More Libby
March 6th, 2007 |How to respond to all of your conservative pals regarding the Libby case:
• This was a trial about nothing.
Perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal investigators is hardly nothing. Were conservatives not the very ones obsessed with the “rule of law” during the Clinton era?
• No underlying crime was committed.
Libby’s obstructions prevented special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald from determining whether the alleged CIA leak actually violated federal law.
• Libby was not responsible for the CIA leak.
Maybe, maybe not. Libby was not on trial for this charge anyway. But Libby did discuss Valerie Plame’s employment with NYT reporter Judith Miller on several occasions before Robert Novak’s published column naming Plame.
• There is no evidence that the CIA leak compromised national security.
The CIA believed that the leak was serious enough to warrant an investigation. The disclosure of Plame’s CIA front company put other CIA agents at risk. Plame was the chief of operations for the CIA’s Joint Task Force on Iraq at the time of the leak and her exposure jeopardized the work of this task force.
Do you really have any conservative pals anyway?
