Cheney FBI Interview: 72 Instances Of Can't Recall
Monday November 2, 2009 4:02 a.m.
Photo Credit: tswartz on Flickr
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.
On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.
The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame's CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.
Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?
Libby's own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney's reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes — notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI — the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.
Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.
"It turns out that I have a note that I had heard about" Plame's CIA identity "from you," Libby says he told the vice president.
And what did Cheney say in response? Fitzgerald asked Libby in front of a federal grand jury six months later.
"He didn't say much," Libby replied. "You know, he said something about 'From me?' something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that."
Cheney's version of the conversation, as related in the FBI interview summary?
Cheney "cannot recall Scooter Libby telling him how he first heard of Valerie Wilson. It is possible Libby may have learned about Valerie Wilson's employment from the vice president ... but the vice president has no specific recollection of such a conversation."
On another basic point, Cheney simply refused to answer.
Fitzgerald had gathered evidence that Cheney apparently persuaded President George W. Bush to hurriedly declassify portions of a prewar National Intelligence Estimate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The declassification was followed by Libby providing the information to a New York Times reporter while simultaneously talking to reporters about Plame's CIA identity.
As Fitzgerald pressed the issue in the FBI interview, Cheney refused to confirm any discussion with Bush, saying that he must refrain from commenting about any private or privileged conversations he may have had with the president.
It was an instance of Libby, who had testified two months earlier to a federal grand jury, being more forthcoming than Cheney.
There are 26 comments
Anyone that forgets that much but can remember in detail every other item that happened is a liar. Chaney knows that i cant remember is the way or Reagan, Nixon and Bush one. I would bet that there is a tape recording somewhere in the area of both Bush and Chaney. And if it was turned off then they should be fined a million a minute of missing time.
#2 beenexposedasaracist @ 8:26 a.m. • Monday November 2, 2009
"And besides, she wasn't covert at the time."
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We've been through this the previous 999 times you trolled these boards with these falsehoods, but for the 1,000th time:
Court filings in the case of The United States V. Lewis Libby, wherein the Vice President's Chief of Staff was found guilty on four out of five federal counts, prove your false claim to be untrue,
"I can't recall."
There seem to be a lot of things people like Cheney and Reagan can't recall when they have to explain their nefarious actions.
Are we to believe the g0p are always so absent minded? Maybe they are being honest. Maybe their memories are really this bad all the time.
Take 9/11. I'm sure everyone in the Bush administration turned to each other and said "wasn't there some intelligence memo about Bin Laden determined to attack?". And others might have asked "what was that material the outgoing Clinton administration briefed us on concerning Al Qaeda?". The response was probably "I can't recall." And that folks, is why 9/11 happened.
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I was going to take some time this afternoon to address the failure of local religious and political leaders to put a sizable dent in this reoccurring problem that has ballooned to monstrous proportions recently. Undoubtedly you’ve probably caught the faint sulfur dioxide olfactory aura of this pressing problem whilst engaged in fighting off sleep in the midst of the latest television assault on our collective senses – the evening “news”. Yes the power-mad proctors of all things repug and the archbishop have gotten their collective panties in a twist over a plague of plausible (and in DICK'S case - absurd) deniability that threatens the very loose and see-through thin fabric which barely contains the dregs of civilized discourse and real stopping power, for those in need. Undoubtedly, you’ve seen the signs at every outdoor inquisition facility. And it’s getting worse. Recently a well renowned public figure was forced to confront his own frailty of human nature, as he was impelled by public pressure to directly atone for his grave and disgusting social faux pax and bad manners in the form of a lot of people getting greased.
What am I trying to say? I think that Dick put a lot of bad ideas in a lot of guilty people’s heads as they scramble to find a Judas goat to take the bath. Karl Popper advocated memetic caution in the strongest possible terms: "The survival value of intelligence is that it allows us to extinct a bad idea, before the idea extincts us." But unlike Mr. Cheney, it was known that in his later years Zip the Pinhead (as his friends called him) became less "civilized" in his act. What do you expect from a “person” that’s ducked out of or otherwise escaped any semblance of responsibility for anything he’s done. Now he’s parading his daughter around, as she unwittingly is going to take the bullet of reprimand for one of countless bungles from Mr. Curmudgeon
Cheny is a "DICK". I wonder if he recalls shooting his lawyer friend in the face or if "DICK" thought his friend was a clipped bird that just could'nt fly. How sporting of you "DICK" !
Every where I go I see Cheney's mug plastered there . I thought he was out of office . We didn't see that much of him when he was in office . I'd like to know what is the name of this game ?
Re: Cheney's forgetfulness: I guess it's clear now that every time Shooter spouts off about "we did/didn't do this or that..." in defense of his administration's actions and positions, we can simply point to 72 instances of "I do not recall" and whimsically suggest that like the Gipper before him, Shooter is suffering from dimentia, and none of his comments therefore has any weight or merit.
If only our Attorney General would go after that scum bag. Let's charge the "memory-challeged" former VP with the crimes he most likely committed, try him and let a jury of his peers decide his fate.
aren't there 72 virgins awaiting every good muslim who engages in jihad against the infidel?
now we have cheney not remembering on 72 separate occasions. i am sure glenn beck would immediately see the connection, except that beck defends cheney. so that can't be.
now i am not saying cheney is a muslim bent on jihad...only that any act is permissible when one's ass is on the line, including the act of failing to remember on 72 separate occasions.
and who said alberto gonzales got the blue ribbon on this?
"Can't recall" and "don't remember" seemed to suffice for the "Democrats" and later Clinton when it came to the Iran/Contra scandal.
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Clinton was involved with the "Iran/Contra" scandal!? Gee, I always thought that was Ollie "Treason is Legal if One Hates America" North and the Reagan-Bush Administration.
Yes, I believe it was, because it was during that scandal that my favorite TeeVee moment of all time occurred, when President Reagan -- wearing his suit jacket -- went on live TeeVee, waggled his finger at the camera, and declared:
"I never had sex with those Iranian terrorists to whom I illegally gave the Stinger missiles in violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act."
America-hating traitors don't care about truth. As example, thei claim that Plame was not covert. That LIE is easily refuted:
Fitzgerald's task was to investigate whetehr any laws concering covert status had been violated. The first thing he had to do was determine whether those laws applied to Plame. He determined that by determining that, yes, in fact, she was covert at the time. Had he found she was NOT covert, there WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AN INVESTIGATION BEYOND THAT POINT.
So, America-hatring traitors: your far-right lunatic fringe sources for the LIE that Plame was not covert have all along been LYING to you. And you, like good little brainwashed lockstep sheeple, continue to parrot that LIE.
Remember, all you America-hating Christians: one wins before "God" NOT by how many lies you tol in order to "win," but by loving and pursuing TRUTH. One DOES NOT pursue TRUTH by Lying, because --
BIG CLUE TIME --
A lie is NOT A TRUTH becasue it is a LIE.
@bebe
Wow, blogbob sure busted your right-wing talking points.
Care to correct yourself and appologize? No, didn't think so. Admitting when you are wrong is not a GOP trait.
@9 bebeholmes
Any idea how many people died because of the Rose Law firm records? The grand total is zero.
And idea how many peopel died because of Dick Cheney outing Plame? Lots, people who had worked for her in other countries. Because Cheney wanted to punish anyone who had the temerity to reveal the lies that Bush told to get us into the Iraq war, he committed the crime of revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent, as the CIA themselves stated, a treasonous act that got our people killed, and destroyed intelligence gathering networks in a number of countries. Treason like that deserves a long stretch in jail, at the very least.
I remember Bush Sr. being so disgusted about Plame's outing. Then it became clear it was his son's administration's that did it for political gain. I think that is what led to Bush Sr. crying publicly.
@ 4. Uffdaguy
Remember that bebe is the one who tried to revise the history about Rush's phony soldier fiasco. He's learned well from Coulter.
@4.Uffdaguy
Actually, Ufffdddgg, I was referring to Hillary Clinton and the Rose Law records fiasco where she lied about knowing where they were with her "don't recall" responses. Then the maid finds them in her file cabinet with her finger prints all over them.
@bebeholmes
FYI, the former director of the CIA (A Bush appointee--General Haiden) admitted under oath that Plame was in fact covert at the time of her outing. She affirmed the same thing also under oath. Don't spout what you think are facts without knowing what you are talking about.
As to her husband outing her, it has also been revealed since Plamegate hit the scene that this was an invention of the Republican spin machine, picked up by their propaganda arm, Farce Noise, and repeated ad nauseum, until everyone who actually watches that opinion network believed it. A case of "if you say it enough, people will believe it is true."
As to Shooter, the man made a huge profit on the backs of 4,800 dead American servicepersons, and who knows how many mercenaries and Iraqis (estimates on the latter range from 100,000 to over 1,000,000). In any other civilized country he'd already be in prison for war profiteering.
It looks like the man outed Valerie Plame. Fact one: she was covert at the time. Fact Two: it is a felony punishable by death to do so. Fact Three: Bush Senior called this particular form of treason "the most insidious." Fact Four: if the Obama or Clinton administrations had outed a covert operative for political gain, you conservatives would have called for impeachment, and probably gotten it at least in the Clinton era. As it was you had to settle for an impeachment for a lie about a sexual tryst. Personally, looking at Clinton's lie and Cheney's lie, I think Cheney's is far worse. Nobody died when Clinton lied.
@6.warrenfparker
Compensation? LMAO...Yeah, they pay me well. Actually, I'm doing okay for myself and don't need their money, but if you happen to see them; tell them I could use a few hundred large, please.
bebeholmes: The question is not whether or not you're an apologist for Bush/Cheney's war crimes, but how much compensation you're getting for doing it.
"Can't recall" and "don't remember" seemed to suffice for the "Democrats" and later Clinton when it came to the Iran/Contra scandal.
Let's hope this Democrat cares more about the rule of law, so his grandchildren will not live in a dictatorship beyond the two party one we currently endure.
@bebeholmes
Actually, the "can't recall" is very Reaganesque. Of course, in Ronnie's case, it was probably true. If Nancy hadn't been there to tie his shoes and zip his fly, we all would have known years earlier that he wasn't competent to hold office.
The man is evil. The second coming of Hitler.
What crimes? Valerie was outed by her own husband among the D.C. social scene. I guess it made him feel relevent. And besides, she wasn't covert at the time. Non-Issue. However, the "can't recall" does sound Clintonesque doesn't it?
I'm so tired of the Obama administrations cover up of these crimes by the Bush admin.
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