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Posted on June 28, 2007
By Greg Rushford
It is tempting to
portray the convicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as the Paris
Hilton of the Republican right -- someone simply too special to serve
time. But unlike Hilton, Scooter Libby has not devoted his life to frivolous
pursuits. And of course, Hilton is out of the slam, while Libby hasn't
yet been outfitted in Prison Orange (and, depending upon the results of
a pending legal appeal for a delay while the appeals process works its
way through the courts, and a possible presidential pardon or commutation
of sentence, may never have to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons.)
Much of the recent press coverage of Libby's plight, like the naughty
Hilton's, presents politics as gleeful soap opera: entertaining, but hardly
illuminating.
As chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney and as assistant to
President George W. Bush -- the same rank as the president's national
security adviser -- Libby operated at the intersection of worlds that
are rarely connected in one sentence, except perhaps in spy novels: secret
diplomacy, military operations, international trade and finance, and intelligence.
Until his prosecution and conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice
in the Valerie Plame affair, Libby was one of the most important behind-the-scenes
operatives in Washington. Hence it is instructive to reflect a bit on
Libby's connections to the secretive world of Dick Cheney.
Before taking a closer look at some of the key members of the influential
Scooter Libby support network, let's first take a reality check concerning
this question: Why would former senior U.S. military and intelligence
officials, including the present chairman of the joint chiefs of staff
and his immediate predecessor in the Pentagon, and such former senior
CIA officials as Jim Woolsey, along with other former senior U.S. intelligence
and national security officials, have come to the defense of a man who
has been linked to the outing of an CIA undercover operative? After all,
Valerie Plame's career was wrecked, not to mention the prospect that lives
of members of her previous secret spy networks were put in peril after
veteran Washington journalist Robert Novak revealed Plame's identity in
a July, 2003 syndicated column. That's certainly the position of former
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet. "I was angered that
someone, whether intentionally or not, blew the cover of one of our officers,"
Tenet writes in his recently published memoirs, At the Center of the Storm.
Some cover. Tenet goes on to say that reporter Novak called the CIA's
press office before he published his column -- and that spokesman Bill
Harlow confirmed Plame's identity to Novak, although he asked (weakly,
it appears, over an open line) that her name not be published. Although
the CIA has taken the position in the Libby litigation that Langley regarded
Plame as "a covert CIA operative" with a classified identity,
this message certainly didn't seem to seep through to the press office.
This is extraordinary. When I was an investigator for the House Select
Committee on Intelligence in its CIA probes in the mid-1970s, I can relate
with absolute confidence that it would have been unthinkable -- unthinkable!--
for a spokesman for then CIA Director William Colby to have broken the
cover of anyone who was truly undercover. I met CIA officers who were
really undercover and who were introduced with their cover names; it wouldn't
have occurred to me to ask their real names. Such people are truly secret,
and for good reason. If Valerie Plame really had cover, it was surely
sloppy cover -- and it is indeed scandalous that the agency's top press
office felt free to discuss her, on any level, with a journalist. But
instead of being held accountable for his indiscretion, Harlow went on
to help Tenet write his book.
Full disclosure: I'm no supporter of Scooter Libby's policy ideas, especially
his dubious linkage of Sept. 11 to Iraq, not even close. But Libby had
nothing to do with the Novak column. Libby was never charged with misusing
classified information, or with violating the terms of the Intelligence
Identities Protection Act, or the espionage statute. No evidence has surfaced
that Libby had any reason to know that Plame was "covert" or
not. Moreover, some critics -- the journalistic partisan Sidney Blumenthal
comes immediately to mind -- who found ways to rationalize Bill Clinton's
lying under oath, are now crying crocodile tears that Libby also lied
in a phone call with television pundit Tim Russert about when he learned
that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA.
Having noted the above, interesting questions remain about the influential
network of Libby supporters that has surfaced in connection with the prosecution.
It will take years for journalists and historians to peel back the layers
of this world, in search for information about how the most secretive
White House in memory operated. But at least here is a beginning.
One can ask why the joint chief's current chairman, Marine Corps Gen.
Peter Pace, would write to U.S. Judge Reggie Walton to support a convicted
perjurer like Libby, as did Pace's predecessor, Air Force Gen. Richard
Myers. Is this evidence that Pace -- who was trying, unsuccessfully as
it turned out, to avoid being fired by Defense Secretary Robert Gates
-- and Myers were as politically compliant to the Bush White House as
their critics have alleged? Or is it a sign that the generals honestly
believed in Libby's policies?
Former CIA Director Woolsey and other prominent members of the Libby support
network who have written to Judge Walton, have worked together for years.
Woolsey, Midge Decter, Francis Fukuyama, and Richard Perle were among
the signatories of a joint letter to President Bush on Sept. 20, 2001
for the Project for the New American Century. In their letter, the neo-cons
argued that "it may be that the Iraqi government provided assistance
in some form to the recent attack on the United States" on Sept.
11. Even if the evidence turned out otherwise, the letter continued, Saddam
Hussein should be removed from power anyway.
But when it turned out that the intelligence did turn out otherwise, Libby
and the vice president never leveled with the American public. Did they
fool themselves as well? Why didn't George Tenet, who in 2003 was embroiled
in internal bureaucratic warfare with the Vice President's office that
he feared might cost him his job, speak out at the time?
Whatever one's opinion of how Libby stretched the facts beyond what the
CIA's intelligence was reporting, some of the former senior U.S. Intelligence
officials who wrote to Judge Walton in Libby's support cannot be dismissed
so lightly. Among them was a retired CIA officer named Fritz Ermarth,
who served in the agency for roughly 25 years. When I was a young congressional
aide, I remember how Ermarth, then a young a Soviet specialist, was regarded
as one of the most promising -- and honest -- analysts at Langley, a man
who would never confuse policy spin with intelligence reporting. True
to the predictions, Ermarth rose in the ranks to high positions of trust;
in the late 1980s he was chairman of the National Intelligence Council
when Libby worked for then Defense Secretary Cheney at the Pentagon. In
his letter to the judge, Ermarth declared that the Libby he knows "could
never intentionally misrepresent his recollections to investigators, much
less lie under oath, especially for the supposed aim of protecting his
job where he knew there was no underlying crime." Ermarth's letter
strikes a chord of caution for critics who are now demonizing Libby's
entire career.
To be sure, other Libby supporters are easier to dismiss. Henry Kissinger
surely was no paragon of truth-telling when he served in the Nixon and
Ford administrations. And when criticizing Libby and Cheney, the name
Paul Wolfowitz, who is now leaving the presidency of the World Bank in
disgrace, usually is mentioned high up in any article about the Libby
support network. Fair enough. But how to explain the fact that former
World Bank President James Wolfensohn also wrote to Judge Walton to praise
Libby? "On several occasions I needed to meet with the Vice President
to discuss with him the contributions of the United States to the World
Bank and to explain the broad range of activities of that institution,"
Wolfensohn wrote. "My meetings with the Vice President were always
constructive and I must say that it was the preparation by Scooter than
I think helped both the spirit and the outcome of those meetings."
Was Wolfensohn merely paying back favors done? Or should his letter be
taken at face value?
Gary Edson, a veteran
U.S. trade official who has served the current Bush administration as
Deputy Assistant to the president for international economic affairs,
wrote to the judge to relate that he has known Libby very well for about
25 years. Once, when Edson's father "needed business advice regarding
entering certain foreign markets, Scooter generously arranged several
meetings with my father and his companies' leaders on a purely pro bono
basis to give his advice and judgment," Edson wrote. "It turned
out to be extremely helpful." Evidence of a generous man, or another
example of how in Washington, networkers take care of their own?
Perhaps the most interesting resident of Libby's world is an Israeli-born
naturalized American citizen named Ari Genger. The New York-based Genger
-- who is currently chairman of Trans-Resources, Inc., the parent company
of a group of companies in fertilizers and chemicals -- had a legitimate
day job as an international businessman. But Genger also had a secret
life in 2002 and 2003. "Shortly after Mr. Ariel Sharon was elected
to his first term as Israel Prime Minister, he has asked me to fulfill
the role of a private confidential channel between him and the then Secretary
of State Colin Powell and the White House," Genger informed Judge
Walton. "It is during that period that among other high U.S. government
officials, I met Mr. Scooter Libby."
Genger went on to tell the judge about how he worked with Libby to come
up with a strategy to deal with terrorist issues, including "active
military campaigns by the Israeli defense forces targeted at the terrorists
operating out of the Arab territories, as well as taking protective steps
by imposing various restrictive measures in Arab civilian towns and on
Arab civilian movement."
Genger added that he had been struck by Libby's humanity: "His meticulous
efforts with regard to issues concerning the prevention of loss of innocent
lives and human suffering on both sides, was remarkable. I was surprised
in many discussions we had at the length of time that Scooter was allocating
to the human issues, and the in-depth questions he had on matters regarding
the human tragedy aspect of the conflict. He had a sincere determination
to seek alternative new ways to bring about a reduction to the civilian
casualties and suffering on both sides of the conflict."
Whatever we are to make of this, at this stage of the soap opera, it is
at least clear that Scooter Libby is no Paris Hilton, who the other day
told CNN's Larry King that her jail time had changed her, although that
as an Aquarius she was "social people." (Libby's sign is harder
to read. He's a Leo, and Leo's are "open and honest." Born one
day after August 22, 1950 and Libby would have been a Virgo. Virgos "love
working behind the scenes," according to astrological sources.)
Perhaps, like previous White House operatives who have come out of jail
better people with important stories to tell -- John Dean and John Erlichman
come to mind in the Nixon era -- Libby will write good books after his
legal difficulties are over. It might be too much to expect a tell-all
book of what it was like, living in Dick Cheney's secret world. But for
sure, Scooter Libby, who has already written one book of fiction, has
got to have a good spy novel in him.
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