Presti-Libby-tation
The Bush administration must be thrilled that Libby is being tried, and that the national debate centers on who outed Valerie Plame, because national attention has been effectively redirected from the question of why she was outed. It was a move worthy of Johnny Cochrane for the administration to dispute the question of who sent Wilson to Niger, rather than addressing his conclusions, and a move worthy of bovine quarupeds for the media to chase that issue rather than the Bush administration's evident deception.
So let's remember something: President Bush announced in his 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, even though that assertion was based on a document from the Italian intelligence service that, by October 2002, the CIA didn't trust, the State Department had warned was a likely forgery, and Wilson had found implausible based on his research earlier in the year. Remeber also that the assertion had been removed from an earlier speech based on a warning from the CIA Director.
In fact, every piece of evidence that the Bush administration's members presented to the public on Iraqi WMDs-- Nigerian uranium, aluminum tubes, mobile chemical labs -- was known to have been discredited by the time Powell addressed the UN. Once these assertions were analyzed and debunked, one after another, there was no evidence left that Iraq posed any kind of threat to the United States, much less an imminent one.
Make no mistake: this was not a "failure of intelligence", but rather a deliberate misuse and distortion of intelligence by the Administration to push a policy that has created a crisis, diminished U.S. credibility worldwide, emboldened al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Iran, and cost us a crapload of money and thousands of U.S. lives. Rather than Libby, it is Bush who should be on trial, in the Senate, for abusing his power in office.
Bush is a traitor.
Impeach him.
So let's remember something: President Bush announced in his 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, even though that assertion was based on a document from the Italian intelligence service that, by October 2002, the CIA didn't trust, the State Department had warned was a likely forgery, and Wilson had found implausible based on his research earlier in the year. Remeber also that the assertion had been removed from an earlier speech based on a warning from the CIA Director.
In fact, every piece of evidence that the Bush administration's members presented to the public on Iraqi WMDs-- Nigerian uranium, aluminum tubes, mobile chemical labs -- was known to have been discredited by the time Powell addressed the UN. Once these assertions were analyzed and debunked, one after another, there was no evidence left that Iraq posed any kind of threat to the United States, much less an imminent one.
Make no mistake: this was not a "failure of intelligence", but rather a deliberate misuse and distortion of intelligence by the Administration to push a policy that has created a crisis, diminished U.S. credibility worldwide, emboldened al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Iran, and cost us a crapload of money and thousands of U.S. lives. Rather than Libby, it is Bush who should be on trial, in the Senate, for abusing his power in office.
Bush is a traitor.
Impeach him.
posted by heavynettle at 19:11
1 Comments:
Since it won't change one thing that does or doesn't happen in Iraq, I kind of wish the trial had been dragged out until AFTER the Bush administration left office. You have to imagine Libby is holding his tongue in believe they'll be an eleventh hour pardon of anything he did. If the trial had come in 09, he might have been compelled to be more candid.
Yeah, funny how the CIA got to be the scape goat for the "intelligence failure" after Cheney & Rumsfeld set up their own private shadow government over at the Pentagon to keep CIA out of the loop.
Oh, and remember that Bin Laden video just before the '04 elections? Word is the CIA thought Bin Laden's attacks on Bush were designed to keep W., the ultimate gift to Bin Laden's goals, firmly in office.
sigh.
Post a Comment
<< Home