Cheney Dodged FBI With 72 ‘No Recalls’

As vice president, Dick Cheney told criminal investigators 72 times that he could not recall his role in the outing of an covert CIA agent, according to a newly released FBI report.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — As vice president, Dick Cheney told criminal investigators 72 times that he could not recall his role in the outing of an covert CIA agent, according to a newly released FBI report.

A 28-page FBI summary of the 2004 interview shined light on what the federal prosecutor described as “a cloud over the vice president” in the case involving the Valerie Plame affair.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said “we’re one step closer” to understanding Cheney’s role.

Evidence already exists connecting Cheney to the leak of Plame’s CIA identity; his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby wrote handwritten notes referencing Plame and the CIA.

However, when Libby asked his boss about them in late September 2003 before handing over the notes to the FBI investigators, Cheney responded, “From me?” according to Libby’s federal grand jury testimony.

But according to the newly released FBI summery, Cheney told a different story to investigators: “the vice president has no specific recollection of such a conversation.”

Plame’s name was published in a column by Robert Novak in July 2003.

The leak of Plame’s identity was widely seen as to silence her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for reporting that the White House’s claims that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was making weapons of mass destruction from materials imported from Niger.

Libby was convicted for perjury, obstruction, and lying to the FBI.

While Libby’s 30-month prison sentence was commuted, Cheney prefered that his former staff member recieve a full pardon.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued under the Freedom of Information Act to have the FBI summery released.

INFO

www.citizensforethics.org