The travails of Scooter Libby
By Burton S. Katz / Retired L.A. Superior Court Judge
The United States of America has charged I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby with obstruction of justice, multiple counts of false statements to the FBI and perjury before a federal grand jury. Libby, who resigned following the indictment, was assistant to the president of the United States chief of staff to the vice president of the United States, and assistant to the vice president for national security affairs. In short, Libby was a high-ranking senior government official who possessed the rare power to affect the affairs of state and color the administration’s policies through his words and deeds.
The gravamen of the indictment brought by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald after a 22-month investigation into who leaked information to the media that revealed the identity of an alleged CIA officer Valerie Plame, charges Libby with perjury, making false statements to federal agents and obstruction of justice.
The back-story leading to the alleged illegal disclosure of the CIA agent’s identity provides the sub-text for the disclosure. Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, was a former ambassador and career state department official whom the CIA decided to send to Niger after the office of the vice president asked the agency to investigate an Italian claim that Iraq was trying to purchase “uranium yellowcake” in pursuance of its alleged weapons of mass destruction program. Wilson’s wife, at the behest of the CIA, arranged for his travel to Niger. Wilson purportedly told the CIA that there was no substance to the concerns of the vice president’s office.
When President Bush delivered his State of the Union address in Jan. 2003, he included the claim that “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” This, despite the doubts of the CIA and the fact that the British report was allegedly known to be based on forgeries.
Later that year, columns began to appear alleging that Bush’s allegations were misleading and knowingly based on unreliable facts. As the stories persisted, Libby began his own inquiry into Wilson’s trip to Niger. Libby learned from the CIA that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent. This is classified material to be disclosed only to those officials who are cleared to receive it. Libby was authorized to receive such information and bound by the strictures regarding its disclosure and use.
As charges and counter-charges mounted, pressure was brought to bear on the president and his administration to reveal what they knew about the CIA’s rejection of the claims and when they knew it. Libby took the CIA to task for criticizing the VP’s office. Finally, Joseph Wilson, in an op-ed piece for the Washington Post entitled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” and on “Meet the Press,” denied the claims Bush had made, and implied that the vice president’s office knew of this before Bush had given his State of the Union Address. Well, we know the rest. Reporter Judith Miller of the New York Times and Tim Russert of “Meet the Press” were allegedly informed by Libby that Wilson’s wife was a CIA Agent and Robert Novak “outed” Valerie Plame in his syndicated column.
What is at stake is whether we as a nation should tolerate breaches of special confidence and trust conferred upon privileged and powerful governmental officials; whether such breaches can be smothered by lies and obstructions of justice. Most people are indifferent toward our political process and dismissive of politicians and government officials in general. There is disaffection. This is dangerous to a free society. Dangerous, because it is easy to say “Well, it’s just politics as usual,” and ignore the fact that our whole justice system is bottomed on the assumption that the “truth” shall establish the facts that lead us to justice. The truth we seek is objective, not relative. This is what differentiates us from totalitarian societies.
I admit the truth is not always co-terminus with justice. Nevertheless, we need to know the truth before we can know what to do. Without the truth as a compass, we are just a society aimlessly floating upon a barge of lies and special interests content to accede to the cynical observation of H.G. Wells in “The Time Machine,” that “the Social Contract is nothing more or less than a vast conspiracy of human beings to lie to …one another for the general Good…” Do we agree, as Wells says, “Lies are the mortar that bind the savage individual man into the social masonry”? That’s too cynical for me.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re Republican, Democrat or Independent. What matters is that we have one law and one truth for all, including Scooter Libby. Daniel Webster told Justice Story, “Justice, sir, is the greatest interest of man on earth.” Justice without truth is not justice. Without the facts, we are the Queen of Hearts.