SHAMELESS HUCKSTERS
By: Devvy
October 31, 2005
NewsWithViews.com
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of these united States of America, Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
Cable TV and Internet media has provided saturation coverage of the Scooter Libby indictment. Some of the reporting appears unbiased, but astute observers of the goings on in the District of Criminals (Washington, DC), can see the subtle licking of the chops by seemingly "saddened" Democrats and the pathetic spinning by GOP shills like Shawn Hannity and Ann Coulter. This past weekend I watched Ms. Coulter on a talking head show sit there with a straight face and say that Libby's indictment was "no big deal" and had no bearing on the White House or Mr. Bush. Harriett Miers had withdrawn as a nominee to the Supreme Court and as in George Orwell's 1984, all is well in the world of double speak.
Regular readers know I belong to no political party and do not consider myself a conservative, but rather a constitutionalist and believe me, there is a world of difference. Yes, I am 100% pro life, I'm not one of the politically correct drones who has embraced the deadly, toxic agenda of the sodomites and lesbians, and before any political party, my loyalty is to this Republic (we are NOT a democracy) and the rule of law.
The Scooter Libby indictment has far more serious implications than the average American fully understands - yet. But, they will because it goes to the heart of whether or not Bush lied to drag America into the unconstitutional invasion of Iraq. We should all remember during this coming firestorm that when the full truth is finally uncovered, that Bush, like presidents before him who lied to drag us into WWII and Viet Nam, the families of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are going to suffer untold agony. During this period when tenacious truth seekers will uncover the facts, our precious freedom fighters will still be deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq and are in jeopardy every second they are there. My husband is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who served in Viet Nam, so we know what being military family is all about. I bring this up because I feel so much sorrow for what I know is coming, for the families of those who still serve and those who gave their lives in honor of the uniform they wore and country they loved.
We all have our own opinions about various issues. No writer can please everyone who might read their column. It is healthy to disagree and bringing forth different opinions and perspectives into the market place of ideas is very healthy. I know, because I have learned over the past 16 years and have come to adjust my thinking on certain issues because of something I read, then took the time to research and found out I was wrong. While it might sound a bit corny, especially for someone my age, but one of the great joys I have found in life is learning new things. Unfortunately, what I have learned about the quest for communist world domination hasn't been a walk in the park, but hands down, I would rather know the truth than to live like a big, dumb ox allowing someone else to lead me around by the nose.
In just a few short weeks, the possible indictments of White House officials and the big announcement on Friday by Fitzgerald has filled hundreds of columns in newspapers, on the Internet and is filling up program after program on the tube. Below is a quote from Wayne Madsen's web site. While I don't agree with Madsen all the time and some of his rhetoric bothers me (just like mine bothers some readers), I know Madsen to be a very accurate investigative reporter. I was able to watch him during Rep. McKinney's hearing on 9/11 and was impressed by his recall and knowledge of provable facts. What he says below, I believe, is a very accurate assessment of the Libby indictment:
"October 30, 2005 -- The Washington Punditocracy is Wrong As Usual. This morning, many pundits are spinning for the White House that Karl Rove, "Official A," in the indictment of Lewis Libby, is off the hook. Au contraire. One must look back at another Fitzgerald indictment and an "Individual A." In April 2003, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicted two aides to Illinois Governor George Ryan for corruption. During his press conference announcing the indictments of the two corrupt aides, Fitzgerald would not comment on "Individual A" because he was not charged in the indictment. Fitzgerald said the same thing when asked about "Official A" in the Libby indictment. On December 17, 2003, former Governor Ryan was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago. It turned out that Ryan was "Individual A" cited in Fitzgerald's earlier indictment of the two Ryan aides. Fitzgerald started out his criminal investigation of corruption in the Ryan administration by one indictment. Ryan was Fitzgerald's 66th indictment in his criminal probe. No, Karl, you're not quite off the hook yet.
"Judge assigned to Libby case has links to Republican Right. US District Judge for DC Reggie Walton has been assigned the Lewis Libby case. It is noteworthy to point out Walton's past and current links to the Republican Right and to elements in the Bush administration who have covered up important details about 911. Walton was appointed to the DC Superior Court in 1981 by Ronald Reagan. In 1989, he was appointed by George H. W. Bush as the deputy drug czar under Bill Bennett. Walton was reappointed to the DC Superior Court by the senior Bush. George W. Bush nominated Walton to the US District Court for DC in 2001. Walton was the judge who, under pressure from the Justice Department, placed a gag order on former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and cleared his courtroom of the public and media in Edmonds' hearing in her case against the FBI. Edmonds brought to light important information about how the FBI failed to translate important wiretap intercepts before and after 911.
"Indictment aftermath and review. The GOP spin machine is claiming that the indictment of Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby is not a big deal because he was not indicted on the underlying charge of exposing a covert CIA agent to the media. To the contrary, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald went to great lengths in the obstruction of justice count to explain in as much detail as possible Libby's damage to the national security of the United States.
"Libby: There is more behind his motives than to politically retaliate against a Bush critic. It is Libby's background and network of associates that remains a major issue. The prosecutor is also impaneling a new group of jurors in the grand jury process to investigate the motives behind Libby's and others' leaking of highly-sensitive classified information to the media. Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, Cheney, and others remain under active investigation. When Fitzgerald said that the bulk of his investigation is over, he is correct. He and his team of Justice Department prosecutors and FBI special agents have investigated the leak and who was involved. They know the damage caused to a network of covert CIA operative engaged in sensitive counter proliferation tasks. All that remains is establishing the motives of the perpetrators (or should that be perpe-traitors?) The motives are where criminal conspiracy enters the fray. Fitzgerald supplemented his team with FBI agents from the counter-intelligence section of the bureau. They are looking into possible foreign entanglements of the perpetrators. This is a road that leads to cells of neo-con operatives across the Potomac at the Pentagon and in Rome, London, and Jerusalem. This is also where Fitzgerald's investigation dovetails with that of US Attorney for Eastern Virginia (and incoming Deputy Attorney General) Paul McNulty.
"It is sad that President Bush uttered words of praise for Libby and his actions before he fled Washington for Camp David yesterday. Bush said Libby "sacrificed much, " serving the administration in “extraordinary times in our nation's history.” What B.S.! Libby sacrificed our nation's national security on behalf of a shadowy political agenda crafted in right-wing funded think tanks in Washington and the back rooms of London, Rome, and Jerusalem. Libby and his co-conspirators are traitors in every sense of the term. Libby joins Aldrich Ames, John Walker, Robert Hanssen, Jonathan Pollard, and Benedict Arnold in the halls of treason. For Bush to praise such an individual is yet more proof that this swaggering dolt and failed human being is certainly no leader and is, in fact, traitorous to the United States as much as his top aides who remain under investigation. Bush and Cheney aided and abetted treason inside the White House. They should not only be impeached and tried by the Senate, but jailed for the rest of their lives as an example to future American leaders who believe it is proper to place the security of the nation in jeopardy for selfish political purposes. Bush should also be forewarned: any attempt to pardon Libby and others convicted for treason will mean the end of the Republican Party and the end of the Bush political dynasty.
"There are several cross currents in the aftermath of the Libby indictment. One is that the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's name and status to the media did not have a drastic effect on the CIA's counter-proliferation work. This is being spun by the stenographer-laden Washington Post and other apologists for the Bush administration. WMR can report that the damage to the CIA, as well as allied intelligence services, was "devastating" -- a term consistently conveyed by a number of CIA and intelligence community insiders. Not only did the White House leak put Mrs. Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in potential jeopardy but the entire Brewster Jennings & Associates non-official cover operation was "rolled up." The term "rolled up" has also been described to the editor by a number of current and former CIA sources. Foreign, including "denied nation," security services, even went to the lengths of checking out the hotels where Brewster Jennings employees stayed, when they stayed there, and what parties associated with their own nuclear programs stayed there at the same time. These individuals were identified and, in some cases, tortured and executed. Foreign security services had an easier time of checking attendee lists at various conferences to see whether their own officials and businessmen were in attendance with Brewster Jennings employees.
"In addition to Brewster Jennings, a Boston-based brass plate firm, a predecessor CIA front company, Synergistic Technologies, Inc. -- its brass plate being based in Pittsburgh -- was also compromised. In the early 1990s, there was a nexus between the work of the two firms in their efforts to counter WMDs. That nexus was also compromised by the White House leak.
"Bush's hand-picked CIA Director, Porter Goss, has just about completed his purge of the CIA's upper and mid-level management levels, replacing seasoned officers with Bush lickspittles. One of these is reportedly Burt Bechtel, the new head of the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division. Bechtel is spinning, along with Jennifer Millerwise Dyke (the CIA's public affairs spokeswoman who worked with Scooter Libby in the Vice President's office as press secretary and Porter Goss as spokesperson for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) and Goss himself, the story that the Valerie Plame/BJ&A leak had little effect on the CIA's counter proliferation program. That will be news to the half dozen or so BJ&A non-official cover agents who were put in physical harm by the leak. It will also be news to the hundreds of people BJ&A had spotted and helped recruit into a complex global network of informants and agents who closely worked with CIA case officers -- from North Korea to Pakistan, Iran to South Africa, and Libya to Malaysia -- in identifying sources and destinations for nuclear materials and components.
"After the revelation of the identities of the CIA counter-WMD team, there were reverberations around the world -- in places with names like Natanz, Bushehr, Dayr al Hajar, Yongbyon, King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology, Salaspils, Almaty, Chelyabinsk, Nilore, and Kahuta. Midnight knocks on doors, computer disk erasing, paper shredding and burning, quick get aways, and worse, were the order of the day. No big deal, according to the Bush apologists. The indictment of Libby contains some interesting information if one reads between the lines. Click here for annotated copy of Count One (Obstruction of Justice)."
