Thread: Jorge Dubaju Boosh commutes jail sentence for "Scooter&

Armitage On CIA Leak: 'I Screwed Up'


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/ ... 1433.shtml


WHAT DO YOU THINK?


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(CBS) In an exclusive interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, Richard Armitage, once the No. 2 diplomat at the State Department, couldn't be any blunter.

"Oh I feel terrible. Every day, I think I let down the president. I let down the Secretary of State. I let down my department, my family and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," he says.

When asked if he feels he owes the Wilsons an apology, he says, "I think I've just done it."

In July 2003, Armitage told columnist Robert Novak that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and Novak mentioned it in a column. It's a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer. But Armitage didn't yet realize what he had done.

So, what exactly did he tell Novak?

"At the end of a wide-ranging interview he asked me, 'Why did the CIA send Ambassador (Wilson) to Africa?' I said I didn't know, but that she worked out at the agency," Armitage says.

Armitage says he told Novak because it was "just an offhand question." "I didn't put any big import on it and I just answered and it was the last question we had," he says.

Armitage adds that while the document was classified, "it doesn't mean that every sentence in the document is classified.

"I had never seen a covered agent's name in any memo in, I think, 28 years of government," he says.

He adds that he thinks he referred to Wilson's wife as such, or possibly as "Mrs. Wilson." He never referred to her as Valerie Plame, he adds.

"I didn't know the woman's name was Plame. I didn't know she was an operative," he says.

He says he was reading Novak's newspaper column again, on Oct. 1, 2003, and "he said he was told by a non-partisan gun slinger."

"I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, 'I'm sure that was me,'" Armitage says.

Armitage immediately met with FBI agents investigating the leak.

"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however.

"First of all, I felt so terrible about what I'd done that I felt I deserved whatever was coming to me. And secondarily, I didn't need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth. I as already doing that," Armitage explains. "I was not intentionally outing anybody. As I say, I have tremendous respect for Ambassador. Wilson's African credentials. I didn't know anything about his wife and made an offhand comment. I didn't try to out anybody."

That was nearly three years ago, but the political firestorm over who leaked Valerie Plame's identity continued to burn as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald began hauling White House officials and journalists before a grand jury.

Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."

"I thought every day about how I'd screwed up," he adds.

Armitage never did tell the president, but he's talking now because Fitzgerald told him he could.

Was Clinton convicted of perjury or contempt of court?

Just another case of how democracy is truly dead in this country. Once again Bush gives the American people another big FU I'm the CIC, I know what's best for this country and I'll do whatever the hell I want. This clowns 2nd term can't end soon enough.

Originally Posted by dyehard39

Originally Posted by AmericanMe

As much as I hate Bush for not pardoning Ramos and Campeon, I think he made the right decision with Cheney's lapdog, Scooter. Valerie Plame and her phony husband, Joe Wilson, capitalized on this farce and made millions as a result. She was not even a covert agent! Her name was on her parking space at the CIA. She's the one who got her husband the trip to Nigeria. She engineered the whole thing!

They went from obscurity to the cover of Vanity Fair! So much for anonomity!!! Libby was just plain stupid to lie about something so insignifcant!

It has been proven that she was a covert agent. What Bush's did is evidence of his disrespect for the rule of law. Even if she was a "former agent" outing her puts her life in danger as well as other agents. And he put a stop to her ever being an agent again. Her career as ever being an agent is destroyed.
Outing her was done to punish her husband.

UM call me crazy here but if someone was a covert agent as some people say, how come she drove to the CIA headquarters every damn day and her her own ASSIGNED PARKING PLACE

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/365679612.html
Bush the brilliant lawyer overrules his own Supreme Court

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Date: 2007-07-03, 10:56AM EDT


When Bush decided, all by his little self (ok - President Cheney probably told him what to do, Bush had his mind all busy with fishing and looking at the soles of Putin's feet again) that Scooter Libby's sentence or 30 months was "excessive," he ignored the legal conclusions of his own hand-picked Supreme Court and told them that they know nothing about the law. Or, at least, that whatever they say the law is doesn't apply to him and his buddies.

See, just last month, the right-wing picked Roberts Court held that a sentence that is consistent with the official Federal Sentencing Guidelines is "presumptively reasonable." See Rita v. United States. I'm serious - they did just actually decide this point.

Rita v. US means that if you are a regular person - not a loyal Bushie close to President Dick and his pals - and if someone like (Republican-appointed, no less) Judge Walton follows the proper procedure, stays well within the federal guidelines, and gives you 30 months for four felonies, then you can't challenge that as "excessive." You're shit out of luck, and have fun in jail, you criminal loser.

Oh, but if that same "presumptively reasonable" process gets you a "presumtively reasonable" sentence within the guidelins - but you're a committed, loyal crony of the gang in charge - then it's "excessive."

See, George Bush, Commander Guy, and Decider of Everything, gets to run this nation as he pleases.

Which means he gets to make legal decisions that the Supreme Court - even his OWN Supreme Court - has already said are bullshit. After all, if Republicans have to follow the same laws as everyone else, and are to be held accountable for their actions and crimes, the terrorists have already won. You must be able to understand that!

Welcome to Bush-Cheneyland. Justice, honesty, fairness, and integrity not admitted past the border fence.

This president and his whole administration is sickening!!!

Free Ramos and Compean!!! They are the deserving ones!!!!

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

What an insult while Ramos and Compean remain in prison!

I hope nobody commutes Bush's jail time when the Congressiona Investigations go into a prosecution phase.

"Congressiona Investigations" - did you mean "Investigaciones del Congreso," Mr. Gheen?

The U.S. Congress won't impeach the President. Not even as revenge.

Consider who would be his replacement.