
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 9, 2007
/ 9 Adar, 5767
Scapegoat
By
Linda Chavez
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Administration critics are gloating over Scooter Libby's conviction this week in the Valerie Plame leak case, but no one should be happy about this prosecution. The more we learn about the motivations of the federal prosecutor in this case and the attitudes of some jury members, the more it appears that justice has not been served.
Libby now faces up to 25 years in prison for lying to federal prosecutors and obstructing justice, but he was clearly a scapegoat for the man prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and at least some members of the jury wanted to put behind bars: Vice President Dick Cheney.
As one juror told The Washington Post after the verdict, "We're not saying that we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. But it seemed like he was . . . the fall guy."
Fitzgerald told the jury in his closing arguments that Libby's lies had made it impossible for him to learn the extent to which the vice president was involved in trying to undermine Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson had written an op-ed for The New York Times on July 6, 2003, highly critical of the administration's case for going to war against Iraq.
Joe Wilson, not his wife Valerie Plame, was the actual center of the maelstrom that engulfed Libby and others in the White House. He had long been a critic of the case for war against Iraq. But Wilson's New York Times piece seemed to have added authority because it was based on information he said he learned when the CIA sent him to Niger to investigate whether Iraq had been trying to obtain yellowcake uranium.
It was Fitzgerald's theory one embraced by virtually everyone on the Left and much of the press that Plame's identity had been released to punish Wilson. But the allegation is preposterous on its face.
We now know, no thanks to Fitzgerald, that prosecutors were long aware of the source of the original leak. Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state and a dissident in the Bush administration, was the man who leaked CIA employee Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who then revealed it in his column on July 14, 2003. That column, which exposed Plame's role in sending her husband on the trip to Niger, sparked a hue and cry from Democrats, who charged that the leak of Plame's name violated a 1982 law that made it illegal to knowingly reveal the identity of covert agents.
But Plame was not a covert agent certainly not at the time her name appeared in Novak's column which is why Fitzgerald chose not to prosecute Libby under the statute. Nor did Fitzgerald seek to prosecute Armitage or any of the other administration officials who also talked to journalists about Valerie Plame.
Armitage told investigators what he had done shortly after the Justice Department announced its official investigation into the leak, but he did not come forward publicly to admit his role. His failure to do so when he could see that the federal investigation into the leak was quickly turning into a witch hunt speaks to his cowardice or his complicity in the vendetta against the vice president.
Armitage's role in the affair only became public when Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff and The Nation editor David Corn revealed it in their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," published last fall. They noted that on Oct. 1, 2003, Armitage notified Secretary of State Colin Powell that he was Novak's source, and that within days, that information was transmitted to the Justice Department.
Yet on Dec. 31, 2003, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to find out who leaked Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak and to determine whether the leak broke the law. It is clear that from the beginning, Fitzgerald's only interest was in directly implicating the vice president in the leak. When he was unable to do so, he decided to punish Scooter Libby for protecting his boss.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
Linda Chavez Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|