"And so here we are. No crime was committed BEFORE the investigation, so he indicts someone on five charges (?) for statements made in the course of the investigation.

See above.

This post is actually full of lies including:
“You don't need to empanel a grand jury to decide if Valerie Plame was a covert agent, or if any of the various national security laws were broken.

Right. Obviously they should have just hired that blogger. Actually, Bush should probably nominate him to the Supreme Court!

and...“This question could have been, and should have been, answered in the first month of legal investigation, using no greater investigative resources than a law library.”

Alrighty then! Who needs courts? Dissolve them all, I say.

Wanker.

“And during those two years he's had people in jail for contempt and questioned many witnesses before the grand jury.”

“People”? Judith Miller is “people”?

Daily Pundit:

"Joesph [sic] Wilson and his wife should be investigated for “how a CIA employee manipulated the system into sending her obviously unqualified husband on a junket at taxpayer's expense with the apparent goal of attacking the President in whose administration she ostensibly worked.”

Obviously. Why hasn’t anyone thought of that one before??

The NYT:

"Headline: Novel Strategy Pits Journalists Against Source"

Wrong. Libby gave those reporters permission to testify about their conversations with him.

“Mr. Fitzgerald has gathered documents and other evidence showing that Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, learned of the identity of a C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, weeks before he talked with the three reporters. But, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby told the grand jury that the information came from Mr. Russert.”

That headline should actually read “Libby’s Lying Strategy Pitted Reporters Against Himself”.

WaPo:

Plame was not a covert agent and this is all Fitzgerald’s fault.

"It is clear that, at least by sometime in January 2004 -- and probably much earlier -- Fitzgerald knew this law had not been violated. Plame was not a "covert" agent but a bureaucrat working at CIA headquarters.

Yes, that’s in WaPo, folks.

FITZGERALD:“Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified.” And “You need to know at the time that he transmitted the information, he appreciated that it was classified information, that he knew it or acted, in certain statutes, with recklessness.”

More from WaPo:

"Mr. Libby was not Mr. Novak's source”

How do they know if that’s true?

“The public record offers no indication that Mr. Libby or any other official deliberately exposed Ms. Plame to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Rather, Mr. Libby and other officials, including Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, apparently were seeking to combat the sensational allegations of a critic."

“seeking to combat” = “punish”…in my books

We’re not stupid. We know exactly how this administration deals with its enemies.

“To criminalize such discussions between officials and reporters would run counter to the public interest.”

No – what’s criminal is administration officials leaking the name of a covert CIA agent to the press. Which part of that don’t you get?

I need dramamine.

__________________

All Fitzgerald quotes are taken from his press conference.