Lewis “Scooter” Libby was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, false statements, and perjury yesterday. He wasn’t charged for the actual disclosure of classified information. Since Fitzgerald is alleging that Libby engaged in a pattern of deception, namely Libby’s claim that he first found out about Valerie Plame from reporters and merely passed along what he had heard from reporters, I think he should be charged with perjury. But what I don’t understand is, since Fitzgerald made clear that he considered Plame’s status with the CIA classified information and that Libby did indeed disclose it without proper authorization, why Libby wasn’t also charged with the unauthorized disclosure of classified information. So my complaint isn’t that Libby was charged with perjury, but that he was just charged with perjury.
If that’s all Libby faces, what message does it send? It’s OK to leak classified information, just own up to it in court? We seem to have adopted a standard in the US that disclosing classified information to foreign governments, friendly or otherwise is punishable, but disclosing to the press isn’t punishable. When was the last time a leak to the press itself investigated and charges brought? Here was a chance, and Fitzgerald has (so far) declined to take it. Does disclosure to the press somehow do less damage to national security? I sure don’t think so.
I’m also of the opinion that lying Joe Wilson should be charged for unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and there is some ammunition in Fitzgerald’s Press Release. First, Ambassador Wilson made the most damaging disclosure of classified information about his wife to David Corn since he went far beyond my wife works for the CIA. But he also maintained that there was nothing classified about his trip – neither his taking it nor his findings. Yet we find in the press release this statement:
on or about June 9, 2003, a number of classified documents from the CIA were faxed to the Office of the Vice President to the personal attention of Libby and another person in the Vice President’s office. The documents, which bore classification markings, discussed, among other things, Wilson and his trip to Niger, but did not mention Wilson by name.
Hmm, was the trip so unclassified as Ambassador Wilson has asserted?
After consulting with the State Department’s African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.
And Fitzgerald’s statement in the press release
shortly after publication on or about June 19, 2003, of an article in The New Republic magazine online entitled “The First Casualty: The Selling of the Iraq War,” Libby spoke by telephone with his then Principal Deputy and discussed the article. That official 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;
it’s not clear if the information that couldn’t be disclosed about Wilson’s trip is limited to, or even includes his wife recommending him for the job — which would reveal her CIA employment. Maybe there was more classified information to Wilson’s trip and report besides his wife.
Is this the end of the indictments? What about Karl Rove? Only Fitzgerald knows, and he (still) isn’t talking. Certainly the evidence uncovered so far is weaker against Rove or he’d have been indicted too; maybe Karl is in the clear because he did hear from a reporter before saying things like “I hear that too”.
