The arrogance of power is such that it may never have occurred to the senior government figures who recently leaked classified information about drone strikes and cyber warfare to the press that there would be any consequences for their actions. The all-too cozy relationship between the Obama administration and mainstream outlets like the New York Times instilled in them the notion that they could plant with impunity any story in the media to boost the president’s reputation. But the anger generated among the public and on both sides of the aisle in Congress by the constant stream of confidential information from the White House and the Pentagon to the front page of the Times has set in motion a series of events that may have consequences that will be felt long after the stories have run. Indeed, even if the president is re-elected, it may be that the effort to puff up his shaky reputation could sink a second term in scandal and prosecutions.
Of course, just how difficult things will get for some of the chatty members of the administration depends a great deal on the special prosecutors picked by Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the leaks after a storm of criticism on the issue forced his hand. As the Times points out today in a story buried on page 20 of their Sunday edition (in contrast to the front page placement of the pieces generated by the leaks in question), prosecuting someone for disclosing classified information can be tricky. But if the two U.S. Attorneys chosen to work on this case are determined to nail someone for this crime, then the odds are some senior administration figures will be going down, even if they are not the ones doing the leaking. The question is whether the Scooter Libby rules will apply.
It should be recalled that a few years ago Democrats and liberals were crying bloody murder about the leak of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA operative by those in the Bush administration who were angry about the lies told by her husband, a former ambassador. The appearance of Plame’s name in a column written by the late Robert Novak set off a federal investigation led by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who was given the full powers of the attorney general, allowing him not only to subpoena and then jail reporters who refused to divulge their sources but to ultimately decide to charge someone who actually did not commit the crime that launched the probe. Richard Armitage of the State Department was the one who dropped Plame’s name to Novak. But rather than fight an uphill battle to jail Armitage, Fitzgerald chose to crucify I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, because his account of a conversation with Tim Russert differed from the recollection of the then host of “Meet the Press.”
The Libby prosecution was a political witch-hunt that did nothing to enhance security or prevent leaks, but it did provide liberals with a great deal of schadenfreude while allowing left-wing Bush administration critics to pose as defenders of national security.
That’s why the possibility that the Libby rules will be applied to some current denizens of the White House may well have some on the right salivating at the prospect of revenge. But conservatives who were rightly opposed to what happened to Scooter Libby should not be hoping for a repeat of the same unfair treatment he suffered.
Instead, what is needed now is what did not happen with the Plame investigation: a probe that will quickly ferret out the truth about the leaks and expose it to the light of day. It should be pointed out that while the motive for both the Plame story and the Obama defense leaks was politics, the two are really not comparable in terms of seriousness.
It was illegal to name a CIA officer in the manner that Plame’s identity was outed. but she was working at a desk in Langley, Virginia, not working undercover in enemy territory. By contrast, the leaks about drone attacks and especially cyber warfare research and decision-making go to the heart of America’s national security. Fitzgerald knew he could never send Armitage to jail for mentioning Plame, but that might be more of a possibility with the Obama administration leakers.
Yet the main outcome here to be desired is not so much the jailing of Obama’s deputies or the prosecution of journalists but the exposure of what they did. The real scandal here isn’t the possible violation of the 1917 Espionage Act, a law rarely enforced. It is that the president’s aides thought nothing of uncovering America’s secrets in order to let their friends in the press portray the president as a tough guy.
The administration will do everything in its power to ensure the truth doesn’t come out before November. But if Holder has appointed unscrupulous prosecutors in the Fitzgerald mold and they wind up spending the next four years fending off arbitrary prosecutions that will drag the administration’s name in the mud, they may wind up wishing the truth had come out in a timely manner.
AG Holder has less than zero interest in finding out who leaked this info to the NYT. As John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noted in a joint statement, Holder’s move didn’t go far enough. n n“This investigation involves some of the most serious breaches of national security in recent memory and any investigation must be done in a manner free and clear of political considerations,” they said. “The recent decision of the Attorney General falls far short of what is needed and is not an adequate substitute for an outside special counsel.” n nAG Holder's move is a deflection tactic. AG Holder simply has not earned the trust of the American people to pursue on independent investigation of the Obama White House. n n
What we have here… is Obama investigating his own administration. Why should anyone trust him to do that?
I have to agree with lumiere1,this is to silence the calls for an investigation.I personally believe it will be a big waste of time.Nothing will come of this.Holder is great at deflection,Just watch some of the hearings on Fast and Furious.As of now no one has been held accountable for any thing in the Obama administration,ie,Solyndra,etc,etc.
"… if Holder has appointed unscrupulous prosecutors …". Forgive my cynicism, but is there any other kind that Holder would appoint?
OK lets's stop half measures here . It's not 'Libby Rules ', but Watergate Rules . What did Obama know and when did he know it ? And BTW , that includes you two , too ,Valerie and Michelle .
Scooter Libby is Jewish. So is Judith Miller, who spent three months in jail for her participation in the Plame case and her decision not to talk about it. When Jews break the law, they are more likely to be prosecuted and imprisoned than others. Think of Pollard.
Pollard violated the rules required as a condition for work and violated his oath. A Jew, so what? He also tried to sell some of the pounds of information he filched on the open market. He deserved what he got.
Both these prosecutors U.S. Attys. Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia and Rod J. Rosenstein of Maryland, are men of the highest integrity and hardly Democratic hacks. Machen has been rolling up a series of criminal prosecutions of the Democratic establishment of the District of Columbia and Rosenstein aided Ken Starr and prosecuted the McDougals back in the day. Holder may keep them on a shot leash but they are not partisan cheerleaders.
One of your 'men of the highest integrity' is an Obama supporter.
That is not true. Nothing will happen because Holder and Team Obama want nothing to happen. They are calling the shots. And the press, in servile ObamaLove mode, will dutifully agree.
I did say "Holder may keep them on a short leash"–the point is that they were not deliberately chosen because they are themselves, personally, reliable Inspector Clouseau Democratic hacks. They are the real deal. n nAnd because they are not Democratic hacks they are not reliable patsies (ask the Mayor of D.C., or the McDougals, or Hillary Clinton, or the ex-Chairman of the D.C. Council) and they were appointed there remains the possibility that Potus is not the source. That said I am not as shocked shocked as others here that the leaks took place. These leaks have not been of such operational damage as to prevent those perennial number-two guys in Al Qaeda from being killed afterwards. n nStill, see as F1bjb following.
Maybe I’m missing something. But, in what way would it have been an uphill battle to jail Mr. Armitage? He confessed to both Coln Powell and to Mr Fitzgerald that he was the leaker of Valerie Plame’s name. So the only relevant issue was the penalty phase (how many years he should have spent in jail). But for some peculiar reason Mr. Fitzgerald decided to not even charge the gentleman. Once Mr Fitzgerald discovered the identity of the leaker he should have closed up shop. He, instead, went on some giant fishing expedition thus putting the Bush administration thru a hellish nightmare, seemingly, trying to nail other members for some other perceived secondary crimes. n nHe focused his guns rather intensely on Rove and Libby and eventually obtained a conviction against Libby. It would appear that the Black and Libby convictions are two of the gravest miscarriages of justice in recent history. Now, Mr. Bush was a good president. He also is a very classy and compasionate person. However, for some strange reasons he would neither accept pleadings from even his father Prez Bush to pardon Mr. Black nor would he accept pleadings from even VP Cheney to pardon Mr. Libby. n nUnfortunately Mr Libby dropped his appeal. So we did not find out if the Appeals Court would affirm the decision of a subordinate to empower Mr. Fitzgerald with the power and authority of a principal n(AG). n nAs Mr. Tobin knows, conservatives are too principled to ever indulge either in any type of schadendreude or to wish putting anyone through the type of hellish injustice that Mr. Libby continues to endure. It's important to note that the two US Prosecutors appointed by Eric Holder are not designated special prosecutors. Hence they have neither the sweeping powers nor authority generally enjoyed by special prosecutors. So these two appointees are highly constrained in the scope of their investigations and the type of results that they will produce.
"Now, Mr. Bush was a good president. He also is a very classy and compasionate person. However, for some strange reasons he would neither accept pleadings from even his father Prez Bush to pardon Mr. Black nor would he accept pleadings from even VP Cheney to pardon Mr. Libby." n nF1bjb, GWB didn't give pardons to anyone who was "connected" or had high level surrogates doing their bidding for them. For better or for worse, he was adamant about only pardoning the "little guys." An admirable trait perhaps, but I wish he had pardoned Libby and Black. I wish he fully pardoned Libby on the spot right after the conviction and then fired the reprehensible Fitzgerald 10 seconds later. n n
I wonder if someone might enlighten me. I have smoldered and perhaps even mouldered with helpless moral indignation, the worst sort of indignation, over this fact or what I took to be a fact: that the outing of Plame wasn't illegal because her covert service, a phrase that I find slightly titillating, occurred more than 5 years before the "outing," making it technically not an outing. So a respectable man went to jail over being uncertain about what he had said about something that wasn't illegal in the first place, and even worse, if anything could be worse, was that Fitzgerald already knew who had committed what wan't a crime.
From what I have read, SecDef Robert Gates has already fingered National Security Advisor Tom Donilon as the leaker. Donilon is a political person, not a member of the "intelligence community" and may not have realized that all leaks are not legally equal. He could emerge as the next Libby. If the gates/Donilon anecdote is true, it is high time for Donilon to say that he was not the leaker.
You have to be kidding….this Administration has done so much wrong and criminal with these leaks, but, Holder couldn't care less. Scooter did nothing wrong, so he went to jail…these numnuts don't know the meaning of secrets, faith, justice…so they won't!
This whole thread is pathetic. National security is comprised. National security is at risk. National security is jeopardized. There is no mention of the gateway to this DISASTER, President Barack 0bama.