Scooter’s Pants Are Noticeably Flammable

I know you people lead busy lives. You don’t have time for nonsense. So I’ve gone ahead and read the twenty-two page Libby indictment so you don’t have to. I’m sure you can find a better, more detailed analysis almost anywhere else. But here are the relevant points as I see them:

• For those right-wingers who intend to say that naming a CIA operative is no big deal, Fitzgerald replies:

  Disclosure of the fact that such individuals were employed by the CIA had the potential to damage the national security in ways that ranged from preventing the future use of those individuals in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who dealt with them.

• When the wingnuts say that everyone knew Valerie Plame worked for the CIA:

  Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.

• Who told Libby?

  On or about June 11 or 12, 2003, the Under Secretary of State orally advised LIBBY in the White House that, in sum and substance, Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA.

• Do you smell some conspiracy in the oven? While trying to figure out how to respond to questions about the Niger uranium Joe Wilson stuff from Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus:

  LIBBY participated in discussions in the Office of the Vice President concerning how to respond to Pincus.

• And where’s Cheney?

  On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. [ed. – they're trying to counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons] LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

• The part that demonstrates that Libby knew that he was doing something illegal:

  That official [Libby’s Principal Deputy] asked LIBBY whether information about Wilson’s trip could be shared with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice President had sent Wilson. LIBBY responded that there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly, and that he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line.

• Then there is a list of the number of times he told Bitch Judy Miller that Mrs. Wilson worked at the CIA – On June 23, 2003, July 8, 2003 and July 12, 2003. Is Judy so dumb that she has to hear it three times? And July 8 is the second time it becomes clear that Libby knew what he was doing and that he ought not be doing it:

  LIBBY asked that the information LIBBY provided on the topic of Wilson be attributed to a “former Hill staffer” rather than to a “senior administration official,” as had been the understanding with respect to other information that LIBBY provided to Miller during this meeting.

• The best part:

  LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House (“Official A”) who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak [ed. – better known as Douchebag of Liberty] in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip.

  Who is Official A? And is he sweating in his skidmarked underpants this weekend?

And then it goes on to describe his lies and treachery in detail. We know all that. He told the FBI that he didn’t know about Valerie Plame even though we all know that Cheney told him. He said this and that to Matt Cooper. And so on. Lies, lies, lies.

He’s in big trouble. Maximum of thirty years. Good luck with all that.