Will NY TIMES Report What They Learned about CHENEY CRIMES or cave in again??

Times: What we learned from Libby trial about the secretive operation of Vice President Dick Cheney RAW STORY
Published: Sunday February 18, 2007

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(Editor’s note at bottom: Times puts ’hold’ on Cheney story)

Monday’s New York Times contains an article which will tie together some of the revelations that resulted from testimony at the trial for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to investigators probing the alleged leaking of a CIA operative’s name to journalists, and his defense rested its case last week, without calling his former boss, Cheney, to the stand, as had been widely speculated. Libby didn’t testify in his own behalf, either.

"What we learned from the Libby trial about the inner workings of the White House, especially the secretive operation of Vice President Dick Cheney," Jim Rutenberg and Scott Shane’s article will detail, according to an early budget received by RAW STORY.

"The story will focus mostly on one crucial week in early July 2003," the budget continues.

On Sunday, the LA Times noted that Cheney was leaving for Asia on Monday for a week long trip, "and many people in Washington are wondering if he might be grateful for an excuse to high-tail it out of town."

"The past few weeks have not been kind to the vice president — or at least to his public image," Maura Reynolds and James Gerstenzang wrote on Sunday.

The article continued, "This month, a close ally was dressed down by the Pentagon inspector general for skewing intelligence before the Iraq war. The trial of his former chief of staff has depicted the vice president’s office as a center of underhanded intrigue. And last week’s announcement of a nuclear agreement with North Korea appears to be a repudiation of Cheney’s long-term opposition to a deal."

"Those events, culminating months of bad news for the conservative wing of the Republican Party, have prompted speculation that the once-formidable vice president — the most powerful in American history — has become a spent force," Reynolds and Gerstenzang wrote.

Also on Sunday, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff took a look at the CIA leaker "you’ve never heard of." Testifying on the stand as a defense witness at former White House aide I. Lewis Libby’s hearing, columnist Robert Novak said that he was not only told by his friend, conservative lobbyist Richard F. Hohlt, that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, but that he also allowed him to "vet" his notorious July of 2003 column.

Newsweek reports that Hohlt even ’leaked’ Novak’s "outing" column directly to President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, before it had been published.

When asked by Libby’s attorney who Hohlt was, Novak replied on the stand that Hohlt was "a very good source" of his that he speaks to "every day."

"Indeed, Hohlt is such a good source that after Novak finished his column naming Plame, he testified, he did something most journalists rarely do: he gave the lobbyist an advance copy of his column," Michael Isikoff reports for Newsweek. "What Novak didn’t tell the jury is what the lobbyist then did with it: Hohlt confirmed to NEWSWEEK that he faxed the forthcoming column to their mutual friend Karl Rove (one of Novak’s sources for the Plame leak), thereby giving the White House a heads up on the bombshell to come."

Cheney story ’held’ by Times
Although multiple budgets indicated that the Cheney story would run in Monday’s edition, an additional budget was released after the final one which indicated that the story was being "held," although for unexplained reasons.

A note from the Times editors said that another article about Sunni lands in Iraq showing oil and gas promise was moved to the front page instead.

While it’s still possible that the Cheney story will be published online late Sunday night along with Monday’s paper, it may be "held" until Tuesday’s edition or later, assuming it will still run.