Summer's End

Well, Summertime's about left us. I'm done with my summer activities and look forward to putting up a new blog post either later this week or sometime next week. This has become one busy summer. Hope everyone enjoyed it!

Finally!

Well, as you may have heard by now, it's over. President Bush has finally granted clemency to Scooter Libby. He no longer has to serve the unjust prison sentence for doing nothing, left with only the fine and probation period. Of course, nothing President Bush does is good in the eyes of the Democrats, so here's you a link to all the things many people have said about it. While some in this article are happy about it, it looks like every single Democrat mentioned absolutely abhors it. Whodathunkit? Here it is.

Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury a while back because he made a few questionable statements as to where he heard Valerie Plame's name. That's it. Maybe before the real leaker, Richard Armitage, was revealed, this might have been a serious case of a cover up. But they continued to press on even after finding out who it was that exposed Valerie Plame. But I'm left to wonder a few things.

• The source of the leak may have been known to some officials in 2003. The Special Prosecutor knew when he was assigned that Armitage was the leaker, yet pressed on. Why? Another thing, has Armitage been punished yet for his crimes? I've not heard of anything nor have I found anything yet on the internet.
  
• Also, was Plame a "covert agent?" Looking at the definition here (covert agent is defined at the bottom), I don't think so. Unless my memory is ill-serving, she did not work overseas, and was not working with FBI in counter-terrorism or counter-surveillance. I'm fairly confident that covert and classified are different statuses.
  
• And: Scooter Libby got convicted for perjury for (probably inadvertently) saying the wrong name as to where he heard Plame's name. Plame testified that she was covert. If she does not meet that definition, where's the perjury charge?

There are some other things I'm left to wonder. There are some things I'm unsure of, as I've noted throughout this entry, but I am fairly sure of one thing. Scooter Libby was the wrong person to convict in this case. Is role in the leak was irrelevant and should have never came to trial and he should have never been convicted. But there are others that probably should have.