THE CONSEQUENCES OF A PRESIDENTIAL TANTRUM: AMERICAN LIVES AT RISK
BY G DUFF
Former Whitehouse spokesman, Scott McLellan has, in excerpts from his upcoming book, charged President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Presidential Advisor Karl Rove with personal involvment in exposing CIA operative Valierie Plame to the national press. This was done in revenge for truthfull and accurate findings in a report by Plame's husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, in an investigation of Saddam Husseins non existent advanced weapons programs.
Previously, Cheney Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby had been convicted of crimes related to this incident and sentenced to prison. However, President Bush saved Libby from serving any of his sentence for crimes we now have learned were engineered by the President himself. Libby, former high profile defense attorney for a number of white collar criminals, was part of the Whitehouse "gang" including Cheney, Rusmfeld and Wolfowitz, responsible for falsifying intelligence sent to Congress as justification for the ill fated Iraq War.
We now know that Libby's crimes were part of a general conspiracy which included, not only the President, but most top members of his administration. Few media reports realistically discuss the nature of the crime nor the possible consequences to American security and our intelligence capabilities…
First of all, we know that Valerie Plame, while posing as part of an independent international oversight agency, actually was a covert CIA operative, investigating the spread of nuclear weapons technology, one of the most important intelligence tasks assigned to the CIA. We also now know that she is no longer able to perform that job but few have given consideration to the other consequences of the President's acts.
CIA agents, such as Plame, build and maintain international intelligence networks among scientists and foreign military and government officials. These networks whose members are sometimes secretly friendly to US goals or simply paid or even blackmailed to work for our country are the primary source of human intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of potential adversaries, of which we now have so many.
Every network built by Plame, every contact made and intelligence asset gained are now at risk. By at risk, I mean that BASED ON THE PRESIDENTIAL "TANTRUM", THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES OF OUR POTENTIAL ENEMIES ARE NOW "AUDITING" YEARS OF PLAME'S TRAVELS AND UNRAVELING HER NETWORKS. CONTACTS WHO MAY HAVE ONLY ACCIDENTALLY BEEN IN THE SAME CITY AS PLAME MAY BE SUBJECTED TO HARSH INTERROGATION TACTICS OR WORSE. AMONG THESE, FOR CERTAIN, ARE GOING TO BE KEY INTELLIGENCE ASSETS OF THE UNITED STATES.
We are also going to have a much more difficult time in the future to get anyone, around the world, to help us with the intelligence that is so vital to our national security. President Bush has "murdered" the credibility of our foreign intelligence services making it nearly impossible for anyone considering supplying America with vital information to feel our promises of secrecy have any meaning at all. Promises from an American covert intelligence operative will mean nothing when this same operative is likely to be exposed on television for the world to see at the whim of a politician.
It is seldom that we have such a pure act of betrayal by a public official. We impeached Andrew Johnson unsuccessfully for violating the "Tenure of Office" act in firing a cabinet official. President Clinton was unsuccessfully impeached for allegations of sexual misconduct that in France and Italy would have earned him praise and, frankly, did. We now have thousands dead in a war started over what has now proven to be purposefully falsified intelligence. Years have passed and nothing is done. "Big Money Politics" has kept control over a legal system we have learned to be little more than a tool of political ends, protecting the guilty and persecuting the innocent.
We now know that the administration, to cover up their crimes, crippled our own intelligence services and betrayed our national security. We are now far more exposed to a terrorist attack using nuclear materials (such as a dirty bomb) or a nuclear attack from a number of sources no longer being effectively monitored because of actions against Valerie Plame and the incumbent reduction in credibility suffered by the CIA after a bizarre incident of this kind.
The areas of mistrust run much further. We are inundated with conspiracy theories about Administration complicity in fraudulent contracts,
military mismanagement, abuse of wounded soldiers and veterans and even the 9/11 incident itself. Katrina gave us clear evidence of the "politics over reason" value system that has led to the dissolution of the Republican power base in America and the credibility of the Bush Administration.
In the end, we are a nation of laws. Lying about administration complicity in the Plame incident is, in itself, not a crime. Commuting the sentence of "Scooter" Libby is, in itself, not a crime. The act that former Bush spokeman, Scott McLellen now attests to on the part of the President, Vice President and others, would be, in fact, treason, and nothing less. It is time we stopped allowing our legal system to be crippled by political appointments and privilege and worse.
The Plame incident is only a small part of a larger crime. The real crime was the invasion of Iraq and the hundreds of thousands of dead that have resulted from an misplanned and illegal act. Yes, by illegal, I mean, in violation of established international law. If one were to examine the charges against the Nazi leaders tried by the International War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg after World War Two, they would find that "waging aggressive war" led to the conviction and subsequent execution of more than one of Hitler's cohorts.
In 1939, Germany fabricated intelligence indicating that Poland was ready to attack. For months prior, Germany had been manipulating the news media worldwide with stories of Polish atrocities against German civilians. In late August 1939, Germany moved their armies to the Polish border and, using prisoners dressed in Polish uniforms, staged an attack on a German facility. In retaliation for this "incursion", Germany's huge armies attacked Poland using tactics surprisingly similiar to
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Fabricating intelligence and manipulating media as a justification for attacking a neighbor was the basis for our indictment of several key Nazi war criminals. Our current actions seem to tell us that Germany's only crime was losing the war.
Though we are holding our own in Iraq at great cost, in the end, we may also lose this war. In the process, we will have created a much more dangerous world for ourselves and our children. We have radicalized the Islamic world, destabilized Pakistan, a nuclear power and thru our reduced intelligence capacity, lost part of our ability to guard against nuclear threats.
We have exposed every American to the risk of a nuclear attack for what may have only been a desire on the part of the Bush Administration to settle some personal grudges, help our "NeoCon" friendly oil companies and spread around a few hundred billion dollars of "sweetheart" contracts to big contributors and "special friends."
This highly critical and pessimistic view of administration motives is supported by both "trends" toward destabilization of the oil industry and
world economy while oil profits soar and our daily deluge of contractor and "oversight" scandals involving both the military and Iraq reconstruction contracts begins to receive the attention needed years ago.
Minor issues like these, and the thousands that die because of them, need to be addressed thru our existing legal system or what remains of it after 6 years of Ashcroft/Gonzoles abuses. We have waited too long for impeachment.
Is our current level of corruption so complete that the "mainstream" media has moved from "mindless cheerleading" to genuine complicity? If we choose to sit and wait for a heroic savior to present him or herself from amid the fools, cowards and professional mediocrities that make up our power elite, we stand a genuine chance of losing everything decent about America.
Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam Veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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