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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 866
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 05:29 pm: | 
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http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,203385,00.html
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0713062plame1.html
Valerie Plame Sues Cheney, Libby and Rove Over CIA Leak
Thursday , July 13, 2006
WASHINGTON — The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of participating in a "whispering campaign" to reveal Plame's CIA identity and punish Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.
Several news organizations wrote about Plame after syndicated columnist Robert Novak named her in a column on July 14, 2003. Novak's column appeared eight days after Wilson alleged in an opinion piece in The New York Times that the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq to justify going to war.
The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger in early 2002 to determine whether there was any truth to reports that Saddam Hussein's government had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger to make a nuclear weapon. Wilson discounted the reports, but the allegation nevertheless wound up in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove, said, "Without even having had a chance to review the complaint, it is clear that the allegations are absolutely and utterly without merit."
The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove and 10 unnamed administration officials or political operatives of putting the Wilsons and their children's lives at risk by exposing Plame.
"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of ... (Plame), whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country," the Wilsons' lawyers said in the lawsuit.
Specifically, the lawsuit accuses the White House officials of violating the Wilsons' constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom of speech. It also accuses the officials of violating the couple's privacy rights.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, is the only administration official charged in connection with the leak investigation. He faces trial in January on perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges, accused of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about when he learned Plame's identity and what he subsequently told reporters.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald told Rove's lawyer last month that he had decided not to seek criminal charges against Rove.
The lawsuit alleges that Cheney, Libby and Rove used Plame to punish Wilson for his public statements about the administration's portrayal of the intelligence on Iraq.
"As their chief method of punishment, the White House officials destroyed (Plame's) cover by revealing her classified employment with the CIA to reporters," the lawsuit said.
Instead of confronting Wilson on the issue, the lawsuit said, the White House officials "embarked on an anonymous 'whispering campaign' designed to discredit ... (the Wilsons) and to deter other critics from speaking out."
According to court filings in Libby's case, Cheney played a key role in a White House effort to counter Wilson's charges.
Cheney cut out Wilson's New York Times article and scribbled on it, "Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an ambassador to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"
Libby told a grand jury that Cheney was so upset about Wilson's allegations that they discussed them daily after the article appeared. "He was very keen to get the truth out," Libby testified, quoting Cheney as saying, "Let's get everything out."
The charges against Libby grew out of conversations he had with three reporters: former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and NBC's Tim Russert.
A key aspect of Libby's defense is whose memory is accurate: Libby's or the reporters'.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2449
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 10:56 am: |
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Mzuri:
I thought you wanted to give POTUS (boy that sounds like another word for scrotum or commode or something like that--I bet you have "Death From Above" and your divisional symbol tattooed on your bicep)a break? |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 871
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 11:32 am: |
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No tattoes on me! Anywhere.
Anyway, this story has nothing to do with POTUS. It's about Vice-POTUS. LOL!
And I find it highly amusing that the woman has the balls to sue ppl at the highest levels of our govt. It's a testament of the freedoms we enjoy as U.S. citizens. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2456
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 11:39 am: |
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Don't start singing America the Beautiful yet--like they won it.
Anybody can file a suit against the government. Earlier this morning I saw a brother who did and lived to regret it--even though he was right.
Yeah you can file it. But can you win it? Will the judge be fair and impartial or rule with an eye to how bad he or she wants to move up? Will they follow the law?
Can you stand all the heat the government and the people they are working for will put on you?
And will you live to collect?
There need to be 300 million suits against these clowns |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 872
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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I ain't singing anything. And I get the point you're trying to make, but NO - anyone can't sue the government. Your suit has to be against a specific individual (within the government) and your case has to have merit. Otherwise it will be dismissed.
In the Plame case, the suit probably isn't going very far. Because she was an undercover CIA agent, the defense will be that govt secrets are involved, and the whole shit is gonna get swept under the rug. As usual. I'm glad she filed it anyway - it sheds light on the wrongdoing, it's embarrassing for the culprits, and it empowers the victim - she should not have been exposed. But she should have also sued Novak, he should have kept his mouth shut. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 408
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 06:36 pm: |
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"......she should not have been exposed.
Huh? You think her husband should not have been punished (by exposing her) for criticizing Dubya..???
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 876
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 06:57 pm: |
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Of course not. There'd be a whole bunch of us up turd creek if we were all punished for criticizing POTUS. And he just keeps getting worse.  |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5097
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 09:54 pm: |
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Mzuri,
I tend to agree. Scotter Libby is about as far as this thing is going to go. And I think there's at best only a 50-50 chance he'll see the inside of a prison cell.
But, like you, I hope the civil suit will reveal more about the evil machinations of the Bush Administration. And maybe it will start a much needed discussion about HOW much clandestine power and privilege a presidental administration should wield (e.g., resulting in this shyty ENERGY deal we've been dealt since Dubya got in office). |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 414
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 03:50 pm: |
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"There'd be a whole bunch of us up turd creek if we were all punished for criticizing POTUS."
Ya got that right! I would be in the first group to be sent to the Gulag in Alaska for doing so. In fact, a friend of mine met this African brother who almost lost his mind this past Friday evening when Bush's name came up. She said he was ranting and pounding his fist on the table in anger about the failures, discredited propaganda, arrogance and ongoing indiscretions of the White House. |
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