Unfettered Letters

Libby-Plame case

Regarding the Libby trial: E. Thomas McClanahan has done his homework. Matt Nelson (7/12, Letters) has not. Plame referred to herself as "covert" during her sworn testimony. But when asked if she was protected under the law, she truthfully answered no. Legal analysts agree that if she is not covered under the law, no law was broken and there is no underlying crime to punish. During her testimony, Victoria Toensing, who helped write the law, said flatly, "She was not covert under the law."

If you study the timeline of this investigation, you learn that Libby was not the source of exposing Plame's name. Richard Armitage gossiped with both Robert Novak and Bob Woodward. Novak was the first journalist to use her name in a public venue. The people that Libby talked to either did not write an article using Plame's name or did so after the Novak article. So if you want to put somebody in jail for exposing Plame's name, the buck stops at Armitage, not Libby.

Dick Crump
Olathe

Libby verdict

Lessons from Libby verdict

President Bush’s approval rating is 33 percent, six out of 10 Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq, and Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, was convicted in the CIA leak case.

The Libby verdict casts a dark shadow on an already beleaguered White House and further questions the Bush administration’s use of flawed intelligence to make its case for invading Iraq.

Although Libby obstructed justice and lied under oath, the trial revealed that Libby was the “fall guy” for Cheney, who asked Bush to declassify an intelligence report so that Libby could leak it to the press. If Cheney had one shred of decency, he would resign.

Evidence in the Libby trial disclosed the Bush administration’s continued policy of corruption, secrecy and deception. This is another black eye for the White House, which has lost credibility at home and around the world.

Jane Toliver
Leawood

Regarding “Crimes catch up with Libby” (3/7 editorial) and your comment, “The country is left to wonder how President Bush and Vice President Cheney could have entrusted a man like Libby with so much authority”: I believe the country’s wonder is how they were conned into electing Bush and Cheney. Libby lied to protect Cheney; that was his job.

Bush and Cheney cannot be believed or trusted.

Ralph T. Whiteside
Leawood

Democrats show hypocrisy

The hypocrisy from the Democrats never ceases to amaze me.

All the talk on the Hill is about the possible pardon of Lewis “Scooter” Libby and how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is demanding that President Bush pledge not to pardon Libby.

When Harry Reid is the president of the United States, he can then decide who does and does not get a pardon.

When William “Slick Willy” Clinton left office, he pardoned over 100 people. This list included people that were convicted of tax evasion, cocaine trafficking, securities fraud, mail fraud, counterfeiting, firearms violation, armed robbery, racketeering and many other crimes. This list can be found at www.usdoj.gov/pardon/clintonpardon_grants.htm.

Reid needs to worry about the legislative branch that he is a part of and not the executive branch.

Kirk Stanford
Lee’s Summit

Armitage, Plame case

So now that the Valerie Plame case has ended (9/2, A-2, “Plame case resurfaces: Richard Armitage is the focus of a new book that produces allegations of betrayal and criticism”) and we know that the Bush administration had nothing to do with the outing of her CIA identity — as it has honestly claimed all along — where are the apologies to Bush and Karl Rove, and where is the dismissal of charges against Lewis “Scooter” Libby?

More to the point, where is the redirection of the investigation? Where are the charges against Armitage (the real culprit, whose identity, as it turns out, was known the entire time by the investigator) for this formerly heinous crime against Plame?

The liberal press hates Bush and will do anything to get him, but when he’s proven to be right and had nothing to do with the charges, a three-year investigation becomes “never mind.” The liberal press has no principles other than hate for Bush.

Dave King
Kansas City

Diuguid column

Now that Lewis Diuguid has exposed the hidden racism of Boulevard Beer (Pale Ale being an obvious reference to one’s skin color), it looks like he is back to his usual subject: why President Bush in particular and Republicans in general are to blame for everything (7/19, Opinion, “Voters should steer to the left to put America back on course”).

As usual it’s little more than a laundry list of perceived errors and disproved accusations:

Karl Rove leaking Valerie Plame’s name: Not true, says Robert Novak, the columnist who wrote the story in the first place.

Rampant corruption in the administration: In six years only one person, Scooter Libby, has been indicted.

Gasoline price gouging: No charges have been filed after an in-depth investigation.

Surveillance of Americans: Perfectly legal, say the courts.

The economy doesn’t “feel” rosy: Pardon me for believing what every measurable economic statistic says (huge number of jobs created, little to no inflation, strong growth quarter after quarter) and not Mr. Diuguid’s feelings.

I don’t care if Mr. Diuguid gets his political ideology from a bumper sticker, the DailyKos or the Easter Bunny, but he should at least be able to get his facts right.

Connor Buchanan
Kansas City

Lewis Diuguid advises voters to “Turn Left at the Next Election,” a slogan he picked up from a car bumper sticker. This is dangerous advice.

Everyone knows that left turns are more dangerous than right turns.

It is OK to turn left, but if you stay on that course too long before turning back to the right you will experience “fender benders” and end up like France and Germany with an 18 percent to 20 percent unemployment rates, dependent on someone else for national security.

If you keep going left without turning back to the right, you will end up a total wreck like Cuba and North Korea.

Keep driving on the right side of the road, not on the left, and make as few of those dangerous left turns as possible. And I always remember what my mama told me: “Son, don’t drive down the middle of the road, or you will get hit from both sides.”

Dillon Gaulding
Overland Park

Source of intelligence leak

Suppose President Bush is telling the truth that he really did declassify the intelligence information while authorizing Scooter Libby to leak it. Then what plausible explanation is there for Libby to hide the fact that he was the leak source? By hiding it, he became the subject of an indictment investigation. If the supposition is true, then I can think of no logical explanation whatsoever for Libby's actions.

The only logical conclusion is that he hid the leak source because the information was still classified and he was trying to protect his bosses.

The Bush spin/lie team probably will once again save the day with the declassification claim.

John Dean
Shawnee

Regarding President Bush being the ultimate leak: Didn't his mother ever tell him that just because you can doesn't mean you should?

Susan Schank
Parkville

Source of intelligence leak

Suppose President Bush is telling the truth that he really did declassify the intelligence information while authorizing Scooter Libby to leak it. Then what plausible explanation is there for Libby to hide the fact that he was the leak source? By hiding it, he became the subject of an indictment investigation. If the supposition is true, then I can think of no logical explanation whatsoever for Libby's actions.

The only logical conclusion is that he hid the leak source because the information was still classified and he was trying to protect his bosses.

The Bush spin/lie team probably will once again save the day with the declassification claim.

John Dean
Shawnee

Regarding President Bush being the ultimate leak: Didn't his mother ever tell him that just because you can doesn't mean you should?

Susan Schank
Parkville

A matter of (dis)trust

The president is asking us to take his word that the government is spying only on terrorists. Yet it seems to me that he and the vice president have all but called this nation's war critics terrorists.

I can well imagine the administration spying on everyone from political opponents to war critics to outspoken members of the media. I can't imagine a judge approving any surveillance of such people.

This administration for years harbored someone who exposed a CIA agent. I don't think it is too much to ask that they now demonstrate that they are acting in good faith by retroactively getting approval - in accordance with the law of the land - for their spying.

Dan Carmack
Liberty, Mo.

Leaks are different

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (11/9, A-5) has demanded an investigation into the leak of classified information about secret detention centers in other countries where prisoners are being held. The poor man just doesn’t get it.

If what he is after is payback for the Valerie Plame scandal, someone needs to explain this to him: A manipulative leak that exposes a CIA operative is not the same as blowing the whistle on continued prisoner abuse that is illegal and immoral. As in the Terri Schiavo debacle, Frist is misjudging public opinion.

I remember the scene in “A Clockwork Orange” in which the violent protagonist’s punishment was having his eyes clamped open, forcing him to watch violent acts over and over again until he could no longer tolerate them. I would like Frist to have to repeatedly watch the torture that has been perpetrated on scores of foreign prisoners during this administration’s watch.

Maybe then he would finally get it: The majority of Americans once felt proud to be on the moral high ground. Many or most are now ashamed of what the rest of the world thinks of us.

Judy Stoddard
Kansas City

Misplaced priorities

Our president is going to spend a zillion dollars to protect us from the pandemic of avian flu, which has killed 60 folks — in Asia — since 2002.

Scientists have just announced a major breakthrough toward a cure for cervical cancer. Several groups are marching to oppose this. That’s because not only might it cure cervical cancer, it might also prevent pregnancy. Supposedly this would encourage young girls to have sex — as if God-given hormones aren’t already doing that.

Our government has just announced billions more to update our national hurricane warning system, which consistently gives at least one week’s notice to all targets even remotely in jeopardy. It’s not the warning; it’s the rescue, stupid.

Locally, our community colleges are being given millions to construct “tornado rooms.” If there is a tornado that can hurt these fortresses, the rest of us are surely doomed.

The only thing that has made sense in recent days is President Bush’s nomination of the rightest of all right-wingers to the Supreme Court. He undoubtedly hopes this will distract us from Scooter Libby, Iraq, torture, etc.

Welcome to the Ministry of Truth, 1984.

Joseph H. Moore
Kansas City

Why would he lie?

One question keeps gnawing at me. Why would Lewis Libby, a successful and politically astute attorney, lie to a grand jury? It doesn’t make sense.

Although I watched Patrick Fitzgerald’s recent press conference, it didn’t come to me until I read the printed transcript. Near the end he stated that he had his indictment ready in October of 2004, but because Libby had testified that he had gotten his Plame information from reporters, he couldn’t wind it up until this summer.

So I can’t help wondering if he lied intentionally with the hope of delaying the case until after his bosses were re-elected. I guess we won’t know until the case goes to trial. If he’s convicted, I’ll bet there’s a big, fat presidential pardon waiting for him.

Martha Taylor
Shawnee