Cheney "Cannot Recall" Almost Anything About Plame Outing

Cheney ‘cannot recall’ almost anything about Plame outing

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/cheney-c...-plame-outing/

By Muriel Kane
Friday, October 30th, 2009 -- 10:02 pm

When President Ronald Reagan was asked about Iran-Contra, he replied that he did not remember whether he had authorized two illegal arms sales to Iran in 1985. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated "I don't recall" or similar phrases 64 times in one memorable day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- a performance so memorable that it has since been set to music as a cantata.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney may now have joined their illustrious company, with the release of a redacted summary (pdf) of his May 8, 2004 interview by the FBI concerning the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame in July 2003.

The summary was released on Friday afternoon in response to a Freedom of Information request from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It consists, however, almost entirely of things that Cheney asserted he either did not know or could not recall.

Cheney advised the FBI, for example, "that he has no idea who may have made the unauthorized disclosure" of Plame's identity, that he did not know of any other reporters besides Robert Novak who might have received the information, and that no one had ever confided to him that they had passed information about Plame to reporters. Cheney also claimed that to the best of his knowledge no one had ever told him about discussing the issue with reporters, even after Novak's column outing Plame appeared on July 14, 2003.

In fact, by his own testimony, Cheney took almost no interest in either Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger in 2002 to check out claims that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase uranium there or the outing of Wilson's wife in 2003. Cheney said the first he knew of Wilson's trip was when he read about it in a New York Times by Nicholas Kristof in May 2003 -- and that he took almost no interest in the matter even after that point.

Cheney also said he "could not remember any reaction he had to the Kristof article at the time it was published," did not follow subsequent newspaper coverage of Wilson's claims, was not aware of whether reporters were asking his office about the trip, and only discussed the matter with Central Intelligence Director George Tenet once by phone.

When asked about Wilson's New York Times editorial of July 6, 2003, Cheney stated that he was "relatively certain he spoke to someone about the article, but he cannot recall exactly who it was." Even when shown a copy of the editorial with notes in his own handwriting in the margin, he indicated "he has no specific recollection of when he wrote the notes" and that "he cannot recall if he discussed the underlined portions of the editorial with any one."

When Cheney was asked about specific members of the Bush administration with whom he might have discussed Wilson or Plame, he consistently replied that he did not have, was not aware of having had, or did not recall any such discussions. At one point, Cheney "stated that the identity of Valerie Wilson and her employment was not high on his radar screen and her employment with the CIA and relationship with Joe Wilson did not figure prominently in his thinking."

Even when Cheney was shown a document with Joseph Wilson's name written in his handwriting in the margin in his own handwriting, he insisted that "he has no specific memory of this document, and recalls no reason why he kept it.

Cheney was also extremely reticent when it came to discussing his former assistant Scooter Libby, who was subsequently convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury in the Plame investigation.

In response to one very specific question, "the Vice President advised he has no idea what Scooter Libby knew about Valerie Wilson on 7/12/03. he does not recall if he told Scooter Libby about Mrs. Wilson and her employment at the CIA, or if Libby revealed to the Vice President his independent knowledge about that fact."

When shown a set of "media talking points pertaining to Joe Wilson," Cheney "acknowledged that they appeared to have been written by Scooter Libby" and that "the talking points in the notes resemble something he would have said to Libby, but he cannot remember the specifics of the conversation." The summary states that "the Vice President is not sure if Mr. Libby followed up with the media on these notes and talking points as he does not recall whether Libby reported back to him the results of any contact with reporters."

Cheney, in fact, insisted that "during the period from the publication of Robert Novak's column on 7/14/03, until the Department of Justice investigation was announced in late September, he does not recall much, if any, discussion about former ambassador Wilson and the trip to Niger."

When can we expect the cantata?

Cheney FBI interview: 72 instances of can't recall

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/...heney_cia_leak

11/2/2009

WASHINGTON – 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.

Prosecutors obtained information about the leaking of the declassified NIE from Cheney's chief of staff, who testified that he had talked to New York Times reporter Judith Miller about the National Intelligence Estimate following the "president's approval relayed to me through the vice president."

Cheney's FBI interview is a study in contrasts.

Expressing uncertainty on many areas he was being questioned about and refusing to discuss another area altogether, Cheney was emphatic on at least one basic point.

According to the FBI summary, Cheney said there was no discussion of using Plame's employment with the CIA to counter her husband's criticism that the Bush administration had manipulated prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. There was no discussion, Cheney insisted, of "pushing back" on Joseph Wilson's credibility by raising the issue of nepotism, the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, the same agency that dispatched him to the African nation of Niger to run down the report of an agreement to supply uranium "yellowcake" to Iraq.

It was one example of Cheney being categorical and Libby seeming uncertain.

"In a prior FBI interview, you indicated it was possible that you may have talked to the Vice President on Air Force Two ... about whether you should share the information with the press about Wilson's wife?" the prosecutor asked Libby in his grand jury testimony.

"It's possible that would have been one of the times I could have talked to him about what I had learned," Libby replied.

"As you sit here today, do you recall whether you had such a conversation with the vice president on Air Force Two?" the prosecutor asked.

"No, sir. My, my best recollection of that conversation was what I had on my note card which we have produced which doesn't reflect anything about that," Libby replied.

Libby was indicted, tried and convicted for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. The president commuted his 30-month prison sentence, but rejected Cheney's pleas in the last days of the administration to pardon the vice president's former chief of staff.

The Cheney interview summary was released Friday to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act.