Sunday, August 29, 2010

Judith Miller Hates Scooter Libby

The panelists on Fox News Watch were discussing the WikiLeaks Afghan War intelligence leak, when Judith Miller, one of the panelists, stated that Scooter Libby had similarly leaked Valerie Plame’s identity to the press and had been “convicted of that”. Ms. Miller then went on to talk about the current leaks and additional panelists also contributed their thoughts. After the break, Jon Scott corrected Ms. Miller by reminding her that Libby had not been convicted of leaking information, and Ms. Miller clumsily reversed herself, responding no, he was convicted of obstruction of justice. That a journalist of Ms. Miller’s caliber, experience and particular background in this very case, would make such a seemingly small, but in reality enormously egregious error, casting additional, unwarranted aspersions on Mr. Libby, is inexcusable. There can be no other explanation, Judith Miller hates Scooter Libby.

While I’m glad that Mr. Scott clarified the facts of the Scooter Libby reference by Ms. Miller, I was stunned speechless to hear her make the false statement in the first place. As Mr. Scott mentioned, if anyone knows the facts of the case, it would be Ms. Miller, who covered the Valerie Plame/Iraq-Niger uranium hookup story from its onset, and even did some jail time for not revealing sources. As such, it is unimaginable that Ms. Miller could make such a statement without deliberate intention to mislead and add further insult to the injury Mr. Libby has suffered at the hands of a hostile press and a criminally rogue special prosecutor on a mission to damage the despised Bush/Cheney Administration.

At the outset of his investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, determined that any leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity by a government official was not a violation of law, and that it was Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell, who had leaked Valerie Plame’s identity to the press. Any honorable officer of the court would have shut down the investigation at that point, having completed the special prosecutor duties he had been assigned. But attack-dog Fitzgerald proceeded with his illegal investigation and persecution of Mr. Libby that led to Grand Jury indictments and eventual conviction for making “misleading statements” which, they concluded, caused an “obstruction of justice”.

Mr. Libby was investigated, persecuted, interviewed, indicted & convicted, but he did nothing wrong. His only real crime, in the eyes of his detractors, was being associated with the Bush/Cheney Whitehouse. What Mr. Libby did do, that got him in hot water, was to relate recollections of who he had spoken with and when, in not talking with reporters about a non-crime that he did not commit. Mr. Fitzgerald noted that Libby’s recollections of these non-events were not entirely consistent with the recollections of some of the reporters interviewed, with regard to the exact person, place or time associated with these non-event, non-crimes.

Grasping at straws, Mr. Fitzgerald accused Libby of lying to criminal investigators who were not investigating a non-crime, a lawful act they knew had been committed by Armitage, who was never charged with a crime, and argued that Libby’s “lying” (otherwise known as poorly recollecting; of course it’s always possible that the reporters and not Libby were the source of the inconsistencies) about no unlawful non-event, somehow “obstructed justice”. Knowing well in advance of Libby’s interviews and testimony, that the non-crime criminal investigators were no longer investigating had been committed by someone other than Libby, exactly what “justice” was being obstructed by Mr. Libby? The correct answer is no justice.

If any intentionally misleading statements were made during this debacle, they were made, not by Libby, but by Mr. Fitzgerald against Libby, calculated to bring down condemnation, punishment, humiliation and loss of credibility to the Bush/Cheney Administration by destroying their vicarious whipping-boy. It’s a pity Mr. Libby was unable, through his testimony, to provide any effective obstruction to this gross “injustice”. Deeply complicit in this travesty, the mindless destruction of a good man for political gain and hubris, are the Lame Stream Media, the special prosecutor, the Grand Jury, the trial judge and jury, the activist courts, the American legal system, the FBI, the State Department and all the people at the time who similarly suffered from the irrational, Bush/Cheney Derangement Syndrome. I indict them all.

The rest of us go on with our everyday lives and our work as if nothing of true import has happened. But as I look out over the horizon, I see a deep scar on the soul of America, once the champion of truth and innocence, and evil is festering just beneath the surface. I shudder involuntarily as the icy north wind blows heavy, black cotton clouds low, down through the valley. It smells like rain. I tuck my hands deeply into my coat pockets, tilting my face against the wind and I head for shelter. Somewhere out there, an innocent man, stripped unjustly of his dignity, reputation and profession, labeled a felon for life, struggles to provide for his family and just get through one day at a time. Have we no shame?

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post. I don't trust America anymore, and it is a sad, sad day that I never thought would come.

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