...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, October 24, 2005
      ( 6:31 AM )
 
New Wind Blowing

Well, it looks like some indictments may come down today or tomorrow...or the next day. That is, indictments from federal prosecutor Fitzgerald with regard to the leak of CIA undercover officer Valerie Plame's name to the press. Republicans are scrambling to figure out how they're going to deal with this, because it ain't gonna be pretty.

But allies of the White House have quietly been circulating talking points in recent days among Republicans sympathetic to the administration, seeking to help them make the case that bringing charges like perjury mean the prosecutor does not have a strong case, one Republican with close ties to the White House said Sunday. Other people sympathetic to Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have said that indicting them would amount to criminalizing politics and that Mr. Fitzgerald did not understand how Washington works.


"Criminalizing politics" ????? So it's only political to lie our country into war and to secure the lie by compromising a worldwide CIA operation? That's how "Washington works?"

This leak came directly from the White House in order to discredit Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, who had blown the whistle on Bush's lie about Iraq seeking to buy nuclear materials. With the leak, a worldwide CIA operation involving hundreds of intelligence assets and support that Plame led was compromised and we have no idea how many people's lives were endangered or even ended because of it. In short, it was treason. And it came from the White House. Is that how "Washington works?"

I explained the entire situation to my students late last week, using a diagram to help them understand. It was definitely not as difficult as explaining Iran Contra (which I did last year, also with a diagram!) But the story itself reads like a bad spy novel, except that it's real, and because of the actions of the people at the top echelons of our government, thousands of American soldiers are dead, 40-50,000 are irreparably maimed for life, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead and injured. It's time for the truth to come to light.

By the way, it looks like Fitzgerald has set up a website in anticipation of what will happen this week. I don't know how high it will go, or what the charges will encompass, but unless the responsibility goes directly to the top and Bush has to answer for all that's happened, then it's not enough.

Postscript: if you haven't read the article in the Financial Times from last week (subscription needed), or the transcript of the speech by Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, you need to.

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