On Libby, Terror, and Timing

I was at work when I heard the news of Bush essentially giving Scooter Libby a free pass for his crime. I was so angry, I threw my hat, then spent the rest of the day with a sour attitude. I was that angry. Not surprised, not shocked, just angry. I see it as a form of treason, giving someone who aided in the criminal act of hindering an investigation a way of avoiding jail time. It's a slap in the face to the rule of law, that rule which we're supposed to hold up as some kind of beacon to the rest of the world.

Now, with that said, I'm also not surprised at the timing of this, either - being as most of the news these days is focused on the usual parade of celebrity garbage, pretty dead white girls, and other non-news, most people are too busy thinking about their holidays, cookouts, and entertainment (though I must admit, I'm a little excited about going to go see Transformers), and what news that isn't focused on what Paris Hilton ate last night is focused on making us afraid because of all the "terror plots" in Britain, of course W picks now to give Libby a way of never seeing the inside of a jail cell.

I know somebody's going to take this the wrong way. They're going to say that I must be espousing some kind of crazy conspiracy theory, since I seem to think that the timing of these "terror plot" stories coincides with the timing of Bush's little favor. That's not what I'm saying, so don't give me that crap. It's quite the opposite - the timing of Bush's favor to Libby coincides with the terror plots. We're so busy being told to be afraid of brown people that we supposedly won't notice a traitor skating free. It might not work out that way, but that was the reason for it all.

Evansville Courier and Press: "Treason's okay if you're a Bush fan!"

Masson's Blog has brought to my attention a disturbing editorial that ran in the Evansville Courier and Press, asserting that Scooter Libby was given too harsh of a sentence.

The sentence seems awfully harsh for obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name when it was known from the outset that no crime had occurred and who the leakers were.

And right away, the Republic Party memes start. Yes, it WAS a crime, because, as has been covered about fifteen thousand times, Valerie Wilson was STILL COVERT when she was outed by Bob "I'm Just Doing My Job Putting Us In Danger" Novak. Furthermore, when Libby started lying to Fitzgerald, that's a crime. Impeding an investigation is a crime, for those who didn't know.

The judge indicated he was not disposed to let Libby stay free pending appeal — he said he found the evidence "overwhelming" — meaning Libby, 56, who has two school-age children and an otherwise impeccable reputation, would be heading off to jail around Aug. 1.

So this supposedly "impeccable reputation" isn't broken by the fact that he LIED to a federal investigator and was implicit in the traitorous outing of a CIA agent? Wow. Apparently Scooter Libby is made of the same Teflon as Reagan was.

Much about special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation is still not public, including why Libby felt compelled to lie. Was it to protect his boss, as administration critics suspect, or simply an overzealous defense of the White House rationale for going to war, as his defenders insist?

So an ongoing investigation should be made completely public just because a few wingnuts are scared that it might not be going all their way? Yeah... no, not happening. And aren't these the same people who screamed about how federal investigations should remain completely secret?

Immediately after the verdict, Libby partisans began clamoring for a presidential pardon. But Bush, while sympathetic, has been noncommittal, saying only that there is a "process" that must go forward. That has provoked venomous attacks on Bush from his erstwhile allies on the right, "cowardice" and "incompetence" being two of the kinder insults directed at the president.

And nobody knows cowardice and incompetence better than far-right justice-haters. After all, they were teh ones who voted for Dubya, they're the ones who vote for shameless liars, cheats, and thieves like Tom DeLay, and they're the ones who listen to chickenhawk losers like Flush Limpballs and Jesus-Boy Hannity. Besides, maybe Bush wants to be seen as not being soft. After all, I thought that traitors were supposed to be executed.

Wilson and Plame suing leakers

From CNN.com: Former CIA officer sues Cheney, Libby, Rove over leak

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.

Now, of course, the right-wing trolls will come out of the woodwork on this, trying to say that this lawsuit is frivolous and that Plame wasn't undercover.

It's still bullshit no matter how many times they repeat it. If she wasn't undercover and leaking her identity wasn't a crime, why did the CIA refer the matter to the DoJ, and why has the DoJ pursued a case that's supposed to not be a case? If it's so obviously not an issue, why is it... well, such an issue?

Is anything going to come of this? Probably not - the scumbags of the administration will come off scot-free, as always. But it's a refreshing change to see someone stand up for themselves against these criminal acts being perpetrated.

Novak: "Rove done did it"

From the Assocaited Press via Yahoo!News: Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame

WASHINGTON - Now that Karl Rove won't be indicted, now that the president won't fire him, now that it really doesn't matter anymore, more details of the Valerie Plame leak investigation trickle out.

In his latest syndicated column released Wednesday, columnist Robert Novak revealed his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer, underscoring Rove's role in a leak President Bush once promised to punish.

The columnist said he learned of Plame's CIA employment from a source he still refuses to publicly identify, and then confirmed with Rove and then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, whose roles in talking to Novak have been previously reported.

What a surprise. We were right the whole time, and nothing comes of it. These criminals will never see punsihment unless we get some accountability into Washington - that's why we need to vote in people who aren't surgically attached to Bush's ass by their silicone-injected lips.

Good gravy, I really hate these people sometimes.

Bush Ordered Leaking of Plame's Identity

From the National Journal: Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

Where is the outrage? There's your leak, right-wingers - there's your compromise of national security. Not the New York Times, which, by the way, was reporting something that the Wall Street Journal was told by the administration to report and hasn't seen these whiny cries of "TEH TREASON OH NOES". I know you'll try to spin this. You'll say Bush has the power to compel his staffers to do that, and that by letting it be leaked, it was declassified. Except that's not the truth, and you know it.

Bush himself said that anyone in his administration who was leaking information would be found and removed. What's he gonna do now that we know it was him?

A thought on recent events: NYT and right-wing hatred thereof

The right is bleating endlessly about how EEEVIL and TREEEEASONOUS the New York Times is because they reported on a program that Dubya had talked about many times.

Where was this hue and cry when they had Judith Miller reporting about the identities of undercover operatives? Where was it when they outed an undercover operative and put national security actually at risk?

Where was it, you liars? WHERE WAS IT?

Rove not being charged for role in security leak

From CNN.com: Lawyer: Rove won't be charged in CIA leak case

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House senior adviser Karl Rove has been told by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he will not be charged in the CIA leak case, according to Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer.

"In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation," Luskin said in a written statement Tuesday. "We believe that the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct."

Okay, so he's not being charged with anything. Big deal, I say - I know the guy's a dirt-eating snake, and that's all I need.

I know there's probably a lot of right-wingers out there dancing around, calling guys like me stupid. That's what they do every day, I admit, but this time they're doing it with some kind of reason. Personally, I don't recall ever saying Rove definitely had something to do with it (but I'm probably wrong - I had to have said it somewhere other than here). I'm just waiting for someone to uncover Rove's links to other crimes committed in the course of setting up this criminal organization we call the Bush Administration.

Security Breach in Sector One.

From Raw Story: MSNBC confirms: Outed CIA agent was working on Iran

On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, just moments ago, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed.

RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna broke the story earlier this year, which went unnoticed by the mainstream media.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Congrats, you filthy criminal bastards in Washington, you may very well have compromised the security you've been looking for. I hope every single one of you gets tried for treason.

But I know the right-wing's talking heads will be playing this down or trying to distract us. Once they exhaust their excuses (which will come up first - "she wasn't undercover" or "everyone knew"?), they'll try to run more distractions - new Osama videos, coverage of Missing Pretty White Women, or another payoff.

I know one thing: the criminal scum who perpetrated this travesty of security will never see any punishment. That's why we need to vote in Democrats in this election - a Democrat Congress will be able to make the liars and scumbags accountable for their innumerable crimes.

They all fall down.

From the Associated Press via Yahoo!News: Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak

WASHINGTON -
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized Cheney's top aide to launch a counterattack of leaks against administration critics on
Iraq by feeding intelligence information to reporters, according to court papers citing the aide's testimony in the
CIA leak case.

In a court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stopped short of accusing Cheney of authorizing his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, to leak the CIA identity of
Valerie Plame.

He didn't have to, though - we all know that was the case. We knew it from the beginning that that lying, sick, murderous bastard had something to do with it.

But the prosecutor, detailing the evidence he has gathered, raised the possibility that the vice president was trying to use Plame's CIA employment to discredit her husband, administration critic Joseph Wilson. Cheney, according to an indictment against Libby, knew that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA as early as June 12, 2003, more than a month before that fact turned up in a column by Robert Novak.

Fitzgerald quoted Libby as saying he was authorized to tell New York Times reporter Judith Miller that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium. Fitzgerald said Libby told him it "was the only time he recalled in his government experience when he disclosed a document to a reporter that was effectively declassified by virtue of the president's authorization that it be disclosed."

Except he "declassified" something that was of interest to our national security. Maybe the right wing doesn't get this, but I do: Plame was a NOC agent working undercover. When these idiots, these bastards wanted to get their war, they had to discredit someone who knew they were lying about their facts (fruitless mission that that is - you'd have to discredit everyone in the country who realizes that it was a lie, and that's millions upon millions of people), and so they exposed someone working in the interests of national security, just because they wanted their precious oil money.

The process was so secretive that other Cabinet-level officials did not know about it, according to the court papers, which point to Bush and Cheney as setting in motion a leak campaign to the press that ended in Plame's blown cover.

In 2003, when the public furor erupted over the disclosure of a CIA operative's status, Bush said he wanted to get to the bottom of the affair. "I want to know the truth," he said at the time.

You knew the truth, you lying ass! You wanted the truth drug behind a shed and shot!

Libby's testimony puts the president and the vice president in the awkward position of authorizing leaks. Both men have long said they abhor such practices, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations at their behest to hunt down leakers.

I can bet you right now that nobody's going to go after them. The left has little power in Washington, and the right is too enslaved by Bush and his cronies and his business buddies and the money going right into their pockets to try and let justice be done. Fuck justice, they're getting paid, who needs justice?

The sooner that all the players in this farce, this charade of good government, are perp-walked out of Washington and put in prison for the rest of their lives (including Bush, Cheney, Libby, and the Bush-ass-kisser Judy Miller), the sooner that we can get back to the way things ought to be.

You might remember the way things ought to be - we had a damn good example of it about ten years ago.