Scooter Guilty
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on 4 of 5 counts in his trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. He will be sentenced in early June.
Ultimately, this trial is about the selling of the Iraq War. As has been well documented the Bush administration was set on going to war with Iraq. Why? Many theories are out there. But they needed a casus belli. So they rhetorically connected Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (Astonishingly, Cheney still does.) They claimed to have accurate intelligence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. They demonized the U.N. and the weapons inspectors because they had counter proof. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed denouncing the story that Iraq was getting uranium from Nigeria they went after him in the press and revealed that his wife was a CIA agent. The Libby conviction is another, strong piece of evidence that the Bush administration lied to the U.S. public to start a war of their choosing!!!
I've never really understood why revealing Wilson's wife's identity was useful. There have only been two explanations that make sense to me and they are NOT mutually exclusive. First, that revealing Plame as a CIA agent was a direct, financial attack on the family. It limited her ability to do her job and possibly limited any advancement opportunities for her. Essentially, it was done as an act of revenge. Second, Cheney, who Libby worked for, was so pathologically engrossed in making the false case for WMD that he lashed out in a panic. He hated and distrusted the CIA to a point that in his mind revealing the CIA connection instantly discredited Wilson.
Over at Balloon Juice they are predicting a pardon. If they are right, will that further enrage the public? I'm not sure. Balloon Juice is right that Bush is not standing for reelection. But, I think it should galvanize even more people against the GOP. At least I can hope.
If Balloon Juice is wrong then Libby is going to want to get a new nickname quick. I don't think "Scooter" is going to be good for maintaining the integrity of his back side.
Ultimately, this trial is about the selling of the Iraq War. As has been well documented the Bush administration was set on going to war with Iraq. Why? Many theories are out there. But they needed a casus belli. So they rhetorically connected Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (Astonishingly, Cheney still does.) They claimed to have accurate intelligence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. They demonized the U.N. and the weapons inspectors because they had counter proof. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed denouncing the story that Iraq was getting uranium from Nigeria they went after him in the press and revealed that his wife was a CIA agent. The Libby conviction is another, strong piece of evidence that the Bush administration lied to the U.S. public to start a war of their choosing!!!
I've never really understood why revealing Wilson's wife's identity was useful. There have only been two explanations that make sense to me and they are NOT mutually exclusive. First, that revealing Plame as a CIA agent was a direct, financial attack on the family. It limited her ability to do her job and possibly limited any advancement opportunities for her. Essentially, it was done as an act of revenge. Second, Cheney, who Libby worked for, was so pathologically engrossed in making the false case for WMD that he lashed out in a panic. He hated and distrusted the CIA to a point that in his mind revealing the CIA connection instantly discredited Wilson.
Over at Balloon Juice they are predicting a pardon. If they are right, will that further enrage the public? I'm not sure. Balloon Juice is right that Bush is not standing for reelection. But, I think it should galvanize even more people against the GOP. At least I can hope.
If Balloon Juice is wrong then Libby is going to want to get a new nickname quick. I don't think "Scooter" is going to be good for maintaining the integrity of his back side.
Labels: Iraq, War On Terror
posted by LP Cards Fan at
12:56 PM
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