Daily Show Argument Exposes Obama as Bush Lite

VP comes up blank on specifics in newly released interview

(NEWSER) - After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he couldn't recall when he learned Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, or telling chief of staff Scooter Libby about it, or telling Libby to leak the info to reporters. More»

New docs show former veep thought ill of Plame husband's Nigeria trip

(NEWSER) - Dick Cheney's memory may have been a little iffy about the Valerie Plame leak, but Politico reports that the former veep left no room for doubt about his opinion of her husband's trip to Niger to investigate an Iraqi purchase of plutonium. "It was amateur hour out at the CIA," Cheney told a federal prosecutor in a 2004 interview released Friday. More»

Obama DoJ renews Bush-era objections to releasing details

(NEWSER) - The Obama Justice Department is continuing its efforts to maintain the Bush administration's secrecy over Dick Cheney's role in the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, the Washington Post reports. A filing this week, intended to bolster the current administration’s case for keeping secret details of the then-VP’s 2004 interview with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, lists seven discussions Cheney recounted that were directly or indirectly related to Plame. More»

Court rules Plame's civil action vs. VP, Rove, Libby won't go forward

(NEWSER) - A judge today dismissed outed CIA operative Valerie Plame's civil suit against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby, saying that the revelation of her identity "was incidental to the kind of conduct that defendants were employed to perform." Furthermore, the judge ruled, Plame and her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson, failed to show that the case belongs in federal court. More»

(NEWSER) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today and determine if a full-scale investigation is warranted. The Bush-era Justice Department investigated and dismissed the cases. More»