Cheney Orchestrated Public Response to Plame Leak

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 10:11 AM on July 3, 2009.

Cheney orchestrated public response to Plame leak:

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations.

 ...A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department.

And here's more SHOCKING news: Former Bush administration officials assert that the contents must remain secret, and—surprise!—the Obama administration agrees! Hopey changey!

In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

No such agreement was reached between Fitzgerald and Cheney at the time of their chat, according to a 2008 Fitzgerald letter to lawmakers. But the Bush administration rejected requests by Congress and a nonprofit group for access to two FBI accounts of the conversation, saying the material was exempt from disclosure under subpoena or the Freedom of Information Act.

The Obama administration has since agreed that the material should not be disclosed. A Justice Department lawyer at one point last month argued that vice presidents and other White House officials will decline to be interviewed in the future if they know their remarks might "get on 'The Daily Show' " or be used as fodder for political enemies.

Exactly. How can someone who wants to be a leader of the free world be expected to withstand being teased by Jon Stewart?! Oh, the HUMANITY!

I officially quit the world.

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.