Perhaps it is a bit premature to say so, as the indictments haven't been handed down yet - but it seems to me that the Republic has in essence been saved through the efforts of one lone tenacious prosecutor. He is the Bernstein and Woodward of our day.
...and because the disgraceful MSM hasn't done their job in reporting on this story to the public, it will come as quite a surprise to many people when the VP and half the neo-cons who have been in control of this country go down in the next week or 10 days.
Also, see our favorite prescient cartoon.
9 comments:
Steve,
My feeling is that Fitz is onto something HUGE. I would be very, very surprised if there are no big indictments. The suspense is killing me though.
The current Woodward is quite pathetic: he recently said the leak was 'no big deal'. I suppose he values the 'access' GWB has given him.
It is actually quite alarming that in a democracy with 'checks and balances' it has taken Fitz to expose the thuggery of this admin; no prize for 'watchdog' press to any in the MSM.
MFA
The suspense is killing me too -- but I actually thought Kerry would win the election based on last minute polling, so I'm not going to hold my breath!
Well, if it weren't for Deep Throat or Bernstein and Woorward Nixon would have gotten away with it.
People forget that the Tonkin Gulf incident (which kicked off escalated US involvement in Vietnam) is now recognized as fraudulent. They should realize that things often turn out in retrospect to be very different from what is reported at the time!
History will judge the current administration very harshly. Bush cost this country at least $1 trillion!
From IBD:
This is an attempt to use — or rather, misuse — the law to achieve what Democrats could not at the polls: the neutering of the Republican revolution. As columnist Ann Coulter points out, the only person to have demonstrably lied and possibly broken the law is Joseph Wilson. We can only hope it will not succeed.
and:
The 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which Rove is accused of violating, was designed to protect the CIA from subversion and treason by those who wished harm upon the agency and the United States. It wasn't designed to protect the identities of desk jockeys and their spouses who willingly inject themselves into a national political debate.
If Karl Rove is a criminal, exactly what was the crime?
There is no crime, according to attorney Victoria Toensing, who drafted the legislation in her role as chief counsel for the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She says that under the statute the "outed" agent must have operated outside the U.S. within the previous five years, and Plame had given up her role as a covert agent in favor of a desk job in Langley, Va., nine years before the Rove interview, according to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=2&issue=20051019
Well, the talking points have been tackled by many, including Larry Johnson who used to be at CIA.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340
The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States. Republicans' talking points are trying to savage Joe Wilson and, by implication, his wife, Valerie Plame as liars. That is the truly big lie.
For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove....
A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.
The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.
As I understand, it is an earlier Espionage Act (1917?) that would apply, regarding handling of classified information. Add to that perjury, obstruction of justice and conspiracty.
The larger issue is whether Bushco manufactured intel to support the case for war, and attacked whistleblowers like Joe Wilson who tried to find the truth.
Follow the trail of the forged Italian documents (which led to the Niger claim) and the trail may lead back to WHIG.
James Webb, Reagan's Secretary of the Navy (decorated Annapolis graduate, Vietnam vet and Republican) said it best: Iraq is the greatest strategic blunder by an American President in modern memory. Bad enough for it to be a $1 trillion blunder, worse if Bushco deliberately lied to the American people to justify the war.
History will judge Bush as the worst US president of the modern era.
It's beginning to look a lot like Fitz-mas...
It is interesting to ponder what would happen if there are no indictments (I wonder what the current odds are on this?) I get the distinct feeling that a lack of indicments would cause the left to absolutely explode, especially as the rumor is that there will be no report issued by the prosecutor if this occured (apparently the legality of such a report is considered highly dubious.)
So I guess, either way, this next week there is going to be political poision the likes of which we haven't seen in a long long time.
"Heavy as they are, the costs of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors; he will make war on his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them."
President Clinton
National Address from the Oval Office
December 16, 1998
http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/New/html/19981216-3611.html
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html
What was Bush's lie?
**********
Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.
We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."
Al Gore, Former Clinton Vice-President
Speech to San Francisco Commonwealth Club
September 23, 2002
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-09-23-gore-text_x.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,797999,00.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/24/1032734161501.html
"The nerve agent VX is one of the most toxic ever developed.
13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi Air Force between 1983 and 1988, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tonnes."
Dr. Hans Blix, Chief UN Weapons Inspector
Addressing the UN Security Council
January 27, 2003
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusnewsiraq.asp?NewsID=354&sID=6
It wasn't crazy to think that Saddam had or would develop WMDs. I would not have been surprised had they found WMD after the war.
However, if Bushco deliberately planted or distorted intel in the leadup to war they deserve to be impeached.
And if they leaked classified information (such as Valerie Wilson's covert CIA employment), lied under oath or otherwise conspired to hide illegal activity, they deserve to be locked up as well.
The fact that they've mishandled the war and the economy, well, I suppose you can blame that on the American voters who elected them.
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