FitzZorro…………………….is being sharpened as we speak.

Political retribution against Wilson; to hide the fact their case for going to war with Iraq was based on info they knew was very likely untrue. In their attempts to smear Wilson, they opted to attack his wife whose CIA status was classified.

From the indictment:

9. On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

two things here; first, it looks like Unka Dick was up to his pacemaker in running some opp research into Wilson’s wife. Second, the CPD is in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations where the undercover agents are, as opposed to analysts or ‘desk jockeys.’

Hedley is sooooo wrong.

The fact is there is no such crime as ‘insider trading.’ In fact, ‘insider trading’ is legal. It happens literally hundreds of thousands of times each day when an officer or principal of a company buys or sells his or her own company’s stock.

The action does become illegal is when that officer or principal falsely attests he or she has no information that is not available to the public. That’s where perjury and false statements enter into the picture.

WRT Libby crimes, Fitzgerald was crystal clear on this issue; obstruction of justice, false statements and perjury often make proving crimes difficult. It doesn’t mean the crimes weren’t committed.

Not entirely true. Insider trading is legal when corporate officers buy and sell stock in their own company like you pointed out.

However, insider trading is illegal when stock is bought or sold based on information that is not made known to the public. ‘Tipping’ is common, but also illegal. Unfortunately, the law is shaky.

For example, if I work for Company A, and somebody tells me that Company B is going to buy us out, and I purchase a bunch of stock based on that, I have just committed an illegal act.

However, if I happen to see executives from Company B in our offices, recognize them and draw a conclusion based on that, I can buy as much stock as I want and it’s not an issue.

I didn’t say “insider” trading, rather “illegal” trading — i.e., trading on information not available to the public. The prosecutors couldn’t get her for that but they got her for perjury, obstruction, etc.

Here, the original investigation was the leak of supposed classified information. To date, the prosecutor has not indicted anyone for that, and it looks like he is not going to. Rather, Libby was indicted for perjury, obstruction, etc.

If the prosecutor could have made a case for it (and maybe he tried but the grand jury didn’t go for it, which is doubtful but not impossible) he would have, in addition to the perjury and obstruction, etc. Of course, it doesn’t meand the crime wasn’t committed, although it could, it means that the prosecutor didn’t think he could make a case.

In one of the boldest moves yet in the 22-month investigation into the outing of a covert CIA agent to a handful of top reporters covering the White House, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is extending his probe and pursuing much more serious charges against senior White House officials, specifically President Bush s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, lawyers directly involved in the case told RAW STORY Friday.

While many people were left confused by news reports that said Rove wouldn’t be indicted Friday, the lawyers said that Rove remains under intense scrutiny and added that Fitzgerald is betting on the fact that he can secure an indictment against Rove on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, the misuse of classified information, and possibly other charges, as early as next week.

 This investigation is not yet over, one of the lawyers in the case said.  You must keep in mind that people like Mr. Rove are still under investigation. Rather than securing an indictment on perjury charges against Mr. Rove Mr. Fitzgerald strongly believes he can convince the grand jury that he broke other laws.

—-Raw Story

heh-indeedy, go read the whole thing

I’m at work so I didn;t hear the whole press conference and haven’t had time to read the indictment but I did hear him say that, essentially, Libby’s perjury — and possibly the perjury of others — made it impossible for him to prove intent, which I assume is important to bring a crime of revealing classified information. We now know for certain, without a doubt, that Plame’s identity as a CIA operative was classified. I thought with his baseball analofy, Fitzgerald was speaking directly to intent, which is now difficult if not impossible to prove because Libby, in effect, “blocked the view of the umpire.” But as he said, the grand jury remains open to consider new evidence and new charges. Nothing is closed on the leak aspect of this yet. As far as I understand.

The indictment and the prepared 9 page statement fail to do one thing and that is make clear Libby’s motives for doing what he did and for good reason, as his motives seem to be irrelevant.

Libby lied about where he got the information. In reading the paperwork, it’s crystal clear Fitzgerald knows exactly where he got that information.

Libby also lied about what he told reporters. Since it was clear where he got his information, it was bogus when he said he told Cooper he heard from other reporters that Plame worked for the CIA.

Those lies, which presumably had Fitzgerald issuing subpoenas to Cooper and Miller is what brought on the obstruction charge.

Hedley is exactly right. If Fitzgerald had enough evidence to charge Libby with revealing Plame’s identity, he would have done so.

Go to page 5 of the indictment [PDF]. Top of the page, item #9.

On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

This is a crucial piece of information. the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) is part of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, i.e., not Directorate of Intelligence, the branch of the CIA where ‘analysts’ come from, but where the spies come from.

Libby’s a long time national security hand. He knows exactly what CPD is and where it is. So does Cheney. They both knew. It’s right there in the indictment.

As to Libby, the indictment is devastating. If the facts alleged are true–and they are evidently based on the testimony of a considerable number of witnesses–they can’t be chalked up to inadvertence, misstatement or differing recollections. The indictment alleges that Libby had a number of conversations with various people in the executive branch, from Vice-President Cheney on down, about the fact that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. It alleges further that Libby had conversations with several reporters in which Plame’s CIA employment was discussed.

Go to page 5 of the indictment [PDF]. Top of the page, item #9.

On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

This is a crucial piece of information. the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) is part of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, i.e., not Directorate of Intelligence, the branch of the CIA where ‘analysts’ come from, but where the spies come from.

Libby’s a long time national security hand. He knows exactly what CPD is and where it is. So does Cheney. They both knew. It’s right there in the indictment.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/index.html

I did.

It s clear Libby wasn t acting alone;

Acting alone to do what?

However, insider trading is illegal when stock is bought or sold based on information that is not made known to the public.  Tipping is common, but also illegal. Unfortunately, the law is shaky.

No. the law’s not shaky; your reasoning is. ‘Tipping’ can be legal if its based on speculation/research. It becomes illegal when you get info that’s not available to the public–such as a preliminary non-public earnings report or internal correspondence noting problems with a company’s product line.

Again, nobody’s in jail for the crime of insider trading. They’re in for fraud, conspiracy, perjury, false statements.

The wingers cannot honestly say this was one guy behaving badly by himself. It’s pretty clear Libby was working in concert with the WH, State Dept, and senior levels of this illegitimate admin to commit illegal acts. The bottomline is it’s clear what Libby was doing was known to quite a number of folks in the administration and they approved or abetted it.

Yes, he lied about how he knew, what he knew. That’s where the obstruction charge comes in.

All I’m saying is that Fitzgerald himself said these charges were not directly related to the leaking of Plame’s identity. Given that, I’m curious to know how Jadegold reaches the conclusion that the indictment makes “…pretty clear Libby was working in concert with the WH, State Dept, and senior levels of this illegitimate admin to commit illegal acts.”

Read the indictments.

It’s clear Libby wasn’t acting alone; he was acting in concert with quite a few folks in the WH and other agencies. Libby didn’t operate in a vacuum.

And from where he heard it. He said he heard it from Russert. In fact, he heard it from four sources.

Jay wrote: “It was a CIA official who told Libby about Valerie Plame.”

It was also Cheney, a State Department undersecretary (many have speculated John Bolton) and another official. Was it Rove?

Wrong. Didn’t you get his baseball analogy? Fitzgerald said that Libby’s obfuscation makes it difficult if not impossible to know the real motives behind the leak which is why he considers these charges to be serious. Libby’s lies seriously impeded the investigation. The intention behind the leak is the key to the big picture and Libby apparently deliberately muddied the waters. WE can infer that it’s because he was working in concert with others who he is now trying to protect. Fitzgerald may think so too but he can’t comment on it because he won’t speak about people he can’t charge with a crime. He can’t bring charges because Libby lied. That’s my understanding of it.

It was a CIA official who told Libby about Valerie Plame. Fitzgerald also said the indictments were not directly related to the leak, so what is all this nonsense about Libby working with the WH, State Dept to commit illegal acts?