Scooter Libby found NOT guilty

[tinmenace]

http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/11999/2001883825464813443_rs.jpg

[warrior]

I haven't been following this one closely, just seen the headlines, I thought this was a case closed and he got a guilty of perjury, in fact I was reading a piece on yahoo news just a while ago saying the pressure was on Cheney after Libby was convicted of perjury.
So whats the truth, I just checked BBC website and it says Libby was found guilty also

[tinmenace]

Yep, he was found guilty of lying to the FBI. I just think it's funny how Fox News got it wrong. :p

[tinmenace]

Here's the verdict:

Guilty: Obstruction of justice for intentionally deceiving a grand jury investigating the exposure of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

Guilty: Making a false statement for lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert.

Guilty: Perjury for lying in court about his conversation with Russert.

Guilty: Perjury for lying in court about conversations with other reporters.

Not guilty: Making a false statement regarding a conversation he had with former Time magazine writer Matt Cooper.

[edelweiss pirate]

Was that Fox news trying to rewrite reality again?

Didn't they successfully pull that trick off in the 2000 election by announcing the result before it actually happened...

Cheeky buggers, still, good result peeps!

[tinmenace]

Well well well...

How prophetic that lil "glitch" was after all...like a "guilty" verdict without punishment means anything in echelons of global fascism. Ha! Laughable!

http://www.globalfailure.com/images/Libby%20Lewis.jpg

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush commuted Monday the prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, facing 30 months in prison after a federal court convicted him of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

A commutation is distinct from a pardon, which is a complete eradication of a conviction record -- making it the same as if the person has never been convicted.

Bush has only commuted the jail term which means that the conviction remains on Libby's record and he must still pay a $250,000 fine.

Commutations are rarely granted, says CNN's chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. A commutation is a total right of the president and it cannot be challenged by any attorney or court, he said.

Earlier Monday, a federal appeals court unanimously ruled that Libby could not delay serving his sentence, which would have put Libby just weeks away from surrendering to a prison.

Source (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/02/libby.sentence/index.html)

[brians201]

Well we could all see this coming .... The UK Times reported a month ago that Bush had the power to "pardon" Libby .. it was a foregone conclusion. What amazes me is that even this blatant piece of corruption and abuse of power goes largely unnoticed by the general public .. However this article is not bad :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6264602.stm

and in the Times ..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2017779.ece

read the readers comments ... there are actually people writing in who agree with it and say Libby was unfairly sentenced ..... What planet do they live on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They did not publish either of my replies :cool:

[tinmenace]

Have you ever wondered who replaced Scooter Libby as Cheney's Chief of Staff?

http://www.globalfailure.com/images/davidaddington.jpg

Meed David Addington. He was described by U.S. News and World Report as "the most powerful man you've never heard of" - Source (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington.htm)


...a historic shift in the balance of power away from the legislative branch of government to the executive (president). The shift began soon after Bush took office and reached its apogee after 9/11, with Bush's authorization of military tribunals for terrorism suspects, secret detentions and aggressive interrogations of "unlawful enemy combatants," and warrantless electronic surveillance of terrorism suspects on U.S. soil, including American citizens.

The "invisible hand". Much of the criticism that has been directed at these measures has focused on Vice President Dick Cheney. In fact, however, it is a largely anonymous government lawyer, who now serves as Cheney's chief of staff, who has served as the ramrod driving the Bush administration's most secretive and controversial counterterrorism measures through the bureaucracy. David Addington was a key advocate of the Brown v. Board and more than 750 other signing statements the administration has issued since taking office--a record that far outstrips that of any other president.

Name one significant action taken by the Bush White House after 9/11, and chances are better than even that Addington had a role in it. So ubiquitous is he that one Justice Department lawyer calls Addington "Adam Smith's invisible hand" in national security matters. The White House assertion--later proved false--that Saddam Hussein tried to buy nuclear precursors from Niger to advance a banned weapons program? Addington helped vet that. The effort to discredit a former ambassador who publicly dismissed the Niger claim as baseless, by disclosing the name of his wife, a covert CIA officer? Addington was right in the middle of that, too, though he has not been accused of wrongdoing.

"He seems to have his hand in everything," says a former Justice Department official, "and he has these incredible powers, energy, reserves in an obsessive, zealot's kind of way." Addington declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.

Full Article (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington.htm) - A Must Read


More interesting facts about this Neo-Con fascist:


Assistant General Council the terrorist organization known as the CIA, from 1981-1984

Served on the committee that investigated Iran-Contra, all the while serving as council to Dick Cheney (congressman at the time).

Department of Defense General Council


"After he began working for Vice President Cheney, Addington was very influential in many different areas of policy. He authored or helped to shape many of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration."

"Addington has consistently advocated that under the Constitution, the President has unlimited powers as commander in chief during wartime."

"Addington helped to shape an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that said torture might be justified in some cases. He advocates scaling back the authority of lawyers in the uniformed services. He consistently advocates the expansion of presidential powers and Unitary Executive theory, nearly absolute deference to the Executive Branch from Congress and the Federal judiciary. In a June 26, 2007 letter to Senator John Kerry, Addington asserted that by virtue of Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 that the Office of the Vice President was exempt from oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office for its handling of classified materials.
Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Addington#Vice_President.27s_office)




In November 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of Addington for alleged war crimes. - Document (PDF) (http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/GermanCase2006/Docs/Table%20of%20Contents%20for%20German%20Complaint.p df)





...he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share—namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it. Under this framework, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance have been set aside.

The overarching intent of the New Paradigm, which was put in place after the attacks of September 11th...

Yet, almost five years later, this improvised military model, which Addington was instrumental in creating, has achieved very limited results. Not a single terror suspect has been tried before a military commission.

David Addington is a tall, bespectacled man of forty-nine, who has a thickening middle, a thatch of gray hair, and a trim gray beard, which gives him the look of a sea captain. He is extremely private; he keeps the door of his office locked at all times, colleagues say, because of the national-security documents in his files. He has left almost no public paper trail, and he does not speak to the press or allow photographs to be taken for news stories. [Yes, not a whole lot about him out there]

There are various plausible explanations for Addington’s power, including the force of his intellect and his personality, and his closeness to Cheney, whose political views he clearly shares. Addington has been an ally of Cheney’s since the nineteen-eighties, and has been referred to as “Cheney’s Cheney,” or, less charitably, as “Cheney’s hit man.”

People who have sparred with him agree. “He’s utterly ruthless,” Lawrence Wilkerson said. A former top national-security lawyer said, “He takes a political litmus test of everyone. If you’re not sufficiently ideological, he would cut the ground out from under you.” [Sounds like a vicious nazi]

Conventional wisdom holds that September 11th changed everything, including the thinking of Cheney and Addington. Brent Scowcroft, the former national-security adviser, has said of Cheney that he barely recognizes the reasonable politician he knew in the past. But a close look at the twenty-year collaboration between Cheney and Addington suggests that in fact their ideology has not changed much. It seems clear that Addington was able to promote vast executive powers after September 11th in part because he and Cheney had been laying the political groundwork for years. “This preceded 9/11,” Fein, who has known both men professionally for decades, said. “I’m not saying that warrantless surveillance did. But the idea of reducing Congress to a cipher was already in play. It was Cheney and Addington’s political agenda.”

...But he’s the type of guy who gets psychic benefit from going to work every day, making a difference.” :eek:

Growing up, the Addingtons were a traditional Catholic military family. “Discipline was very important for us, and faith was very important. It was about being ethical—the right thing to do whether anyone else does it or not. I see that in Dave.” She was reluctant to say more. “Dave is most deliberate about his privacy,” she added. [The disgusting spell of dogma creating monsters]

“The boy seemed terribly, terribly bright. He wrote well, and he was very verbal, not at all reluctant to express his opinions. He was pleasant and quite handsome. He also had a very strong sarcastic streak. He was scornful of anyone who said anything that was naïve, or less than bright. His sneers were almost palpable.” [Fascist]

The Hidden Power - The legal mind behind the White House’s war on terror.
by Jane Mayer (The New Yorker) (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact1?currentPage=1)


Wow, for someone this powerful, the media sure DO leave him alone.

[tinmenace]

Have you ever wondered who replaced Scooter Libby as Cheney's Chief of Staff?

http://www.globalfailure.com/images/davidaddington.jpg

Meed David Addington. He was described by U.S. News and World Report as "the most powerful man you've never heard of" - Source (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington.htm)



More interesting facts about this Neo-Con fascist:


Assistant General Council the terrorist organization known as the CIA, from 1981-1984

Served on the committee that investigated Iran-Contra, all the while serving as council to Dick Cheney (congressman at the time).

Department of Defense General Council


"After he began working for Vice President Cheney, Addington was very influential in many different areas of policy. He authored or helped to shape many of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration."

"Addington has consistently advocated that under the Constitution, the President has unlimited powers as commander in chief during wartime."

"Addington helped to shape an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that said torture might be justified in some cases. He advocates scaling back the authority of lawyers in the uniformed services. He consistently advocates the expansion of presidential powers and Unitary Executive theory, nearly absolute deference to the Executive Branch from Congress and the Federal judiciary. In a June 26, 2007 letter to Senator John Kerry, Addington asserted that by virtue of Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 that the Office of the Vice President was exempt from oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office for its handling of classified materials.
Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Addington#Vice_President.27s_office)




In November 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of Addington for alleged war crimes. - LINK (http://www.asil.org/insights/2006/12/insights061214.html)







Wow, for someone this powerful, the media sure DO leave him alone.











Cheney's chief of staff subpoenaed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A House of Representatives committee has subpoenaed Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff as part of its investigation into the treatment of suspected terrorists, the White House confirmed Tuesday.

This photo provided by the White House shows David Addington in 2005.

David Addington was served with the subpoena shortly after the House Judiciary Committee approved it Tuesday morning, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Cheney's office told the committee last week Addington would appear before a Judiciary subcommittee if subpoenaed, but only if the panel limited its questions.

"He said he would respond appropriately, and I'm sure he will," Perino said.

The committee is investigating how Bush administration lawyers drew up rules governing the treatment of suspected terrorists after the September 11 attacks.

Critics say those rules opened the door to the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.

Although the administration insists that it does not allow torture, it has acknowledged authorizing the use of "waterboarding" against three suspected al Qaeda figures in the past.

The technique was used against prisoners by the Spanish Inquisition, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and the World War II Japanese military, according to human rights groups.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee in February that waterboarding is no longer part of the CIA's interrogation program.

In a May 1 letter to the Judiciary Committee, Cheney legal adviser Kathryn Wheelbarger said Addington would agree to be subpoenaed if the committee limits questions to his "personal knowledge of key historical facts" and avoids questions about Cheney's discussions with President Bush.

Those discussions and any recommendations made by the vice president could be covered by a claim of privilege, Wheelbarger wrote.

Another official involved in drawing up the administration's interrogation procedures, former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, has agreed to appear before a Judiciary subcommittee voluntarily, committee aides said.

Yoo is the author of a 2003 memo advising the Pentagon that treatment fell short of torture unless it caused pain equivalent to "death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions."

The memo was renounced by the Justice Department after its disclosure and was recently declassified.


CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/06/cheney.congress/index.html)




:eek: