From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: January 26, 2007 5:32:45 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SPY NEWS] CIA Staffer Says He Warned Cheney, Libby of
Leak's Danger
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.nysun.com/article/47343
CIA Staffer Says He Warned Cheney, Libby of Leak's Danger
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 25, 2007
WASHINGTON — A CIA employee who gave regular intelligence briefings to
Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr.,
testified yesterday that shortly after the leak of a CIA operative's
identity, the pair was given a stark warning that the leak could lead
to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering
abroad.
"I thought there was a very grave danger to leaking the name of a CIA
officer," the briefer from Langley, Craig Schmall, said he told
Messrs. Cheney and Libby during a morning session at the vice
president's residence. "Foreign intelligence services where she served
now have the opportunity to investigate everyone whom she had come in
contact with. They could be arrested, tortured, or killed."
The testimony came in federal court yesterday at Mr. Libby's trial on
criminal charges that he obstructed an investigation to the leak to
the press of the identity of the CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Since
Mr. Schmall said his warning followed the leak, it did not suggest
that Mr. Libby was given advance notice of the possible consequences
of confirming Ms. Plame's identity to reporters, as prosecutors
contend Mr. Libby did.
However, the talk of the possibility of people being killed as a
result of the leak could have an impact on the jury, and it offers
another possible motive for why Mr. Libby allegedly scrambled to
concoct a story about having thought he learned of Ms. Plame's
identity in the first instance from journalists, and not his
colleagues in government.
Evidence put before the jury yesterday suggested that Mr. Schmall was
one of those officials who discussed Ms. Plame with Mr. Libby before
Robert Novak disclosed her identity in a syndicated column published
on July 14, 2003.
In 2002, the CIA sent a former ambassador who is Ms. Plame's husband,
Joseph Wilson IV, to Africa to investigate reports that Iraq had
sought to buy uranium there. Mr. Schmall's notes of a briefing he gave
Mr. Libby on June 14, 2003, reflect a discussion about the couple and
the trip. Two days before that briefing, the Washington Post published
an article that did not name Ms. Plame or her husband, but mentioned
the trip and said it took place at the instigation of the vice
president's office.
"Why was the ambassador told this was a VP office question? Joe Wilson
Valerie Wilson," Mr. Schmall's notation reads. Despite his handwriting
on a table of contents for Mr. Libby's intelligence briefing that day,
the CIA briefer said he had "no recall" of discussing the subject of
the Wilsons with Mr. Libby on that occasion.
Attorneys for Mr. Libby scored significant points by winning
concessions from all three of yesterday's prosecution witnesses that
their memories of events key to the case had changed over time.
It is a time-honored defense tactic to question witnesses about
inconsistencies between their courtroom testimony and prior statements
they may have given to investigators or a grand jury.
However, the changes in recollection take on more weight in Mr.
Libby's case because part of his defense is that any misstatements he
may have made to the FBI or the grand jury were simple mistakes
brought on by faulty memory and overwork.
Judge Reggie Walton denied a defense request to call a scientific
expert on memory lapses, so the defense team is intent on
demonstrating the same point by highlighting the less-than-perfect
recollection of each witness called by the prosecution.
On the receiving end of the most intense memory-related questioning
yesterday was a former CIA official who oversaw the agency's
Iraq-related work and often attended meetings with Mr. Libby at the
White House, Robert Grenier.
Prosecutors called Mr. Grenier to testify that, four days before Ms.
Plame's name was published, he told Mr. Libby during a telephone
conversation that Mr. Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. Mr. Grenier
said the conversation was a response to questions Mr. Libby had posed
about how Mr. Wilson's trip was arranged and why reporters were
claiming that it took place at Mr. Cheney's behest.
"I recall having briefly felt guilty that I said too much," Mr.
Grenier said. Asked what he felt bad about, the ex-officer said,
"Specifically, having noted that Mr. Wilson's wife worked in the CIA.
That's in effect revealing the identity of an agency officer."
While that account could undermine Mr. Libby's claim to the FBI and
the grand jury that he thought he learned about Ms. Plame from a
journalist, the defense pointed out that Mr. Grenier did not relate
that in his initial discussions with investigators or the grand jury.
"Your memory grew? You had a growing conviction?" a defense lawyer,
Theodore Wells Jr., asked skeptically.
"I was saying what I believe to be true at the time and subsequently,"
Mr. Grenier responded.
"Do you find that your memory gets better the more time away from an
event you are?" Mr. Wells asked.
"It depends," Mr. Grenier replied.
The testimony from the 27-year CIA veteran also provided ample
evidence of the tension and mistrust between the agency and Mr.
Cheney's office in 2003 as questions loomed about why stocks of
weapons of mass destruction had not been found in Iraq.
Mr. Grenier said he had a "strong suspicion" that White House
officials leaked information to the Post as part of "an attempt to
place blame for not having warned" the White House about Mr. Wilson's
conclusion that Iraq did not attempt to procure uranium from Niger.
The CIA official said he never read the details of Mr. Wilson's
findings but did not see how they could have been definitive.
In a lighter moment, Mr. Schmall said the reason he remembered his
June 14, 2003, briefing was that Mr. Libby was "excited" about a
meeting the White House aide had that morning with a celebrity couple,
Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. "Tom Cruise was there to talk about how
Germany treats Scientologists," the CIA briefer said to tittering in
the courtroom.
The trial was suspended for about 10 minutes as the high-level legal
talent scoured the witness box and counsel tables looking for Mr.
Grenier's eyeglasses, which went missing as he was on the stand. Mr.
Wells joked that his client might be charged with stealing the
spectacles.
Mr. Fitzgerald, who is known as a dogged investigator, said there were
limits to what he would do to find Mr. Grenier's eyewear. "I ain't
patting him down," the prosecutor said. "We're hands on, but we ain't
that hands on."
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