The buck has stopped

Watching U.S. President George W. Bush in North Carolina this morning rattle and prattle on endlessly live on CNN about the usual war on terror ''deshijuns'' he had to make, I had to wonder just what was really going on today. Turns out the the news is devastating, and leads us to ask once again, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" Actually, in the Bush era, we get a bonus question, "And to whom did he spill it and to what end?"

WASHINGTON – U.S. President George W. Bush was the one who authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case. The papers (scroll to the bottom) quoted Vice-President Dick Cheney’s former top aide, Lewis Libby.

Before his indictment, Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak that Cheney told him to pass on the information and that it was Bush who had authorized the leak, the court papers say.

According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to specifically disclose Plame’s CIA identity.

But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday indicate that the president and the vice-president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Turns out it was the conservative New York Sun which broke this one.

One of the facts Mr. Libby said he planned to disclose to Ms. Miller was that the estimate, produced in October 2002, concluded that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure uranium." This contention was sharply at odds with Mr. Wilson's op-ed piece which argued there was no evidence of such a procurement effort, at least on a trip he took to Africa at the CIA's request.

Mr. Bush's alleged instruction to release the conclusions of the intelligence estimate appears to have been squarely within his authority and Mr. Fitzgerald makes no argument that it was illegal. While Mr. Libby said he gave that information "exclusively" to the Times reporter at their breakfast meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, many of the findings of the estimate were formally declassified and discussed at a White House press briefing ten days later, on July 18, 2003.

The court papers filed by Mr. Fitzgerald do not make clear whether Mr. Bush knew the disclosure was destined for Ms. Miller, though they indicate Mr. Cheney knew that fact. Mr. Libby is also said to have testified that five days late Mr. Cheney authorized the release to the press of information about a cable about Mr. Wilson's strip.

I'll leave it to others to go through the documents.

But, at this point, it looks like Bush might end up having to fire himself.

Q    Given -- given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?

THE PRESIDENT:  That's up to --

Q    And, and, do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

Comments

[Hockey Fan]

Oh BoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoy!!!

This is the end of Bush!!!

Ding Dong the Bush is dead! The Bush is dead! Time for the Left to celebrate!

Uh, for another hour or so anyway. Until all the misleading headines are fixed. And until it dawns on the Left that this "revelation" does not mention the outing of any CIA agents.

But far be it from me to put a damper on all the fun. Enjoy!

[Dana]

Hockey Fan's off his meds again.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Dana,

You've got that right! LMAO!

Gee, I wonder if this will be more serious than, say, having sex in the Oral, er, Oval Office?

Any cigars involved? How about large hotel/office complexes? Tape recorders? Emails, notepads?

Ah, the feeding frenzy will begin. Now look for the doggie to be wagged by its tail!

[sooey]

nah, dana - hockey fan's right. just a weeeee bittt morrre... damn! and it'd've been treason.

[Bill-Muskoka]

sooey,

Hey, they shoot horses don't they? I wonder about horses' arses? Bet the WH press corps is just working their little brains into a smoking plume about now. Or should that be Plame?

Gee, hard week, what with people asking the Prez questions at 'news' conferences, the disclosure of the DHS pervert deputy press secretary, etc..

Well, at leat they are providing fodder for the MSM, because our Parliament is sure not lighting the journalistic fires, eh?

Oops, is that because they have had to re-group and re-discover investigative reporting in place of scrums?

Meanwhile in the Muskoka we are celebrating Sprinter! It is still snowing, and then almost Spring like. Mother Nature with dementia is no picnic. LOL

[Jay Currie]

Let's see, we have the President authorizing the release of sensitive information about a national security estimate which has nothing to do with the possibly covert Ms. Plame vs, say, the leaks leading to the revelations of the NSA's interception program. So, here's a question should we applaud Fitz for filing largely irrelevant material or wonder why the NYT has not been charged.

I realize that its been a bad week for the Left what with US and Iraqi casualties hitting a new low last month but surely the tired old story of Ms. Plame is not going to save the situation.

Let's face it, if Feingold couldn't get Bush censured on the alledged FISA violations the Dems simply don't have the votes or the stomach to take on Bush. Plame is just Leftie wanking in the face of utter impotence.

[Jim Trautman]

What a shock Bush/Cheney are liars and in reality under law traitors. But then again the king and the court jester can do what they want since neither of them ever fought in a war. Let's send the Bush sisters to war. Reality it is no major surprise from the Downing Street Memo to the death of David Kelly the list is endless, Chalabi a war manufactured and for what ends to make certain members of the cabal richer than ever. Nothing will happen to either Bush or Cheney since the Congress knows that he was illegally wiretapping and passed legislation that it was ok even grandfathered the old stuff in. Why Tom Delay is leaving his seat and moving to Virginia to become a lobbyist. The countries of the West are long past worrying about the legal and illegal. Talk shows have already been filled with the legal talking heads about how the President could release names and information if he so desired. And I thought Richard Nixon was corrupt. Not just the US, but look at the UK and even Canada, the socalled democracies of the West lost their way in the 90's over money and greed and every illegal action can be rationalized. Why they even plan to build a giant casino next to the Civil War Gettysburg battlefield. I'm sure it will be tasteful with Lee and Grant statues. If Bush had ever been serious about bin Laden they would have sent 150,000 troops to Afghanistan. Invading Iraq was to show mommy and daddy he was so smart, well now others are paying the piper. I don't hold out much hope that anything will come of this. This should be a wake up call to Mr. Harper to keep his distance, but of course not as he states America is our best friend as long as you scrape and bow. Before I get angry replies about being anti-American - I am an American citizen an unlike Bush/Cheney served in the US Marine Corps. infantry in the other wonderful grand war Vietnam.

[sooey]

ooh, cheney. i bet it sucks being number two...

[Robert McClelland]

"I realize that its been a bad week for the Left what with US and Iraqi casualties hitting a new low last month"

Iraq Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
March 06: 1,094
February 06: 846
January 06: 780
http://icasualties.org/oif/

[Jim Trautman]

Robert, Casualties low, check your figures and typical neocon pap. Check out the number of seriously wounded two limbs, three limbs, paralysed for life. Already vets benefits have been cut. The fact that over 60% of Iraqi vets have gone for mental health treatment, that the VA's own report has noticed an increase in homeless Iraqi vets. Yea, us lefties dance around when the casualty figures are low. Neocons love to talk tough and dress in their military outfits, but of course never going to volunteer to serve and they do love to demonize others. As for the Iraqi security forces check your figures there is 1 battalion that is fit for combat and even the Pentagon admits that the "new off the shelf death squads" were trained by Amerians. Check the turmoil in Turkey a US ally now that their Kurds have steped up attacks against Turkish military forces and have assassinated government officials as part of their drive to link up with the Kurds in Iraq. Turkey by the way is a secular muslim state in the same way that Iraq was. No, a Pandora's Box was opened three years ago and the demons are just starting to appear. Gee, I thought the illegal invasion of Iraq was about WMD, but when the neocons could not get that version to fit, it became to free the people and overthrow Saddam. It's always changed to fit the new rationale. The war is turning in the same manner that Vietnam did, when Westerns get bored they move on to the reality tv show on the tube. In Vietnam the US government did not even take time to destroy the files of everyone that had worked with them. Everyone for themselves. And in the geopolitical reality of the day Pol Pot was created by the US and its meddling in Asian affairs. One thing about Westerners they have a short vision of anything. Yes, I maybe a proud leftie, but I don't gloat over anyones death, I've seen my share and know what a precious item a human life is.

[Antonia]

Jim, thanks for your post but chill. Robert is on the same side as you are. Read his post carefully.

[Stephen Reevess]

Pol Pot was not created by the U.S, if anythng if was his education in France, you could say Hitler was created by the U.S and other WW1 victors.The left readines to blame every mass murderer on the U.S is starting to piss me off, and I a starting to think many on the left do not care how many Arabs get killed as long as it makes Bush look bad.
Good Night.

[Stephen Reevess]

Oh one more thing Jim, as for the Kurds, I suppose you would rather Saddam have gassed them.

[Jim Trautman]

First I want to apologise to Robert, I was in such haste I did not read the figures you posted correctly - sorry. Now as for the Kurds the gas that was employed was composed of material supplied by the US, UK and several other European countries. When the gassing was revealed for two weeks Ron Reagan and his merry men blamed it on the Iranians - as this occurred during the Iran-Iraq War of which the US was providing intelligence, weapons and material for nerve gas to Saddamm Hussein. When the official documents were released several years ago the Bush administration received a copy on a Friday and over the weekend deleted out any reference which listed American companies. Dupont was one. When the list was released it had been cleaned up. Prior to the UN weapons teams returning to Iraq shortly before the invasion. A publication in Germany noticed what had transpired and then printed the "real list of companies." It is a subject that I know since I did a CBC Commentary on it, wrote on it and even spoke to the Rosedale Businessmen's Association on it. How quickly it seems to be forgotten that Saddam was a surrogate of the US to move against Iran. Of course like any good surrogate (Norreiga of Panama) they get to uppidity and have to be replaced by another surrogate. In Iraq the man was to be Chalabi, but it has not worked out, Iraqis hate me and don't trust him. Now the Kurds in Turkey see the opportunity in the same way that the Kosvo Liberation Army saw the way to victory stir the pot and the Western Allies help you out. Interesting the Serbs that are left behind in Kosovo have become victims of brutality of the members of the Kosvo Liberation Army. By the way their leader is under indictment, but he has been allowed to stay in Kosovo until his trial (date unknown). More than likely the Kurds won't get their way until they stir the pot in Iran, then the US will be on that bandwagon, but Turkey is a lot more difficult. There have been several terrorist bombings in Iran over the last year. But then since they are against the Iranian government as Reagan used to state of the Contras, they are "freedom fighters." I don't really care where Pol Pot went to school, since most of Southeast Asia was a French or Dutch colony he probably did go to France. The point is read the geopolitics of the area if the US was not involved in Vietnam, had not bombed Laos, Cambodia (the beautiful Plain of Jars is now a pot holed field - where aircraft unable to drop their bomb loads onto the target dumped their bombs instead. Yes, the history of the world since 1945 is filled with the invasions of the US of various countries, regions, with no long term plan for anything. The philsophy of the US has been "shock and awe, destroy" and let someone else clean up the mess. By the way the Agent Orange that was employed in Vietnam was manufactured in the Uniroyal plant in Elmira, Ont. In fact barrels are still stored in a large containment building down the road from me. Elmira has had polluted water for the past 25 years think there might be a connection.
You can google me as I am a freelance investigative journalist (had a piece on torture in the Star OpEd page on 2/17 - not sure if I am allowed to put that sort of information in or not). If Bush had never illegally invaded Iraq there would not be the dead, here's a major question where have the billions for reconstruction gone, since there is less electricity, clean water and oil then before. Think it may have gone to corrupt Iraqis and Americans?

[Bill-Muskoka]

Jim Trautman.

Semper Fi mon ami!

[Jay Currie]

Yup Jim, gonna get me some of that Chomsky kool-aid and drink it all up....every drop. Because you know every bad thing that has happened in the world from 1776 forward has been the American's fault. I stubbed my toe in 82. No question, America was to blame.

Pol Pot? American in disguise. Saddam, American proxy in dirty war against the enlightened ayatohahs of Iran. (Kuwait? Just a clever American plot to make Uncle Cuddles look bad by luring him into invading a neighbour so that Haliburton could make big coin out of the reconstruction.) Kosovo? Dastardly American plot to have Christian Serbs massacre largely defenceless Muslims to distract attention from earlier American plot to have Christian Serbs massacre largely defenceless Muslims in Srebrenica.

The beauty of the anti-American kool aid is that it explains everything, not just most things, everything. Not a sparrow falls from the sky that some American proxy is not standing about with an empty Stinger tube.

[Dana]

"Yup Jay, gonna get me some of that Bush kool-aid and drink it all up....every drop."

The impressive thing about the balls-to-the-wall Bush apologists is their skill at using any critical inflection toward US foreign policy as a shield for Bush under the claim that it's all just rampant anti-Americanism.

Even if there's a firm and legitimate historical record of a specific example of US adventurism. Just bringing it up is enough to trigger the response, like one of Pavlov's dogs at the sound of the bell. Citing or quoting historical sources, especially official US based sources can be enough to turn the dog spit to blood.

Thus Jay above, mindless of the detriment to his integrity, dignity or credibility is compelled at the cost of his self-image to scorn, ridicule or misrepresent allusions to even historically documented past US foreign policy debacles.

In most other regards he is probably more or less sane, intelligent, responsible. Or at least as much as anyone capable of living a life free of supervision can be said to be.

But in this one regard, in the paramount imperative to protect and defend George W. Bush's America, he is functionally mad in that each time he does so he expects a different result from that which he received the time before and the time before that and the time before that ad infinitum amen.

[Jim Trautman]

Jay, Interesting answer, but like all neocons you never answer or provide any evidence to repute the information - just cute kool aide, anti American (since I happen to be an American is that possible). Was Saddam not a friend of America - I guess it was the left media that planted those photos of him shaking hands with Rummy. Today the US Ambassador stated that the Middle East is moving in the direction of a mass conflict, appointed by Bush he must be a leftie too. Next time give me an answer with refutes rather than nonsense to refute what has been said. But, then again the right is limited in that regard. You are right I am enjoying watching Bush explain classified material being given to the media, at the same time watching those old video of him saying he would fire anyone that did. No America has become corrupt - you don't want to belive I do not really care, but I am enjoying all those Latin American countries spitting in the face of the Great Dictatorship to the North. In reality I don't blame Bush/Cheney and the other corrupt toads, the American people put them into office the ultimate blame rests with them spineless that they are. If you reply give me some real facts so I can have a real debate.

[Stephen Reevess]

Of course the United States of America was much less corrupt in the 50's and 60's and more free I suppose,tell that to the blacks, gays, women etc.
As for Latin American yea let them do what they like, trouble is they all still want to get into the U.S.!!!,

[Jim Trautman]

Stephen, I love those blanket statements they all want to get into the US - I think not. Anyway guess who does all the crap jobs that Americans don't want to do. By the way Maple Leaf hires Latins to work in the meat plants that the company has made non union. Point is Latin Americans the 99% that are not part of the socalled European elite that have never benefited from globalization and have grown tired of being forced to pay back loans that never benefited them are now in power. The coca that the US attempts to destroy in Latin America is all for the US market - because Americans love their lives so well. Drugs and corrections (private prisons soon coming to a Canadian community near you) are about economics and making money. California with its famous "Three Strikes" pays more for corrections than education. But, of course the elite never want to go to jail - in the US the law with cocaine has two parts - one for powder cocaine the type politicians, lawyers, doctors, professionals can afford is a simple fine, crack the cheap stuff the lower classes use is a 7 year min. sentence. Ain't justice blind. Whose arguing that the US was not corrupt in the 60's I lived through the Red Witch Hunt McCarthy days of the 50's. Read Richard Gwynn's Friday column I rarely agree with him, but he hit the nail on the head. Today the US has 36,000 lobbyists, government is arranged not for the people but for the lobbyists and their money interests. Democracy is more than the external trappings of voting every two or four years or tv debates. In the old soviet union people voted to, but the outcome was known. Tom Delay and Bush ensured through gerrymandering electorial districts that certain states would fall into the Republican camp. Political parties including Canada are about rewarding friends and doing less of the peoples business. In the states two parties Republicans that do what they want and Democrats that say little. The West has lost its way and all the meaningless words won't make it any different. Listening to Bush state he would fire any leaker, than listening to how he could leak since he was the king, but God Bless America and Democracy. No what America needs is a Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt, we no longer have statesman, but businessmen that operate government like a large crime family and divide the spoils for their members. But a day of reckoning maybe on the way since home foreclosures in the US are higher than during the depression, savings are negative and the Chinese own 55% of America's bonds and debt.

[Jay Currie]

Jim, (and so far as I can figure out what you are saying, Dana), the difficulty with refutation is that it implies conjecture rather than certainty.

Which is why I make fun of the "all America's fault all the time" school of policy analysis, N. Chomsky, Prop. It is, literally, impossible to provide a reasoned refutation because the "America's fault" line is an article of religious faith rather than a hypothesis open to contradiction.

To take a simple example: the pics of Rumsfeld with Saddam illustrate a political position taken by America which was, in my view, both wrong and futile. The fact that position was repudiated by first Bush Sr. and now Bush the Younger would, were I not dealing with zealots, count as a refutation of the earlier American position. But with a striking ability to take black and make it white, the fact Americans hunted this SOB down to his spiderhole and now have turned him over to the Iraqis for trial, is seen as yet another bit of evidence of American perfidity.

One need not be a Bush appologist (and I have little time for the man) in order to have supported the removal of Saddam. One need not be a neo-con to recognize that the situation in the Middle East under the realist foreign policy which characterized American action from WWII forward was rotten to the core.

There is very little question that, unless the Iranians get on with the job of removing their present regime, there will be a wider war in the region. Whether it will be initiated by the Americans or will be a reaction to the increasingly belicose and possibly nuclear armed Iranian state is an open question. An American ambassador in Baghdad who was not aware of this would be an idiot.

The artificial stability of the Middle East for the last several decades was predicated on the continuing oppression of the vast majority of the people who lived there. The elimination of the Saddam regime began a process which, with luck, will continue into other nations of the Middle East. It is not a simple, smooth, easy process; a lot of people have died and will die. But the objective of the process is the complete reversal of a policy of propping up evil dictatorships in the name of stability (and of course, a continued oil supply.)

It may well be that you will want to argue that this is none of America's business or that Arabs are inherently incapable of creating a civil state or that Islam is incompatible with democracy. And you are, of course, welcome to each or any of these arguments. But the Bush rejection of the stasis of realism and its implicit sanction of regimes like Sadddam's means that, for once, America is actually fighting for what it purports to believe.

All the more reason for the Moorerite/Chomsky left to leave no stone unturned in an effort to discredit this transformation. Were it to succeed they would be left looking like the inherently selfish, deeply racialist, politically ignorant folks they are sure their opponents are. After all, it takes a certain brilliance to be able to argue that somehow the retention of Saddam would have been a good thing or that the massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica was better than its alternative without your head exploding.

Of course, as Susan Sontag famously remarked after the fall of the Iron Curtain,(and I paraphrase) "Could it be that the Readers Digest was right all along?" And her head didn't explode....so there is hope.

[Dana]

Spoken like a true Wilsonian.

I don't know how old you are but if you're under 40 get ready to spend the rest of your life at war. Hope it meets your expectations. Isn't it a shame it didn't happen with the Soviet Union as the enemy? Now there was a foe worthy of the name.

[Jay Currie]

Tragically I am not under forty, barely under fifty, with three sons so the prospect of what I believe is a necessary war fills me with horror. But the prospect of the continuation of the realist enterprise on the backs of the Arab world or the capitulation to radical Islam is even less paletable.

What has become obvious since 9/11 is that the realist position simply set the stage for jihad. That jihad was fostered by Western indifference to the Islamic world and a willingness to prop up the Saddams, the Araffats, Shahs and House of Saud regardless of what was occuring in the nations they ruled. That had to stop and it has.

The ongoing issues of the unassimilated Islamists in Europe, the atomic reality in an unstable Pakistan, and the looniness of the current Iranian regime need to be dealt with. Pretending they don't exist or that they will naturally go away or that "our interests" will not allow them to be addressed simply postpones the day.

For many, 9/11 simply underscored the fact the endless compromise of the post-WWII era, the cut and run antics of America, were no longer going to cut it.

Of course, Dana, it would be cosier to nestle around the dimming campfire singing Kumbaya and consoling ourselves with the thought that as we are, after all, Canadian, we need not worry about events far away in nations about which we know very little. And, with the ahistorism which characterizes much of the discourse of the left, we would probably be able to forget that this echos what Neville Chamberlin said of Czechoslovakia in 1938, "this is a far away country about which we know very little".

We know how well that turned out.

However, I don't for a second think that there will be a war which will last very long. The war itself, principly the destruction of the current Iranian regime and Revolutionary Guard, would be, at most, a six month operation. Now, the peace might take a decade as I suspect the peace in Iraq may.

And, yes there will indeed be civilian casualties and collateral damage. However, in the event that Iran actually builds a nuke and is even close to using it, the civilian casualties and collateral damage may well be the State of Israel, most if not all the Palestinians (it's a very small country), Tehran and asoorted other Iranian cities as well as whatever damage is inflicted outside the Middle East.

It may just be possible to avert this war. The resolution which the West - including the Canadian government - has shown in the face of the election of the terrorist Hamas as the government of the Palestinian Authority is beginning (as I point out in my blog) to show signs of paying off. But whether the West is capable of the same unity in the face of the nutters in Tehran is a whole other question. Given the French, German and Russian preference for protecting their own commercial interests in Iraq (not to mention the copious bribes which Saddam was paying)as opposed to the people of Iraq as aganist Saddam, I am not optimistic.

[Jim Trautman]

Jay, You are exactly right there is a looney regime and it sits to the South. Yea, I know you cannot wait for the coming war and what a joke the Americans could not defeat the Vietnamese, nor win the illegal war they and the toads across the pond created, but by all means lets move on to Iran. Lots of luck and I hope you are in the front of the recruiting line, but then Jay you're kind always just talk. I'll enjoy listening to you when all the oil is gone, should be interesting since the greedy West lives on the stuff. I know of only one country that employed nuclear weapons and it is the nutbags (my socalled countrymen to the South), Bush and the rest of the gutless neocon wonders. Of course the attack is coming when a US politician is corrupt, sitting at 34% time to start a war, so his popularity shoots up to 90%. I can hear the bandwagon rolling already. America is populated by a mass of stupid individuals, who more than ever love war since the draft is gone. But, when I learned my US history the one question my teacher could never answer about the bomb was would American have used it against the Germans and of course the answer was no. America is a racist society that is very selective. I guess you have no problem with giving India nuclear technology with no inspections of their military sites, or with Israel. Nothing like a country like Israel that was governed by a former terrorist Sharon, that's right when he was killing UN peace representatives, British soldiers and bombing civilian hotels he was a "freedom fighter." You do have the Czech part of the story correct about stopping the aggressor, but the wrong state, the Nazis live below us. If other nations are smart they will arm themselves against the American Nazis before it is to late.

[Jim Trautman]

Jay, As a followup you are even selective in who does business with Middle East countries. Reality the US, by the way CSX container company is receiving hundreds of millions to move their raillines away from the hurricane zone in La., Miss. Ala. Can you guess which group owns the company, the largest container shipping company in the world. Why, Dubai Ports that purchased it from the Carlyle Investment Group, you know the company that Pappa Bush works for and that the head of CSX that sold it to Carlyle why John Snow, the Secretary of Treasury, who is now cashing out to collect his big fees from the various companies palms he has greased. You go on, but you never seem to answer the question - here's one I will ask again Moussai will get the death for not telling the authorities what he knew prior to 9/11, interesting that George Lazy Bush knew in August and continued on vacation and cutting brush, did not even have time to issue a Presidental Security Alert to increase security at airports. I wonder is the right man getting the death penalty, but then again unlike spying and leaking classified information, I'm sure Bush's spokesperson would reveal that the President has not power to issue security alerts. I'm sure with the coming war with Iran our Leader the toad Harper will be on board lapping, and drawling for his masters to the South. Unfortunately I'm to old to serve and beside I learned my lesson from a different war. That was never to trust those in power, especially in the past twenty years. Hopefully your kids will join up to replace you. Warmongers always get up my nose. Read the book or see the show Band of Brothers to see what the real soldiers of WW II taught of the warmongers that sat at home.