad!
Not only was the story written by an proven plagiarizer but it now appears that Fitzgerald himself, in one of the more careless and shockingly sloppy errors his office has made to date, included language in his court filing that was untrue and, given the significance of the subject matter, leaves he and his people wide open to charges of partisanship:
An embarrassing move this afternoon from CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. In his now-famous court filing in which he said that former Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby testified that he had been authorized to leak portions of the then-classified National Intelligence Estimate, Fitzgerald wrote, “Defendant understood that he was to tell [New York Times reporter Judith] Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.”
That sentence led a number of reporters and commentators to suggest that, beyond the issue of the leak itself, the administration was lying about the NIE, because the African uranium segment was not in fact among the NIE’s key judgments.[...]
A few hours ago, however, Fitzgerald sent a letter to judge Reggie Walton, asking to correct his filing. The letter reads:
We are writing to correct a sentence from the Government’s Response to Defendant’s Third Motion to Compel Discovery, filed on April 5, 2006. The sentence, which is the second sentence of the second paragraph on page 23, reads, ‘Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.” That sentence should read, “Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, some of the key judgments of the NIE, and that the NIE stated that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.”
One can immediately see how the change in language affects what the President might have known regarding the leaking to reporters of the NIE and Niger uranium story. Since the Niger uranium portion of the report was not a “key judgment” it stands to reason that Bush would not have asked or known of anyone who would have leaked Plame’s name – whether he knew she was Wilson’s wife or not.
Bush still must respond to another charge in Mr. Leopold’s Truthout article about being told that Plame was Wilson’s wife prior to the information coming out in Novak’s article. That information in the article comes from Mr. Leopold’s “sources” and the information should therefore be weighted accordingly. If it were true, it would contradict what Mr. Bush told both the American people and the Special Prosecutor.
The Washington Post, New York Times, and most major publications used the misinformation in the court filing as fodder for their front pages. What do you think the chances are that the correction will go in the same place?
7:18 pm
I love this publicity!! THank you! I plan to write more, and more and more and more and more about this. Hopefully, every day! I can’t wait to see what you got in store for me next. I hope it’s a real zinger, like I’m a bank robber or something. Surprise me
7:25 pm
If you are indeed Mr. Leopold, I would seriously suggest you seek professional help from someone in the mental health field. I am not being funny. I am trying to be charitable.
I thought I was eminently fair to you – someone who by his own admission, has had problems with accuracy and, shall we say, originality in the past.
7:32 pm
You love me! You really love me!Thank you all for this award and for making me front page news. As a narcissist you know I crave attention and I need to thank some folks who are responsible for feeding my hungry ego:
I want to thank Clarice for getting me all this attention (for free).
I also want to thank this website and others like it for writing about me.
But most of all I want to thank God for creating such a unique bunch of human beings like Rick Moran and his pals.
Lastly, I need to thank Rick for the lies because it helped propel my album to number one on Billboard.
Also, thanks to Murray Waas for writing that phony stuff about me. I knew the plan would work. You’re right, they did fall for it.
Keep writing about me. I love it. It’s better than crack.
7:39 pm
If one were to follow this story from its inception it would be immediately apparent that the parallel to Watergate is alarming. In both instances leakes from inside the WH caused repercussions that quickly went out of control. In Watergate, Nixon’s temper got the better of him when each morning Jack Anderson’s column ran leaks from the previous day. It was so bad that the “Plumbers” were born, only to stop leaks, hence plumbers. The plumbers were employed by John Dean to bug a room at the Watergate Hotel. The story from here on is well known. The Dems armed with information from Dean himself threatened to impeach Nixon if he didn’t resign. See how the patern emerges. The crux of the matter is simple “leaks” from mid level bureaucrats privy to inside information leaking that information to the press. The informer has an axe to grind and the print media wants to make headlines. It happened with Daniel Elsberg when the NYT printed a Vietnam battle plan. The moral of the story is that sensitive material in the hands of the wrong people can and will destroy a presidency. In this instance this is a non story by a mid level, has been,ex member of the State Dept. who just happened to marry a CIA administrative person. Joe Wilson was a small fish whose career was over. The lies and political manipulation by Mr. Wilson have cost numerous wasted hours by the special prosecutor and not a little angst by WH officials. There should have been a firewall to prevent the naming of a Special Prosecutor before this non-story even got started. Charges should have then been brought against Mr. Wilson for lying on a report and wasting tax-payer money.
7:41 pm
What do you think the chances are that the correction will go in the same place?
By: Rick Moran at 7:07 pm
Rick,
Don’t hold your breath unless you dial 911 first. Whats up with Jason Leopold? If that is him there is a definite issue with his mental health and makes me doubt the story even more. After the threads have started unraveling I can say with almost 100% certainty that the story is bilge water. When even the prosecutor can’t get his $HIT together then the whole thing becomes very suspect.
7:49 pm
Here is what the Key Judgments said.
[url]http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/iraq-wmd.html[/url]
. . . Iraq possesses significant phosphate deposits, from which uranium had been chemically extracted before Operation Desert Storm. Intelligence information on whether nuclear-related phosphate mining and/or processing has been reestablished is inconclusive, however. . .
. . . the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR’s assessment, highly dubious. . .
8:06 pm
Hey Jason…any lunches with Joe or Larry lately?
9:23 pm
Went a little Obermann on this, didn’t ya, Rick?
9:49 pm
He’s such a partisan! Look what he is doing in Chicago! He’s a partisan tool who only cares about going after republicans ....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060411hiring,1,7142.story?coll=chi-news-hed
What? Daley’s a Dem? Ummm. Nevermind.
10:39 pm
I don’t live in Arkansas and my name isn’t Bubba but I stand a better chance of being kidnapped, sexually abused and turned loose by the space aliens than I do of reading the correction on the front page of any antique MSM rag. Maybe i’ll just borrow a tinfoil hat from the leftie moonbats.
I think I need Babbling Babs Stringbean the Holywood wonk to Phychoanalyze me since she has did the same to the president. Wanna bet who has more couch sessions, Babs or the president. I’ll give 1000 to 1 odds and take the president as have less sessions with the ha ha house doctors. In case you can’t figure out who babbling babs is her real name , maybe, I think, is Streisand.
11:10 pm
So what the antique MSM told the world all weekend about what Bush told Chaney who told Libby was all wrong. A “mistake” by the left wing nut Fitz in the court filing. See what spreading rumors will get you. Doesn’t Fitz have to drop out of the case and dismiss all charges now? No way Libby, Chaney or Bush can get a fair trial after the lies spread worldwide because of his mistake. LMAO
11:26 pm
Here is more from the WP on this whole issue …. on page one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101888.html
12:12 am
Here’s something the Wash Po writers seem to have missed—from the captured docs..You don’t suppose they are cherry picking?http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1613509/posts
1:27 am
[...] Right Wing Nut House [...]
4:30 am
President Bush does not have to respond to Leopold. Would you have him respond to accusations from every leftist screwball. What needs to happen is you need to be careful where you get your information and what you print.
5:13 am
“...leaves he and his people wide open to charges of partisanship”
Lemme get this straight. A Special Prosecutor releases a document with an error regarding the facts and substance of his entire case and I observe that some people might see that as partisanship.
I think that is a reasonable assumption. Mr. Ohplease, in what is becoming a distressingly regular occurence by lefty commenters on this site, can’t tell the difference between an observation on what some other people might think and a statement of fact on my part.
I made no such statement of fact, something that Mr. Ohplease would have known if he had bothered to read my post.
9:46 am
Actually I’d bet Fitzgerald had it right the first time, but the nuances of written testimony support an alternative interpretation and Libby’s lawyers consequently protested.
Fitzgerald, having bigger fish to fry, conceded the point.
Please note the corrected version in no way excludes the first version as a correct interpretation of Libby’s testimony.
And he conceded the point, no doubt, because this, in fact, has nothing to do with the “facts and substance” of the charges against Libby.
9:52 am
Mr. Morgan:
I beg to differ.
The entire meaning of the sentence is altered – a sentence that is crucial perhaps not to Libby’s defense but to testing the veracity of the White House, specifically the President, regarding whether he ordered Plame’s name to be leaked.
Still to be discovered is when Bush knew Plame was Wilson’s wife and if the leaking of the NIE was part of the effort to specifically discredit Wilson. The way the sentence was corrected makes the latter less likely.
10:11 am
Ok, like Fitzgerald, I’ll concede the point.
Gee, if only Bush, Cheney, and/or even Libby would only hold a press conference and just tell us what happened, this would be so much easier.
10:41 am
Martin Morgan: If Bush, Chaney or Libby held a press conference then you would want them indicted for interference in an ongoing criminal investigation. Are you one of the most mis-trusted people in the world, a double talk lawyer?
Now on to Hellary the Weasel’s criminal conduct regarding the Corning corp. and China, again. I guess selling China top secret data on missile guidence systems for campaign cash wasn’t enough or maybe it’s just because they returned the money (after the got caught) and the antique biased left wing media gaving them a pass is reason enough to do it again. Talk about criminal politicians, Slick and the Weasel’s crime trail goes back to the first day they decided to take over Arkansas.
Nuclear attack on Iran is not required. A super laser has been developed by the U.S., tested, and now deployed on aircraft. Sit 50 miles off shore at 50,000 feet and hit a site and boom, their own nuclear material goes off (an accident of course). The resulting radiation, with the right wind direction could destroy 90% of Iran’s population. Buck Roger’s comic books of the 50s were more true than anyone thought.
10:54 am
Who leaked Plame to Robert Novak?
Has it been established that Libby leaked Plame’s name to anyone?
10:58 am
Oh, and 1 more thing. Libby is still in a jam because it’s pretty much esatblished that this whole Niger-urnanium deal was on his mind. Recall that Libby stated it was not. So that means he was lying.
11:16 am
Scrapiron-people telling the truth has never interfered in any criminal investigation of which I am aware. Indeed, it can only help criminal investigations. Sometimes, disclosure of the truth might even obviate the need to conduct an investigation! (which is itself helpful, preventing waste of judicial resources and all that).
Since the White House line continues to be “no comment” rather than “here’s all we know” you might surmise what effect the truth would have here.
11:21 am
Mr. Morgan:
You have a point of sorts regarding our elected reps telling us what they know about an important subject. But in this case, it just isn’t practical.
Anything said by the principals would be deliberately misconstrued by both the press and the left and put int the worst possible light. In short, no matter what they said, the spin doctors in the media and on the left would twist it to fit into their narrative.
Not only that, if in fact some of what Bush or Cheney said was at odds with Libby’s testimony, such a development would prejudice potential jurors – which is usually the reason given by prosecutors why they don’t want witnesses blabbing what they know.
11:41 am
Mr. Moran
I agree. Telling the truth to the American people is sometimes just not practical.
It might, e.g., interfere with starting a war or something.
11:45 am
That is an unfair, ridiculous characterization of my comment.
It isn’t a question of “telling the truth” it’s a question of making a statement of any kind that, as you’ve proven by your idiotic comment, would be twisted by loons like you into something radically different than what was intended.
Of course, giving someone a fair trial seems to stick in your craw. Maybe we should just burn Libby at the stake now – save you liberals the trouble.
11:46 am
P.S. I say that as a man who used to consider himself pretty to the right. I was all behind Clinton’s impeachment and would have voted to convict him.
Now I believe my support for the Iraq war was based on lies froms Bush and Cheney.
And, in a way, I think letting Clinton off sent a bad signal to future politicians that the American people are okay with a little dishonesty. And maybe so, but not with me.
That’s why I want to see Bush and Cheney impeached.
11:48 am
Oops never mind. This really is a right wing nut house. See ya.
12:23 pm
Associated Press Debunks Own Headline
AP announces Bush lies, then disproves themselves in the same story.
...
1:17 pm
Mr. Morgan. You are obviously a very gentrified person. All the street wise punks in the land know: there is never, ever any upside in talking to the cops. Never.
4:02 pm
I followed Rick Moran’s advice and read the Washington Post, and what did it get me but more articles claiming that George Bush has lied, this time about weather balloon trailers and aluminum tubes being used as weapons of mass destruction. Are we really supposed to believe that george is dumb enough to confuse these two items with WMD? And if he did not, are we really supposed to believe that he would be stupid enough to try to pass these items off as WMD to the American people? I think not! As far as mistakes made concerning Plamegate, that is what you get for commenting on an ongoing investigation. My opinion of George Bush has never been more pronounced, and I will think again before believing in any more of Rick’s trumped up allegations. I want to hear from the President himself ,in his own words, exactly what went down, and not the hearsay he said ,she said, form of journalism that is being practiced here. Thank you for hearing me out.
1:28 pm
The NYT in essence says today the dog ate its email..that it didn’t print the correction earlier because it didn’t check its emails..LOL
6:14 pm
I think some people are getting excited; and don’t know what they are excited about.
‘a key judgment’ does not mean ‘THE Key Judgment. The NIE had many ‘key judgments.
For Fitzgerald to correct what Libby said vis-à -vis ‘some of the key judgments’ only says that the Administration lied even more. “Some Of†(with an ‘s’ on the end of key judgment) is more that “Aâ€; and if they were lying when they claimed that a Single Key Judgment made the claim; what does that make them now that they actually claimed that more than one key judgment did?
What does “I had a candy†mean versus “I had some of the candies� Get the picture yet?
6:18 pm
Um…how about the fact that there was much less reason for Bush or Cheney to “order” Libby to talk about Plame sending Wilson to Niger thus leaving Bush and Cheney “out of the loop” on outing Plame.
Guess that doesn’t count…After all IT”S THE FRICKIN BASIS FOR THE MOONBAT’S ENTIRE WET DREAM ABOUT BUSH!
10:31 am
Sunday Morning WTF
Wow. I think the blogasphere has gone fricking mad.
From Ace of Spades, one of those Christian peace mongers has a quote that only shows a true disconnect from reality:
“They were brave. I disagree with their profession, but it is ironic isn’t …