News Intelligence Analysis
Valerie Plame
Wilson V. I. Lewis Libby, Karl C. Rove, Richard B. Cheney,
PDF.
From
the Washington Post
Cheney, Rove and Libby Sued
Over CIA Leak
By Daniela Deane
Staff Writer
Friday, July 14, 2006; 12:12 PM
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, former
CIA agent Valerie Plame, said today Vice President Dick Cheney
and other Bush administration officials knowingly lied and abused
their power to "exact personal revenge" against the
couple for criticizing Bush's rationale for going to war.
Plame, at a joint news conference with her husband at the
National Press Club in Washington, said she would "much
rather" be a CIA operative than a plaintiff in a lawsuit.
Plame's identity as a classified CIA operative was allegedly
leaked to the press by top officials of the Bush administration
and yesterday she and her husband filed a civil lawsuit in U.S.
District Court accusing Cheney, presidential adviser Karl Rove
and former top Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
with violating their constitutional rights and invading their
privacy.
"I and my former colleagues trusted the government to
protect us in our jobs," said Plame. She said that trust
was "betrayed."
"This remains a nation of law and no administration official
is above the law," said Wilson, who served as U.S. ambassador
to two African countries and acting ambassador to Iraq during
the first Gulf War.
Plame said the couple, both of whom had worked in government
for years, decided to file the lawsuit with "heavy hearts."
Wilson said they are under "no illusions about how tough
this fight will be." But, he said, the time had come to
hold the officials accountable.
The couple's civil accuses the Bush aides of leaking Plame's
identity to "discredit, punish and seek revenge against
the plaintiffs" to get back at Wilson for publicly questioning
the rationale for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in an opinion
piece in the New York Times.
Wilson said at the news conference that he told the administration
repeatedly that he had "found no evidence" of yellowcake
uranium in Niger after two missions there to look into charges
that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had bought it to produce
weapons of mass destruction, Bush's main justification for invading
Iraq.
Despite Wilson's findings, Bush referred to the Niger uranium
charges in his 2003 State of the Union speech outlining his reasons
for going to war in March of that year.
After his "counsel was not heeded," Wilson said
today he felt it was his "civic duty" to write the
op-ed piece titled, "What I didn't find in Africa."
Eight days after the article appeared, Plame's identity as
a CIA officer was revealed in an article by syndicated columnist
Robert Novak.
The McLean couple also charge in their lawsuit that their
careers wer ruined and their children endangered by Plame's outing.
The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages.
Libby is the only administration official to have been indicted
in the leak investigation. Libby, who resigned as Cheney's chief
of staff immediately after the indictment was announced, faces
perjury and obstruction of justice charges next year. Special
Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who has conducted a three-year
investigation into the leaks, cleared Rove of criminal jeopardy
charges last month.
Legal analysts said the suit could provide new opportunities
for extracting information from the administration, because Plame
and Wilson could conduct discovery if the court lets the suit
proceed.
Cheney and others might be compelled to turn over documents
to the Wilsons, as well as give sworn depositions, as President
Bill Clinton eventually had to do when Paula Jones sued him for
sexual harrassment.
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Plamegate
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Legal Topics and Analysis
Directory of the
CIA Leak
Valerie Plame
Wilson V. I. Lewis Libby,
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B. Cheney, PDF.
A Cheney-Libby Conspiracy,
Or Worse?
Reading Between
the Lines of the
Libby Indictment
By John Dean
Friday, Nov. 04, 2005
Indeed, when one studies the
indictment,
and carefully reads the transcript of the
press conference, it appears Libby's saga
may be only Act Two in a three-act play.
And in my view, the person who should
be tossing and turning at night, in
anticipation of the last act, is the Vice
President of the United States,
Richard B. Cheney.
John Dean gives the Wilsons
a sling shot
and a stone to slay the
giant Empire. John Dean's latest article
in Salon.com outlines the power of a single civil
suit aimed at a corrupt administration.
Dean says the Wilsons should file a
lawsuit. During
the Nixon years, the
DNC filed the shot that was heard
around the world causing Watergate
to explode and Nixon to resign.
John Dean takes a further
look
at the criminal implications
of Ambassador
Wilson's case and the leak exposing his
wife
Valerie Plame.
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