Blog For Arizona

Bush Administration Outs Undercover CIA Officer?

David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation, writes about the possibility that Bush Administration officials may have broken the law and compromised national security in an attempt to intimidate possible future leaks within the intelligence community or the Administration generally. Robert Novak, the conservative columnist of the Sun-Times, reported on the 14th that two Administration officials told him that Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Wilson, who travelled to Africa to uncover the Niger forgery, is a CIA undercover officer working on WMD and proliferation.

This information, which really adds nothing more than a footnote to the Niger letter scandal, could only be aimed at ruining the career of Wilson's wife by blowing her cover. Such treatment at the hands of the Administration is sure to have a chilling effect on any potential leaks or whistleblowers - that was the purpose of giving the information to Novak.

The gloves are off at the Bush White House as they fight to protect themselves from WMD fallout. They are becoming reckless and incautious to the point of criminality. One wonders how many laws they'll break and how many lives they'll destroy before they are through.

Already several laws may have been broken. Telling a lie to Congress is a crime. It doesn't matter if it was under oath or not, if it was written or not, or even if it was intentional or not, a government official can be prosecuted for it. A conspiracy to defraud Congress is a crime. A large number of officials could be caught in this net. There are potential violations under a handful of treaties, most notably the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, surrounding the war on Iraq and the "war on terror." Some of these possible violations are war crimes which can warrant capital punishment. Now there is a possible violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

One thing is clear, whichever of the Democratic contenders becomes President (and I pray it is Dean), he or she should not pardon a single one of the Bush Administration's criminals, especially Bush himself. Unless and until America sees a corrupt former President and all his cronies in jail, those who serve the powerful and influential will continue to feel they are immune and above the law. It is a grave mistake to allow political criminals, especially those so highly placed, to walk away from their crimes for the sake of expediency or "saving the Nation from the agony" of public prosecution. That path is the begining of the end of the rule of law.

I firmly believe that the willness of this Administration to flout the law is the direct result of Ford's pardon and the lack of vigor in investigating Iran-Contra. Many key players in the this Administration cut their teeth in the Nixon and Reagan Administration's and know only too well the low cost of crime. A true blue scum-bag like Richard Armitage is serving as Deputy SecState in this Administration! What kind of signal does that send? What does it say about our political system that he was confirmed UNOPPOSED!

We should ask all Dems to take a pledge to not pardon a single crime by this Administration. Then we should start referring to the whole Bush Administration as the FFA, the Future Felons of America.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 7/19/2003 02:43:00 AM