"Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" -- English King Henry II speaking of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, shortly before the king's soldiers murdered him.
DETROIT -- Who in the White House would dare "out" an undercover CIA officer? It's treachery and treason, inspired by vengeance and the vile work of the scum who run the White House. George W. Bush and his crew are in deep trouble and they know it, so they will do anything to keep the lid on this festering scandal.
Having John Ashcroft's Justice Department lead the investigation is the most important strategy in doing that, and the more they howl about how fair and thorough the probe will be, the more you know they're looking for ways to cover their tracks and find some low-level zealot to fall on his sword to protect the real powers.
In July, syndicated columnist and CNN talking head Robert Novak first revealed that former ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. The context of that revelation is vital in understanding the brutal politics of this sordid affair, and the right-wing media slime machine, in full partnership with the Bush administration, that attempts to destroy anyone who opposes its extreme goals.
Wilson, a career diplomat, had extensive experience in the Middle East and Africa and worked closely with U.S. intelligence. The senior President Bush had praised his public service when Wilson served as acting ambassador to Iraq during Operation Desert Shield.
The CIA turned to Wilson in February of 2002 to check out reports that Saddam Hussein was shopping for uranium in Niger to use in building nuclear weapons. Wilson had contacts with senior officials in the African nation and could use those contacts to get to the truth. That's exactly what Wilson did, but the truth he found ran smack in the face of the fabricated script President Bush and his minions were using to convince the world that war with Iraq was imperative to save humanity from destruction.
Wilson found what United Nations weapons inspectors later confirmed. The documents claiming Saddam was trying to purchase uranium were not only inaccurate, they were forgeries, fakes, bogus. That finding would seriously disrupt the big lie George W. Bush was selling.
Months later, Wilson said, "It really comes down to the administration misrepresenting the facts on an issue that was a fundamental justification for going to war."
When Wilson returned from his eight-day mission to Niger, he reported to the CIA that the accusations about the uranium buy were totally false.
But then, a few months later, in his State of the Union address, Bush said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
When that whopper got exposed, the White House blamed the CIA and Director George Tenet took the fall. But how could the CIA have been so wrong when the man they sent to check it out, Joseph Wilson, had already told everyone the story was a hoax?
Could it be Bush and company would use anything to exaggerate their case for invading Iraq? Joseph Wilson went public in July. He wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times and gave an interview to the Washington Post, detailing how the Bush administration had sold a lie, knowing full well what the truth was.
Wilson was off the reservation and he would now have to pay the price for his "disloyalty."
On July 14, Novak published his column identifying Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA "operative on weapons of mass destruction." Novak cited two "senior administration officials" as his sources. A chorus of conservative commentators then began questioning Wilson's credentials and suggesting he was sent there because of his wife's expertise.
David Corn, of "The Nation" magazine, stood out in his coverage, since he was first to point out the broader and more sinister issue: Outing an undercover CIA officer is a federal crime, and for good reason.
Such recklessness can cost people their lives.
The message to Joseph Wilson was abundantly clear and brutal: If you deviate from the script, if you defy our power and might, serious consequences will result. Woe betide those who cross us, and going public will cost you dearly. Mess with us and you are going to pay a severe price.
The message was especially intended for the intelligence community -- the career government employees who know the White House exaggerated, misrepresented, misused and abused legitimate intelligence reports to fit its already determined political conclusion that Iraq was an "imminent threat" to U.S. security.
As Joseph Wilson told Reuters in August, "The reason for it was not to smear me or to even smear my wife. ... The reason was to intimidate others from coming forward."
Leaks from the Bush administration are never accidents. This is an extremely disciplined political operation. Everything is carefully controlled and "on message." Deviate just once and you're gone. Ask departed economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who had the nerve to say publicly that the occupation of Iraq would cost tens of billions of dollars.
The man who is the supreme controller of information, from major moves to obscure detail, for the Bush White House is the president's chief political adviser, the man George W. calls his "brain," Karl Rove.
James Moore, co-author of a new book, "Bush's Brain," says flat-out, "Rove is probably the most powerful unelected person in American history."
Rove is the evil genius who saw in George W. Bush what no one else did, including his family: a political product who could be successfully sold beyond anyone's, save Rove's, expectations.
He took George W. -- who ran a string of oil companies to the verge of bankruptcy, rescued repeatedly by his daddy's pals' money, a dried-out gin-drunk with no serious interest in public policy -- and within a few years transformed him into the governor of Texas and president of the United States. That is a remarkable achievement, and no one appreciates it more than George W.
While confined to the Lone Star State, Bush and Rove did considerable, but geographically confined, damage. Corporate polluters got free rein and made their own rules. The poor suffered. Rove would package everything with innocent-sounding slogans, which the dutiful media would repeat.
James Moore says, "Compassionate conservatism in Texas is where they ask you if you want green Jell-O or red Jell-O before they stick the needle in your arm and execute you."
But with persistence, luck and friends on the U.S. Supreme Court, Rove brought his political act to the White House and the world stage. Rove makes sure everything in the Bush administration is pervasively political. In a real sense, public policy is merely an afterthought to cover for the political agenda Rove writes. He is involved in every decision coming out of the Oval Office.
Another nickname Bush uses for Rove is "turd blossom," meaning something good and wonderful that springs from a cow plop. While most saw Sept. 11 as a terrible tragedy that forever changed our lives, Rove saw political opportunity and pounced on it.
Moore, in an interview with online magazine Buzzflash, said, "Karl Rove led the nation to war to improve the political prospects of George W. Bush. I know how surreal that sounds, but I also know it is true."
Fear and war drove Bush's approval ratings into the stratosphere and, in a Rovian moment, the triumphant warrior-president landed on an aircraft carrier, strutted across the deck and announced "mission accomplished."
But then reality and truth set in.
People like Joseph Wilson started talking and the fraud was exposed.
Karl Rove is notoriously vindictive and his temper is volcanic. While preparing an "Esquire" magazine profile, Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer prize-winning writer, had an appointment for a rare interview with Rove, and was sitting in an outer office waiting to be summoned.
Suskind heard Rove erupt, speaking to an aide about a political operative who displeased him. Rove spewed the f-word, vowing to stick it to whomever crossed him. "We will ruin him like no one has ever f----d him," the president's "brain" bellowed.
Rove is the kind of guy who would say things like that and then casually walk into another office and preside at one of those White House Bible-study classes, skipping over troubling passages like "Blessed are the merciful."
Nothing leaks from the White House unless Karl Rove wants it to leak. So who gave the OK to out Valerie Plame? James Moore says, "The circumstantial evidence is already in, and it points to Karl Rove."
But Rove won't get caught.
First of all, Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department is conducting the investigation.
Never was there a more compelling case for bringing in an independent counsel to investigate White House treachery. But don't count on it.
Rove is clever at distancing himself from his sordid inspirations. Much like Henry II, who was furious when the archbishop he named, his former friend Thomas Becket, refused to follow the king's script and defied the mighty. Becket dared to resist Henry's claims on church property.
In a drunken rage, Henry challenged his minions to do something about "this troublesome priest." They did and murdered him in the cathedral. Later, Henry accepted some responsibility for the deed, and even did a little penance. Don't expect that from King Karl and his regent, the president.
David Kay, the Bush administration's own man, says he can't find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If they found Tinkerbell's pixie dust, the president would say that justified the invasion. In a vain attempt to prove his phony case after the fact, George W. asked Congress to cough up another $600 million to search for the elusive weapons that Field Marshall Rumsfeld said he knew exactly where to find.
Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist, got it right on the mark as usual, writing, "Unable to find weapons of mass destruction, the Bush team has turned to weapons of personal destruction."
That's what the president and Karl Rove's boys did to Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. It's a vicious crime and reflects the fact that George W. Bush will do anything to stay in power and punish anyone who challenges his regime.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | October 7 2003 |