Saturday, March 11, 2006

libby gets topical summaries of the PDB

* laura: "Where is Appropriations Comm. Chairman Jerry Lewis' shock and outrage? Where's his investigation of how that could happen? Oh yeah. As his spokesman told me, he decided a full fledged investigation wasn't warranted. He decided to only "informally review" Cunningham's past appropriations recommendations and decided there weren't any problems. Given what prosecutors have found, it's hard to believe Lewis was looking very closely."

* btw - i've seen a bunch of people lately suggest that the Iran war will start this month, although i'm not sure why people are saying that... there are some who have suggested that it's because iran plans to start trading oil in euros, thus undermining the USD - but i think that bourse theory is nonsense. (i'm not sure if there are other reasons why people think the war will start this month)

* rawstory runs the numbers: "The odds of an American or Israeli airstrike on Iran by March 31, 2007 are 2:1, according to April editions of the Atlantic Magazine. " (note that is 2007, not this month)

* soto:

Judge Reggie Walton ruled today that the CIA must provide Scooter Libby's defense team topical summaries of the PDB's that the Vice President's office received from the CIA, which is being described by some as a partial victory for Libby. But did Walton cleverly box in the defense?

[snip

Walton split the baby today, ruling that Fitzgerald was overstating the likely objections from the White House and CIA, and Walton noted importantly that both have been forthcoming already in providing Fitzgerald what he needed to indict Libby, which undercuts any future refusal by the White House to release this material. Walton ruled that Libby's defense could be just as adequately served by summaries or indices of the subjects covered during the weeks in question, and that the actual PDBs were not necessary for Libby to prepare his faulty memory, "I'm too busy" defense. It is a clever response because it may leave Team Libby with nowhere else to go in pursuing this defense, as they cannot now say they need the actual documents, when they will still be receiving summaries of what Libby already read while in his job."



anyone confident that reggie walton did the right thing?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lukery, whether there are reasons or not for attacking Iran, the entire US leadership has come out against Iran in the last 48 hours.

Sounds like a prelude to an attack to me. I can't see these guys keeping up this rhetoric just to get a few (totally unjustified) sanctions in place. And they're certainly not doing this on a two year time frame. (link)

Anonymous said...

bah...i still haven't forgotten Scott Ritter's warning here, from over a year ago.

Anonymous said...

They've got to do something to distract the public - and they have form. But, I could be wrong...

Anonymous said...

damien - dont get me wrong - i was just wondering whether it was gonna be this month...