Libby trial pulls back White House curtain Friday, January 26, 2007 By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you. This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish that Cathie Martin served up yesterday, when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Mr. Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: "MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday NBC television show. Under the "pro" column, she wrote: "control message." "I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic we often used," Ms. Martin testified. "It's our best format." It is unclear whether the first week of the trial will help or hurt Mr. Libby or the administration. But the trial has already pulled back the curtain on the White House's PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used. Relatively junior White House aides run roughshod over members of the president's Cabinet. Bush aides charged with speaking to the public and the media are kept out of the loop on some of the most important issues. And bad news is dumped before the weekend for the sole purpose of burying it. With a candor that is frowned upon at the White House, Ms. Martin explained the use of late-Friday statements. "Fewer people pay attention to it late on Friday," she said. "Fewer people pay attention when it's reported on Saturday." Ms. Martin --perhaps unaware of the suspicion that such machinations caused in the press corps -- lamented that her statements at the time were not regarded as credible. She testified that, as the controversy swelled in 2004, reporters ignored her denials and continued to report that it was Mr. Cheney's office that sent former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate allegations of Iraq's nuclear acquisitions. "They're not taking my word for it," she recalled telling a colleague. Ms. Martin, who now works on the president's communications staff, said she was frustrated that reporters wouldn't call for comment as the controversy swelled. She said she had to ask CIA spokesman Bill Harlow which reporters were working on stories about the flap. "Often, reporters would stop calling us," she testified. This prompted quiet chuckles among the two dozen reporters sitting in court to cover the trial. Whispered one: "When was the last time you called the vice president's office and got anything other than a 'no comment'?" At length, Ms. Martin explained how she, Mr. Libby and then-deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley worked late into the night writing a statement to be issued by CIA boss George Tenet in 2004, in which he would take blame for the bogus claim in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Africa. After "delicate" talks, Mr. Tenet agreed to say the CIA "approved" the claim, and "I am responsible" -- but even that disappointed Ms. Martin, who had wanted Mr. Tenet to say, "We did not express any doubt about Niger." During her testimony, Ms. Martin, a Harvard Law School graduate married to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and a close friend of Bush counselor Dan Bartlett, seemed uncomfortable, shifting in her chair, squinting at her interrogators, stealing quick glances at the jury and repeatedly touching her cheek, ear, nose, lips and scalp. Ms. Martin shed light on the mystery of why then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan promised, falsely, that Mr. Libby was not involved in outing CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, the former ambassador's wife. After Mr. McClellan had vouched for Bush strategist Karl Rove's innocence, Mr. Libby asked Ms. Martin, "Why don't they say something about me?" "You need to talk to Scott," Ms. Martin advised. On jurors' monitors were images of Ms. Martin's talking points -- some labeled "on the record," and others "deep background." She walked the jurors through how the White House coddles friendly writers and freezes out others. To deal with the Wilson controversy, she hastily arranged a Cheney lunch with conservative commentators. And when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof first wrote about the Niger affair, she explained, "We didn't see any urgency to get to Kristof" because "he frankly attacked the administration fairly regularly." Under questioning from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Ms. Martin described how Mr. Hadley tried to keep White House spokesmen ignorant about the Niger controversy. But Ms. Martin, encouraged by Mr. Libby, secretly advised the vice president and his top aide on how to respond. She put "Meet the Press" at the top of her list of "Options," but noted that it might appear "too defensive." Next, she proposed "leak to Sanger-Pincus-newsmags. Sit down and give to them." This meant that the "no-leak" White House would give the story to The New York Times' David Sanger, The Washington Post's Walter Pincus or to Time or Newsweek. Option 3: "Press conference -- Condi/Rumsfeld." Option 4: "Op-ed." Ms. Martin was embarrassed about the "leak" option; the case, after all, is about a leak. "It's a term of art," she said. "If you give it to one reporter, they're likelier to write the story." Still, such efforts frequently came to naught. She described a fruitless effort to track down a reporter from Newsweek one weekend. "You didn't have a lot of hands-on experience dealing with the press?" defense attorney Theodore Wells asked. "Correct," Ms. Martin replied, adding: "Few of us in the White House had had hands-on experience with any crisis like this." On Jan 25, 10:11 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-libby26jan26,1,2... > > Aide testifies Cheney helped effort to discredit Wilson > By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer > 5:27 PM PST, January 25, 2007 > > WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney and his former chief of staff, > I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were personally and actively involved in an > effort to spin news coverage and discredit a critic of the Iraq war > even before the fact that his wife was a CIA operative became public, a > senior White House official testified Thursday. > > In the first insider account of how top officials reacted when > questions began to be raised about the intelligence used to justify the > war, Catherine J. Martin said that at one point Cheney dictated a > detailed list of talking points to be used by Libby and others in > making calls to reporters. Martin was Cheney's top media aide at the > time and is now deputy White House director of communications for > policy and planning. > > Martin testified as a prosecution witness at Libby's trial on charges > of obstructing an investigation into how the name of a CIA operative > became public. The operative, Valerie Plame, is the wife of former U.S. > envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson, who had written a government report > questioning White House claims that Iraq had sought nuclear weapons > material from the government of Niger -- a report that the White House > sought to discredit. > > At the time Libby was questioned by federal agents, a grand jury was > investigating how Plame's identity was leaked to reporters. > > Martin said she learned that Plame worked for the CIA after Libby > directed her to call the agency to get more information about a > fact-finding trip Wilson had taken to Niger in February 2002. Martin > said she quickly reported the information about Plame to Libby and > Cheney. > > Martin's statements buttressed the testimony of two former government > officials who said earlier this week that they received urgent calls > from Libby in June 2003 asking about Wilson and the trip. Martin was > the third prosecution witness to tell the jury that she had told Libby > that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA before it was publicly revealed in > a syndicated column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. > > Libby had told federal agents that he had first learned from > journalists that Plame was a CIA agent. > > On the third day of the Libby trial, Martin offered a rare glimpse > behind the secrecy that has surrounded senior officials of the Bush > administration involved in making and managing Iraq war policy. She > described details of a White House media strategy, hatched at the > highest levels, which sought to rebut charges that Bush had misled the > public in his 2003 State of the Union. > > In making the case for war, the president had asserted that Saddam > Hussein was seeking nuclear material in Africa. Wilson had found the > claim baseless and had asserted that Cheney had apparently authorized > his fact-finding mission. > > Martin said Cheney personally dictated talking points to be used in > answering news media questions about Wilson's allegation that he had > authorized a trip to Niger. The talking points included information > from a secret National Intelligence Estimate. > > The vice president ordered media aides to start tracking news coverage > closely, while Libby was directed to contact reporters. > > At one point, Cheney gave a note card to Libby with information to give > to a Time magazine reporter covering the case, while Cheney and Libby > were traveling on Air Force Two on the way back from the christening of > an air craft carrier for Ronald Reagan in Virginia. > > Martin also described how she discussed with Libby media "options" to > rebut Wilson that included a strategic "leak" to a handful of > reporters. > > But Martin said that neither Cheney nor Libby had suggested that the > identity of Plame be divulged as part of the game plan. She said that > she had no knowledge of either actually doing so. > > "I recall the vice president telling me to keep track of this story, > and keep track of the commentators who were continuing to write on this > story and talk about us," Martin testified. "We were paying attention > to 'Hardball' with Chris Matthews because he had been talking about it > a lot." > > She described the reaction inside the administration as questions began > to be raised, starting in May 2003. At that time, The New York Times > described the Wilson trip to Niger but did not name him. The article > said the administration had engaged in a "campaign of wholesale deceit" > and suggested that Cheney was directly involved. > > Martin said that Libby asked her to call the then-chief public affairs > officer at the CIA, William Harlow, to find out about the trip by the > then-mysterious former envoy. > > "So I was saying, 'Who sent him? Who is this guy?' " Martin testified. > "I remember Bill Harlow saying his name was Joe Wilson, he was a charge > in Baghdad, and his wife works over here." Martin said she promptly > went to see Cheney and Libby with the news. > > Wilson published an op-ed in The New York Times on July 6, 2003. The > same day he aired his concerns on the NBC program "Meet the Press." > Almost immediately, Martin said she was huddling again with Cheney > about how to respond to a surge in media inquiries. > > "He dictated to me what he wanted to say," Martin said. The detailed > response covered eight separate points including a reference to a > sensitive intelligence community assessment. Martin testified that she > was "not sure if I could use that point" because she believed at the > time that the report was classified. > > Later, she said she discussed with Cheney and Libby how she had learned > from Harlow that two network reporters were writing stories about the > case, and how Cheney ordered up Libby to call them personally, > including one that he made from his private ante room outside of > Cheney's office. > > "I was aggravated that Scooter was calling the reporters, and that I > wasn't," Martin said. > > The trial is expected to resume Monday with testimony from former White > House press secretary Ari Fleischer. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list