Well. What can one say about President Bush's decision to commute
Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence that hasn't been said already?

Okay, so you know if I make a statement like that, I'm obviously going
to add to the pile. In spite of the extensive coverage of this issue,
over the past few days I've found myself trying to explain to a lot of
people just why this is such an issue. Most people didn't follow the
investigation of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was trying to
determine who revealed the identity of CIA operative Valarie Plame,
much less Libby's indictment and subsequent conviction of purjury and
obstruction of justice.

Okay. We should start from the beginning, to put this all into
perspective.

In late February 2002, responding to inquiries from the Vice
President's office and the Departments of State and Defense about the
allegation that Iraq had a sales agreement to buy uranium in the form
of yellowcake from Niger, the CIA authorized a trip by former
ambassador Joseph C. Wilson to Niger to investigate the possibility.
Wilson decided that there "was nothing to the story," and presented
his report in March 2002. The Bush Administration ignored this report
and continued to use the yellowcake story as part of its justification
for an impending invasion of Iraq.

After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson, frustrated by the White
House's rejection of his conclusions, wrote a series of articles
questioning its factual basis. In one of these op-eds (published in
the New York Times on July 6, 2003), Wilson argued that President
George Bush, in the State of the Union Address, misrepresented
intelligence leading up to the invasion and suggested that the Iraqi
regime had indeed sought uranium to manufacture nuclear weapons.

According to federal court records, beginning in mid-June 2003, Bush
administration officials discussed with various reporters the
employment of a classified, covert, CIA agent, named Valerie E. Wilson
(Joseph Wilson's wife, oddly enough, who is also known as Valerie
Plame). On July 14, 2003, in a newspaper column, Robert Novak
disclosed Plame's name and status as an "operative" who worked in a
CIA division on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Mrs. Wilson's husband, stated in various interviews and later writings
that his wife's identity was covert and that members of the
administration had knowingly revealed it as retribution for his op-ed
(especially the one entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa", published
in The New York Times on July 6, 2003).

On September 16, 2003 the CIA sent a letter to the US Department of
Justice, stating that Plame's status as a CIA undercover operative was
classified information. They requested a federal investigation. I
should probably mention here that Knowingly leaking the identity of a
covert agent is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities
Protection Act, and the CIA is required by law to report any such
possible criminal violations. If convicted of such an act, one faces
possible charges of treason. It is considered a treasonous act by the
United States Government.

Then Attorney General John Ashcroft referred the matter to the U.S.
Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel, which was directed by
Patrick Fitzgerald, who convened a grand jury. The CIA leak grand jury
investigation resulted in the indictment and conviction of I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, on five
counts of obstruction of justice, perjury, and false statements to the
grand jury and federal investigators.

On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted on four counts of perjury,
obstruction of justice, and making false statements. On June 5, 2007,
he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, a fine of $250,000, and two
years of supervised release after his prison term.

End of story, right? Justice done, right?

Aw, not so fast. We're talking about a member of the Bush Administration.

On July 2, 2007, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence. Libby will
not see one day of his prison term. Following the traditions of his
Presidency, Bush made a statement that generally was met with derision
by everyone but Conservatives.

"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison
sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive," he said in a statement.
"Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that
required him to spend thirty months in prison."

"My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh
punishment for Mr. Libby," Bush continued. "The reputation he gained
through his years of public service and professional work in the legal
community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also
suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines
imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his
felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and
private citizen will be long-lasting."

Okay. I've read this many times. I'm still trying to follow the logic.
What Bush is saying is that if you are a member of his administraiton,
being convicted on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and
making false statements in a Federal investigation, is no big deal.
What is important is not the crimes for which Lewis Libby was
convicted, but that he might suffer because of it.

Ironically, in a recent, almost identical separate case, a former
federal employee and a decorated Vietnam veteran, Victor Rita, was
convicted of lying to a grand jury, making false statements and
committing perjury. He was sentenced to 33 months. President Bush
apparently did not see fit to commute Victor Rita's sentence.
Therefore, one would think Rita's crimes were worse that Libby's,
right? After all, a decorated Vietnam veteran with a 25 year career in
the military would have to do something pretty bad for such a
sentence. Right?

Here's what he did. Rita had made two false statements to a federal
grand jury. The jury was investigating a gun company. Prosecutors
believed that buyers of a kit, called a "PPSH 41 machinegun `parts
kit,'" could assemble a machinegun from the kit, and that the company
had not secured the necessary permits to import machine guns. Rita had
purchased one of the kits and, when he was contacted by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he agreed to let the agent inspect the
kit. But before meeting with the agent, he sent back the kit and,
instead, substituted a kit that did not amount to a machine gun. The
government contended that he lied to the grand jury about his actions
and he was convicted for making false statements and committing perjury.

Wow. That's so much worse than lying to Federal investigators about
who committed treason by revealing the name of a covert CIA agent,
and, worse, who was involved in covering it up (Conservatives, please
note here that this is what we call "sarcasm").

One would think that Bush would commute the sentence of a decorated
Vietnam veteran, since he's in the mood for bypassing the Judicial
system. Sadly, Victor Rita will receive no such consideration from
President Bush. The President is very selective with his compassion.
In his previous political capacity as governor of Texas, Bush showed
none of those on the state's death row the compassion he reserved for
"Scooter" Libby. He sent 150 men and two women to their deaths —
executing the first female in Texas in 100 years, Karla Faye Tucker,
after being petitioned by The Pope to commute her death sentence to
life in prison, and then publicly mocking her plea that he spare her life.

So what makes Lewis "Scooter" Libby so different? Why does he deserve
such special treatment when Bush has been more than willing to let
everyone else swing from the trees?

Oh, come on!

Even worse, the President refused to rule out granting a full pardon
at some point down the road that would wipe Libby's slate completely
clean. Libby still has a $250,000 fine to pay, two years of probation
and can't practice law to help pay for his mountain of legal bills.

"I rule nothing in or nothing out," Bush said, further describing the
commuted sentence as "a very difficult decision."

Does anyone seriously believe that Lewis "Scooter" Libby will have any
trouble making a living? He's now free to be a hero to Bush
administration supporters (who gave $3.5 million to his legal defense
fund and sent almost 200 letters in his favor to the judge in his case).

"He is a hero among many conservatives who feel he was wrongly
prosecuted," George Washington University law Prof. Jonathan Turley
said. "He could be the next Ollie North."

Fred Thompson, unabashed conservative and soon-to-be-declared
Republican presidential candidate, who helped organise a Libby defence
fund, said "I am very happy for Scooter Libby. This will allow a good
American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life."

Poor Scooter. How he has suffered.

Others were not so kind. In regard to Bush's assertion that "I have
concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive,"
the Washington Post pointed out Tuesday that the sentence was anything
but excessive.

"Three of every four people convicted of obstruction of justice have
been sent to prison over the past two years, a total of 283 people,
according to federal judiciary data," the Post reported. "The average
term was more than five years. The largest group of defendants were
sentenced to between 13 and 31 months in prison, exactly where Libby
would have fallen on the charts."

According to Special Counsul Patrick Fitzgerald; "The sentence in this
case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which
occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced
federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then
imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is
fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar
of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the
trial and the sentencing."

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame's covert CIA
status was compromised, starting this whole thing, had a few thoughts
of his own.

"The fact that the president short-circuited our system of justice by
giving Scooter Libby a get-out-of-jail-free card, thereby eliminating
any incentive that he would tell the truth to the prosecutor,
guarantees that there is a cloud of suspicion put over the office of
the president and makes him potentially a suspect in an ongoing
obstruction of justice case," declared Wilson, adding, "This was a
coverup."

Indeed. Anyone who believes that the justice in this issue is not
Lewis "Scooter" Libby being convicted to 30 months in prison for four
counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false
statements, but President Bush commuting Libby's prison sentence, is,
at best, deluded, or worse, a Conservative idealogue who believes that
"Republican" translates to "unerringly moral". Libby was left off of
the hook to remove any incentive he might have to cooperate with
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. With the specter of prison removed, why
would Libby talk?

By commuting Scooter Libby's sentence, President Bush has perhaps laid
to rest the investigation into the "outing" of Valerie Plame's status
as a covert CIA operative. We may never know the details now, unless
at some future date Libby has a sudden upswelling of morality and
decides to clear his conscience.

One has to wonder if on Tuesday night, somewhere in the dark, damp
lair of Vice-President Cheney that's hidden a hale mile underground
beneath the White House, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney
drank a toast to the successful culmination of their campaign to shut
down the investigation into the Plame Affair. One can imagine the
maniacally evil laughter that echoed through the hallways as the
celebrated snatching justice from the grasp of the courts of law. And
one also has to imagine if somewhere in those hallways, a Secret
Service agent looked down at his shoes in shame and shuddered.

- Wicasta Lovelace

http://thewatch.pagancentric.org/index.html