Scooter Libby and the CIA Leak Scandal
By Colman McCarthy
In case you’re given to fretting about major world issues, stay calm. Scooter Libby appears to be holding up well. He has been striding purposively into the U.S. District Court in Washington where he faces five counts of felony perjury. His brow is unfurrowed. Sometimes he smiles. With his lawyer on one side and his sticking-with-my-man wife on the other, Libby looks and strides like a man confident he’ll beat the rap.
This is the CIA leak case, a long time coming but finally here. Libby was not the leaker but is being prosecuted for lying to federal agents and a grand jury that he did not discuss covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson with reporters. Libby’s lawyers are going with “the faulty memory” defense: Scooter was so enmeshed in the grand matters of statecraft while serving as chief of staff to the statesman Dick Cheney that he couldn’t recall random chats about Mrs. Wilson’s employment status.
Early in the trial, which began in late January, tipsheets offered several possible outcomes. (1) The jury will sympathize with Libby and let him walk. Scooter will scoot to Fox News to host a talk show. (2) Libby will be found guilty, based on the testimony of White House staff people and reporters who contradicted his claims of not fingering Mrs. Wilson. (3) Lawyers for the guilty Libby will appeal but will lose. By then it will be the last days of the Bush administration and W will issue a full pardon to Libby. The national interest demands it, W will say.
Take your pick.
What’s not uncertain is that all this could have been avoided had Robert Novak not exposed Valerie Plame as a CIA intelligence officer in a July 2003 newspaper column. It was a totally needless mention.
Novak received the information from Richard Armitage, then a deputy secretary of state. Armitage has expressed deep regret and apologies for passing Mrs. Wilson’s name to Novak. As a dismal result of the Novak outing, Mrs. Wilson’s cover was blown, her government career was over, and she and her family put at risk. Throwing chum into the political waters, Novak kept publicly mum as prosecutors, judges and much of the media went fishing for the leaker.
With all due disrespect, few media personalities are as scummy as Novak—even discounting his fellow Catholic, Bill O’Reilly. “Media personality” is the right term for Novak rather than what, in oceanic self-regard, he likes to call himself: reporter and journalist.
Novak has long specialized in the lowest form of journalism: taking dictation from vested interests, the farther on the right the better. Want to slam a liberal? Have a grudge against a left-leaning judge? Want to hype a bill in Congress that benefits the rich? Need a smear job? Have a rumor you want spread?
Call Novak, he’s your guy.
A humorless rightwing bully, Novak became a personality on CNN’s “Crossfire,” beating the brows of anyone daring to disagree with his brand of Republicanism. He finished his days at CNN by stomping off the set during a broadcast, spewing a vulgarity at his co-host. Not surprisingly, Fox picked him up—giving him a perch with other agenda-driven pseudo-journalists.
The mystery in all this is why newspapers ran Novak’s column that violated Mrs. Wilson’s rights. Great harm was done to her, both personally and professionally. It was in keeping with Novak’s low standards that he would willingly hurt someone. Less understandable is the complicity of the newspapers, including The Chicago Sun Times and Washington Post, to give him a forum. Perhaps Novak is less the problem than his client newspapers: You don’t blame a pig for grunting, you blame the farmer for calling it music.