Soapbox

Absolutely no Resemblance to Reality

Man, the bad stuff seems to be hitting the fan in Washington. As if the dismal poll numbers for the president and his war agenda aren’t bad enough, “Plame-gate”, the story that will not die, is back in the news.

You may recall that when Mark Felt was revealed as “Deep Throat” the Scream Team told the country that Felt was a traitor to the country. ( And Richard Nixon and and co. were what- misunderstood?) Remember the hideous excuses given to justify torture and abuse at Abu Graib prison? The same honesty and integrity they displayed then is in full flower today by “Team Treason”

The Bush team believes that the best defense is a good offense- and man, are they offensive! Their all too predictable strategy: blame the whistle blower, blame the victim, blame partisan attacks and if all else fails, and point and shout “Look- a flying monkey!’

And so the Republican rapid-response team has swung into action, making the rounds of all the right-wing talk shows to defend what is, according to the Constitution, treasonable behavior. They bluster and accuse, spouting the latest talking points and “yes but-s”, which bear absolutely no resemblance to reality. They just hope you don’t know what reality is.

Here are several incontrovertible facts that Sean Hannity, Bill Frist, Newt Gingrich and others hope you lose sigh of in among the smoke and mirrors:

~Joseph Wilson (a Republican who voted for George Bush senior, btw) was sent by the CIA to Africa to look into the WMD issue because he was highly qualified to do the job. It this fact is not changed by petty arguments about who suggested he go or for whom he voted in 2004.

~Joseph Wilson’s findings– that reports of Sadaam buying yellow cake in Niger were a forgery, and a poor one at that- have proven to be absolutely true. He reported this to the CIA, who in turn passed it on to the administration. His later claims that these findings were deliberately ignored seems to be backed up by the Downing Street Memos.

~ Wilson’s wife was at that time operating as an un-official (no government protection) CIA undercover agent trying to expose people bent on harming the United States. Her “outing” by a government, who claims their main focus is to keep us safe from terrorists, destroyed her ability to help the government prevent terrorist attacks. Don’t you feel safer now?

~Karl Rove called more than one reporter in an attempt to get someone to run the story that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife who worked for the CIA. The fact that he claims he didn’t say her name is so irrelevant as to be ridiculous. He was talking to reporters, for goodness’ sake: anyone of them who didn’t already know the name of Joseph Wilson’s wife could find it out in 30 seconds. Her name was not the part that was secret! How Rove, who is a political operative only, had the “need to know” security clearance to see the names of undercover CIA agents doing highly sensitive work has yet to be revealed, but can hardly play out well for the Bush administration.

~Several months ago President Bush, when asked if he stood by his promise to fire anyone caught leaking info about this to the press, answered “Yes.” Rove’s lawyer has admitted that he talked with Cooper and Novak, yet today the president is curiously silent about whether this will be the latest in his string of broken promises to the American people.

Here is another fun fact to keep in mind when you hear the apologists on parade on Fox TV:

Around the time of the 2004 conventions the Bush administration made it known that they had been instrumental in capturing one Noor Kahn who possessed plans for a terror attack against the U.S. This was absolutely true. What they neglected to mention, in their crowing and strutting, is that Kahn was then “flipped” and was working with the CIA and MI-5 to provide information on others who were planning attacks.

Once Kahn was “outed” he was obviously not invited to join in any more reindeer games and could provide no more information. This infuriated the British, who felt he could have been an important source.

Put simply, the Bush administration was willing to sacrifice national security for the sake of a bump in the polls. Seen in this light, the charge that Karl Rove (the man who once planted a bug in his own offices and blamed it on the opponent) would take such dangerous and illegal action against Wilson for speaking up about his concerns seem entirely plausible.