| H2O Man
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Sat Mar-17-07 12:16 PM
Original
message |
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"We Americans all too often take for granted the luxury of
living in and benefiting from the rights and freedoms guaranteed by our
constitution. Several actions undertaken by this administration serve as a
reminder that the social contract that binds us is fragile and requires our
vigorous protection if we ever hope to preserve it. We have known this since
the time of the drafting of the constitution over two hundred years ago when
Benjamin Franklin remarked that the founding fathers had bequeathed to the
nation ‘a republic, if you can keep it’." -- Joseph & Valerie Wilson; July
17, 2006
Valerie Wilson did a wonderful job of telling the congressional committee about
her side of the story of the "Plame scandal" yesterday. And the House democrats
did a great job of providing the American public with the truth about several
of the key issues in that scandal. Several of the republican "talking points"
were exposed as purposeful lies, aimed at confusing the issues involved in the
falsehoods that brought this nation to war in Iraq.
In his book "The Politics of Truth," Joseph Wilson wrote about the "work-up" on
him that was done by some in the Office of the Vice President, and shared with
the White House Iraq Group and others. "According to my sources, between March
2003 and the appearance of my article in July, the workup on me that turned up
information on Valerie was shared with Karl Rove, who then circulated it in
administration and neoconservative circles. That would explain the assertion
later advanced by Clifford May, the neocon fellow traveler, who wrote that
Valerie’s employment was supposedly widely known. Oh, really? I am not
reassured by his statement. Indeed, if what May wrote is accurate, it is a
damning admission, because it could only have been widely known by virtue of
leaks among his own crowd." (pages 443-444)
The truth of this became evident when neoconservative Victoria Toensing, who
testified after Plame, claimed that Valerie was not "covert." How would a
person with no connection to the CIA be in a position where she would believe
she knows what Plame’s employment status was? Not only is Toensing purposely
lying – and lying to a congressional committee should have consequences,
especially when it has to do with a national security issue – but it proves
beyond any doubt that Joseph Wilson’s claim is correct: the OVP?WHIG was
pushing a lot of information on Valerie Plame Wilson to people not legally
entitled to receive it.
More evidence came when Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) was focusing on if Plame
was a registered democrat. The idea that in the spring of 2003, VP Dick Cheney
questioned Joseph Wilson’s report on the Niger yellow cake lies, because he was
a democrat, and his wife who worked in the CIA department that sent Joe to
Niger was a registered democrat, documents the extent of the "work-up." It also
shows the diseased thinking of republican congressmen who attempt to justify
the paranoid OVP actions as rational.
The administration’s lapdogs in the media have been saying that no one outside
of Washington, DC cares about the Plame scandal. That seems to ignore the fact
that Americans recognize the Plame scandal involves the White House committing
crimes to destroy the lives of those people who dared tell the truth about the
WMD "threat" that Iraq posed. It ignores that a majority of Americans do not
support the Bush/Cheney war in Iraq. It ignores the fact that Americans mourn
for the over 3,000 US soldiers who have died for the administration’s WMD lies.
It ignores the outrage Americans feels when they hear about the mistreatment of
wounded veterans. And it ignores the fact that Americans voted in a democratic
majority in both the House and Senate, in order to change the direction this
nation is heading in.
I urge readers to take three steps: {1} Write and/or call your elected
officials, and tell them to investigate and impeach administration officials
involved in the Plame scandal; {2} Write letters to your local newspapers,
expressing outrage that the administration derailed a significant part of the
intelligence communities’ efforts to protect our safety; and {3} Support the
Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust.
Learn more about their civil case against Cheney, Libby, Armitage, and Rove by
going to:
http://wilsonsupport.org
/
Contributions may be sent to: Joseph & Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust;
P.O. Box 40918; Washington, DC 20016-0918. The Wilsons have stated that if
their civil case results in a payment larger than the costs associated with
their legal activities, the equivalent monies contributed to the Trust will be
donated to one or more charitable organizations that work to protect government
whistleblowers’ First Amendment rights, and to protect them from retaliatory
actions.
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Some selected responses:
| KCabotDullesMarxIII
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Sat Mar-17-07 09:40 PM
Response to
Reply #104 |
| Further to your citing the "public confrontation", H2O Man, I hope this post may |
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Edited on Sat Mar-17-07 09:44 PM by KCabotDullesMarxIII
explain some things to some DUers who hanker for just a
civilised discourse between nice people.
Everything about this administration is a power-play, and DUers who tend to
think it's really for academic discussions of party politics need to understand
that.
It is why their operatives/trolls/disruptors, which we can identify in our
minds, though we can't call them out or name them, on here, imo, must be
tackled straight away; indeed, as immediately as they post in a team, as they
usually do, in response to any good news concerning whatever good news has just
come out.
Representative Waxman didn't make those concluding remarks to Toensing, because
he wanted to sound smart, or because he likes to snipe at people; he did it
because he knows everything about that case is a power-play, notably with
regard to the public's perception and morale, and the neocons' perception of
how much they can get away with. He gave her and her crew an emphatic marker.
Waxman knows that if the good guys left matters to the simple letter of the
law, they would simply crank up their noise machine more and more, to quench
any public expectations of justice, and then, with the help of the venal MSM,
bulldoze their way out of it.
Capitol Hill, the courts, DU, other Democratic blogs and freeper blogs are all
part of this power-play continuum and we're really watching a modern-day
Western, and are even involved in at the margins. That's true of much of your
court system apparently; hench Perry Mason, Law and Order, McBride, etc, etc.
Consequently, particularly in view of the maverick, lawless nature of the
neocons, and indeed, essentially the far-right at all times and in all places,
a purposeful and combative demeanour on the part of the upholders of the law on
behalf of the people and the country, is as important in its own way as the law
itself - an all too human construct which can be destroyed by the same agency
as the one by which it was built - the legislature or parties within it - and
its originators in the present day.
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| H2O Man
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Sat Mar-17-07 01:53 PM
Response to
Reply #46 |
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when polls indicated that one of Bush's strengths was that a
majority of people thought he was "honest." That was a long time ago. Not a lot
of people look at Dick Cheney as an honest man. And Scooter is a convicted
felon, as the result of his lying. So, front page, back page, editorial page,
or in the LTTE, we should keep on the most accurate and true message -- they
are liars. There is no reason to pretend there is an honest difference of
opinion on issues such as the Niger yellow cake forgeries or Plame's covert
status.
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| frogcycle
|
Sat Mar-17-07 02:41 PM
Response to
Reply #48 |
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they do not even recognize a vague association with reality
I have always thought it inappropriate to be able to impeach a witness by just
catching them in some inconsistency (you told the police you didn't see the
stop sign, so why should we believe you when you say this man raped you?)
That is bs.
But having no respect for, even comprehension of, reality vs a fantasy
world-view - that is something else entirely.
They not only lie - they create an entire alternate reality to suit their
desires. They would happily claim the martians were about to invade if they
thought it would win an election or enable them to invade somebody. When asked
a question they don't think "let me see, what are the facts?" they think "let
me see, what response would serve my purposes?"
This is more extreme even than "habitual liar". It is "pathological liar"
combined with "groupthink"
If you asked bush whether Barney is a dog or a wombat, he'd probably say "do
you like wombats?" before answering
"In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist." - D. D. Eisenhower
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| kestrel91316
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Sun Mar-18-07 03:52 AM
Response to
Reply #71 |
| 157. This entire administration is composed of pathological liars. |
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They lie about EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME, because they CAN.
They know they will get away with it, that their fawning fascist sycophants
will worship them MORE for the very fact of their habitual lying.
Bush is either Satan or the Antichrist. Maybe both. I really can't make up my
mind half the time.
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| babylonsister
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Sat Mar-17-07 12:55 PM
Response to
Reply #9 |
| 11. The fact that Cheney visited the CIA numerous times, enough so |
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the agents were uncomfortable and felt he was looking over
their shoulders, indicates to me Cheney really did know her identity. And I
imagine all those visits were made to put pressure on the agents and agency.
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| KoKo01
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Sat Mar-17-07 03:24 PM
Response to
Reply #9 |
| 79. And, doesn't Westmoreland's hounding about Joe and Valerie being
Democrats fit in |
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nicely with what we now know the US Attorneys were being
pressured to do....Go after Democrats. Obstructing Justice by Partisan Witch
Hunt.
Very Nixonian...as we know. I wonder if Westmoreland will ever regret his
statement. Because it opens up an avenue already being explored that might not
be welcome for the Repugs. 
HOPE is the thing with feathers that perches in
the soul,and sings the tune without the words,and never stops at all-- Emily
Dickinson (1830–86)
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| AikidoSoul
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Sat Mar-17-07 04:28 PM
Response to
Original message |
| 85. A question and a worry: Was Plame the only target or was the goal also
to shatter the investigations |
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into who was proliferating nuclear weapons? If that is so...
then the crime may be the crime of the century because it would mean that
Cheney et al purposefully cut off the legs of a monumentally important national
security protection.
At some point I read fascinating DU posts that seemed to suggest that Cheney
may have wanted to shatter the investigations into nuclear WMD activities
because he wanted to protect himself and others in the administration.
Is there any reason to think that is true? If so, is there a well developed
thread that I can have access to? Unfortunately I didn't save the thread and
there is just too much on DU to find it in the posts of the past two months or
so.
The worry: That the "ruining" of Brewster Jennings may not hold much water
because it may not have been a very well developed cover -- at least according
to news reports. I think the Boston Herald had something on this -- that BJ was
in a beautiful, well-known Boston building but that there was not really much
of an office there, if any. The details are vague in my brain but what stuck
with me was the part of the article that said if BJ was so important... why
wasn't its physical presence more developed?
H2O man... I deeply appreciate the work you've done on this and any additional
resources you can provide to elucidate these issues.
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of
increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all
its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." --Harry
Truman
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| bleever
|
Sat Mar-17-07 07:12 PM
Response to
Original message |
| 113. Tom Davis insisted there was no evidence her covert status was known |
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when it was leaked by administration officials.
Yet Rove spoke to Novak on July 9 and Cooper on July 11, when we know that the
State Dept. memo was being passed around Air Force One on July 7. Even Ari saw
it; is there any question Rove would have been faxed a copy?
The paragraph identifying her as the wife of
former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it
contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said.
The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are
covert, according to former senior agency officials.
Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret
information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's
name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a
federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official
to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows
the government is trying to keep it secret.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
In fact the memorandum was written almost a month earlier, and likely had been
in the hands of the WH for a few weeks already when it was passed around the
plane in Africa:
The memorandum was dated June 10, 2003,
nearly four weeks before Mr. Wilson wrote an Op-Ed article for The New York
Times in which he recounted his mission and accused the administration of
twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq. The memorandum was
written for Marc Grossman, then the under secretary of state for political
affairs, and it referred explicitly to Valerie Wilson as Mr. Wilson's wife,
according to a government official who reread the document on Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/politics/16memo.html?...
This strawman that "no one knew she was covert when they leaked her name" will
become a focus now. It's pretty clear that whether or not they knew she was
"covert", they knew they were dealing with information that was explicitly
marked as classified.
It doesn't look good for the administration as their firewalls and Maginot
lines keep failing. |
| frogcycle
|
Sun Mar-18-07 03:24 AM
Response to
Reply #113 |
| 154. I believe they will hang themselves with that spurious "defense" |
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EVEN IF it could be used to protect lying traitorous scum like
rove, cheney, et al - that black box knew.
No-one should have known that she worked there without being "read in" that
they were receiving classified information. The "leak" didn't "just happen"
because someone mentioned her name in the frigging supermarket.
And no-one with their security clearances should play fast and loose with names
of CIA employees that they "just happened to hear," if that is what their
defense is going to be. National Security is serious. Good lord, they harp on
it all the time and use it to excuse violating the constitution, the ten
commandments, and probably their neighbor's sheep. Someone at Rove's or
Cheney's level should no more be "just chatting" and let slip something they
"just heard" when it has ANYTHING to do with security than I should be on
"dancing with the stars"*.
They CANNOT use the excuse of ignorance of her status. It was their obligation
to FIND OUT before blabbing it. Remember "loose lips sink ships?"
That defense is every bit as impeachable as is the real case - that they did it
knowingly. That defense says "I am a complete incompetant, should have my
security clearance stripped immediately, and should be escorted off the
premises in handcuffs"
There is just no wiggle room here.
They knowingly sabotaged an ongoing intelligence program related to WMD's in
the hands of countries with expressed animosity to the US. That is treason. And
anyone who makes excuses for this is a traitor, because they are aiding and
abetting traitors.
That these very same people keep croaking the tired line that honest dissent
from supporting their war "undermines" our troops, our "war on terror" and our
national security is beyond description.
*if you knew me you'd realize how extreme a comparison that is
"In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist." - D. D. Eisenhower
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| midnight
|
Sun Mar-18-07 05:25 AM
Response to
Original message |
| 163. Very important reminder on the responsibility of keeping our |
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beautiful republic maintained and in good working order. We
cannot afford to allow our american citizens who put their lives at the
disposal of their country to be thought of with such little regard. It is
tragic; that the intelligence community that, from what I understand took
decades to put together to track wmd, was ripped apart in such a short amount
of time. It is even harder to swallow that is was done by the White House. Very
tragic. It seems to sum up the last six years as well.
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