Vice-president told to put out classified information · No instruction to out CIA agent, says president |
| by Suzanne Goldenberg |
| President George Bush directed his vice-president, Dick Cheney, to take personal charge of a campaign to discredit a former ambassador who had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq, it emerged yesterday. The revelation by the National Journal, a respected weekly political magazine, that Mr Bush took a personal interest in countering damaging allegations by the former ambassador, Joe Wilson, reveals a White House that was extraordinarily sensitive to any criticism of its prewar planning. It also returns the focus of the criminal investigation into the outing of a CIA agent to the White House only weeks after the senior aide Karl Rove was told he would not face prosecution. The Journal said Mr Bush made the admission in a July 24 2004 interview in the Oval Office with the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who is leading the investigation into the outing of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Ms Plame is married to Mr Wilson, who says her cover was broken in retaliation after he accused the administration of knowingly using false information on Saddam Hussein's weapons programme. According to the National Journal, Mr Bush told prosecutors he directed Mr Cheney to disclose classified information both to defend his administration and to discredit Mr Wilson. Elsewhere, the magazine quotes other government officials as saying that Mr Bush was very anxious to use classified information to counter Mr Wilson's charges, telling the vice-president: "Let's get this out." However, the president told investigators that he never directed anyone to disclose Ms Plame's identity. He also said that he was unaware Mr Cheney had directed his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to covertly leak the information, rather than formally declassify it. Mr Libby faces prosecution for lying to investigators about his role in the outing of Ms Plame. There was no immediate comment from the White House. The office of the special prosecutor also declined to comment yesterday. The revelation that Mr Bush instructed Mr Cheney to personally oversee the campaign to discredit Mr Wilson arrives at an inconvenient time for a White House vehement in criticising leaks. But I told you so. Last month it condemned as "disgraceful" a report in the New York Times that agents from the CIA and treasury departments had been secretly monitoring international wire transfers without court oversight. |
21.7.06
Bush Told Cheney to Discredit Diplomat Critical of Iraq Policy
19.7.06
Truthdig - Reports - Robert Scheer: What Bush’s Open Mike Revealed
Editor’s note: In the midst of a Middle Eastern crisis that threatens to destabilize the entire region and perhaps beyond, it was unnerving that what most seemed to interest President Bush at the G8 summit is that China is a long flight from western Russia.
Bombs were exploding and innocents dying, from Beirut to Haifa to Baghdad, and yet George Bush managed to pose for yet another photo op, smiling as he gave the thumbs up at the close of the G8 summit. Thanks to an unsuspected open mike, however, we could also glimpse the mind-set of a leader unaccountably pleased with his ignorance of the world.
What seemed to interest him most at that farewell get-together of leaders bitterly divided over a disintegrating Mideast was not some last-minute proposal for peace but rather the fact that it would take China President Hu Jintao eight hours to fly home from St. Petersburg to Beijing.
Bush had started the exchange by noting, absurdly, that, “This is your neighborhood, doesn’t take you long to get home.” Uh, yeah, incurious George, sure thing. Never mind that St. Petersburg is in Europe, on Russia’s northwestern corner, due north of Turkey, and Beijing is on the eastern edge of mainland Asia.
“You, eight hours? Me too. Russia’s a big country and you’re a big country,” he said when corrected, sounding for all the world like an earnest kindergartner, processing new information. “Russia’s big and so is China.”
Unfortunately, Bush’s private remarks to British Prime Minister Tony Blair several minutes later also revealed a cluelessness about more important matters: Israel’s bloody assault on Lebanon, its causes and possible solutions.
“See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over,” he said, apparently referring to the guerrilla force’s firing of rockets into Israel. “I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with [Syrian leader Bashir] Assad and make something happen.”
While it is refreshing to note that our president employs language that would earn a radio shock jock a fine from his own rabid obscenity-sniffers at the FCC, his profound ignorance is appalling.
Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah all have their own hard-core agendas—Syria is just one player in the tortured region. Furthermore, Bush’s complete disinterest in the Mideast peace process—especially as an “honest broker” between Israel and the Palestinians—since the Supreme Court handed him the job in 2000 has paved the way for this moment.
But should we be surprised at Bush’s poor grasp of the world he supposedly leads? After all, the blundering of the Bush administration has seriously undermined secular politics in the Mideast and boosted the religious zealots of groups like Hezbollah to positions of preeminence throughout the region, from savagely violent Iraq to the beleaguered West Bank and Gaza.
But what is truly “ironic” is that the Bush administration, having overstretched our militarily and generated no foreign policy ideas beyond the willy-nilly “projection” of military force, has become a helpless bystander as the entire region threatens to burn.
Responding to Bush, Blair at least sounded somewhat constructive, offering to go directly to the Mideast and pave the way for a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In this, he seemed to be unwittingly aligned with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who expressed on Sunday frustration with her successor for not leaving the conference to engage in emergency shuttle diplomacy in the Mideast.
Where Albright was critical of the “disaster” in Iraq for distracting from the dormant Mideast peace process, Rice was shrilly defensive.
“For the last 60 years, American administrations of both stripes—Democrat, Republican—traded what they thought was security and stability and turned a blind eye to the absence of democratic forces, to the absence of pluralism in the region,” she said Sunday. “That policy has changed.”
While this is certainly a dramatic sound bite, the words have no logical meaning: The U.S. continues to embrace the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, as has been the case for 60 years. In fact, Bush has added Libya to the “approved” list. Meanwhile, Israel is attacking elected governments in the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon with U.S. support.
As for the democracy in Iraq that Bush wants Russia to emulate, things haven’t worked out as neocons like invasion architect Richard Perle had hoped when he fantasized about Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi leading Baghdad to recognize Israel. On Sunday, according to Reuters, the notoriously divided Iraqi parliament unanimously passed a motion condemning the Israeli offensive and urging the U.N. Security Council and the meeting of the Group of Eight leaders to intervene “to stop the ... Israeli criminal aggression.”
Instead of creating a malleable U.S.-Israel ally, the overthrow of the secular Sunni leader Saddam Hussein has extended a fiery arc of Shiite-dominated religious fanaticism blazing across the Mideast skyline that betrays Bush’s claim to be bringing democracy and stability to the region.
COULD I INTEREST YOU IN A NEW WORLD WAR?
CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOW AND DEMAND THEY CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON
TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/peaceteam/cease-fire.php
I'm writing this piece from a secret location far underneath a mountain in Colorado. There is everything here to sustain life just about indefinitely, a source of nuclear power, extensive underground farming facilities, of course a tap right to one of the purest aquifers of them all.
[POP]
Hey, I thought I was Dick Cheney for a second. Actually, my butt is hanging out exposed on the surface too, just like yours.
But in case you hadn't noticed, the marketing of World War III is already in high gear.
You can't turn on a cable news channel now without encountering a product placement ad for World War III. It's not just Gingrich. It's Gibson, and O'Reilly, and Hanity, and Woolsey and Ledeen, and every other prominent right wing operative who has been positioned to spit out synchronized talking points about starting a new world war. Actually, Ledeen was talking about World War IV, but they'll get him on the exact same message as everyone else before he makes another appearance.
And it's not just in our own media, Israeli prime minister Olmert made the accusation yesterday that the kidnapping of the two soldiers by Hezbollah was timed to distract from scrutiny of Iran's nuclear progam by the G8. The charge is ludicrous on its face. It is only Israel's extreme over-reaction to the kidnappings that gave them so much attention. But it represents just one more synaptic connection they are trying to plant in our minds, until like one of Pavlov's dogs they can ring the bell to attack Iran.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey just said this about the crisis in Lebanon:
"The last thing we ought to do is start talking about cease-fires and the rest."
And why is he so dead set against a cease-fire? Because they are working overtime to escalate this thing just fast as they can. And the LAST thing they want is to lose their momentum of insanity. And that is why a cease-fire is PRECISELY what we must all demand immediately. Call your members of Congress right now and demand an emergency sense of congress resolution that
1) There be an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, and that
2) Israel and Hezbollah cease all hostile operations against each other
TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/peaceteam/cease-fire.php
Let's take a body count so far shall we? From three kidnapped soldiers we are now up to 25 dead Israelis and about 230 dead Lebanese, mostly civilians. And do you know how many Hezbollah militants are included in those numbers? Not one that they know of. NOT ONE!
Hezbollah is firing wildly unguided rockets into Israel. Israel is attacking civilian infrastructure, and civilian settlements on unfounded suspicions that Hezbollah is nearby. How long can the slaughter of innocents go on before Syria feels threatened enough to act, or Bush feels he can get away with acting directly against it. Gibson was speculating openly on his show with Woolsey about which particular Syrian targets the United States ought to be hitting, to the point of egging him on about striking Iran simultaneously.
Both sides are doing absolutely everything they can to provoke the other into further escalations. And why? Because George Bush lost his shirt (and ours) in his WMD-less Iraq gamble, and is driven to double down and bet the farm with an even bigger war to try to win it all back.
At the same time, Islamic militants buoyed by the chaos they have created in Iraq and our entanglement there, believe the more war crimes they can get Bush to commit, the more power they will be able to seize themselves. A world war is an opportunity for radical changes in country boundaries. And every innocent Muslim raped or slaughtered allows them to further whip up their own populations for war.
And so the sales job is on full bore. It's going to be relentless, you'll hear the word Iran until it is coming out of your ears. And there is very little time to stop it. By the time you hear the words World War III and "done deal" in the same breath on your cable TV, it may be too late.
The last world war ended with the use of nuclear weapons. That is how they are planning to start this one. It was all the joint chiefs of staff could do to constrain Bush and Cheney from locking in plans to hit Iran with nuclear bunker busters a couple months ago. The escalation through Lebanon scheme may have been their primary plan all along. And Bush and Olmert are absolutely in sync on this. Bush's brain implant quote from yesterday was, "Syria is trying to get back into Lebanon, it looks like to me."
Please, folks. Even if you have never called a member of Congress in your life. You must do it now. Your life, and the lives of your children depend on it. The president and his whole administration are complicit in this. The mainstream media is complicit in this, especially because for them a world war has blockbuster entertainment value, just as sick as that sounds.
TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/peaceteam/cease-fire.php
And then when you hear the pitch man on your cable TV talking about how great it would be to have new World War, and how quickly we'd kick their butts . . . take a long, hard look at the product performance of the last two world wars.
How they dragged on for years and years.
Millions of people dead. Countries utterly destroyed. And understand that their new improved model (with more nukes) could put an end to all human civilization. And then yell at the TV as loud as you can, "I ain't buying it!"
17.7.06
Profile of US Senator Joseph Biden, Jr of Delaware
Liberal Politics: U.S.
US Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware
United States Senate: Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. of Delaware was first elected to the US Senate in 1972 when 29 years old. He was the 5th youngest Senator in US history. He's serving his 6th consecutive 6-year term, and will be up for reelection in 2008.Biden is a gifted negotiator who helped shape US security and foreign relations policies. He's a moderate Democrat who often bridges the bipartisan gap, and is an ebullient campaigner with loads of authentic charm.
Other recent notoriety came during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings when he vehemently objected to the nomination of John Bolton to be US Ambassador to the UN. As a result, Democrats prevented Republicans from fast-tracking the Bolton nomination through Congress without proper due diligence investigation.
Committee on Foreign Relations, ranking Democratic member
Committee on the Judiciary, chair from 1987 to 1995
Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Victims' rights, ranking Democratic member
Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, co-chair
Senate NATO Observer group, co-chair
Senate National Security working group, co-chair
Congressional Firemens Caucus, co-chair
Congressional International Anti-Piracy caucus, co-chair
Congressional Air Force and National Guard caucuses
Education - BA in history and political science from University of Delaware; JD from Syracuse University Law School.
Family - Married, 3 children, 4 grandchildren
Faith - Roman Catholic
He lives in his home state, and commutes daily to Washington DC by Amtrak.
Young Joe Biden was a stutterer and was terrified to read aloud in class. He would memorize pages of books before class, to minimize stuttering in front of his peers.
~Rolling Stone magazine, June 2004. Well said and GOOD point.
"You Europeans use George Bush's excesses as an excuse for your own lack of commitment. You've been reluctant to do anything apart from criticize America---get over it." reported on a blog, on the subject of the 2004 Davos conference in Switzerland- Easy now, don't bite the hand of the Union that could save our ass.
Talking about the Bush 2006 budget proposal to shut Amtrak and force it into bankruptcy, Senator Biden said "This is absolutely bizarre that we continue to subsidize highways beyond the gasoline tax, airlines...and we don't want to subsidize a national rail system that has environmental impact....This is the ultimate in being penny-wise and a pound-foolish." Is that like saying Bush is a capitalistic Dipsh**? NBC News "Meet the Press" on February 27, 2005
"I was in the Oval Office the other day, and the President asked me what I would do about resignations. I said, 'Look, Mr. President, would I keep Rumsfeld? Absolutely not.' And I turned to Vice President Cheney, who was there, and I said, 'Mr. Vice President, I wouldn't keep you if it weren't constitutionally required.' I turned back to the President and said, 'Mr. President, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld are bright guys, really patriotic, but they've been dead wrong on every major piece of advice they've given you.That's why I'd get rid of them, Mr. President---not just Abu Ghraib.' They said nothing. Just sat there like big old bullfrogs on a log and looked at me." Rolling Stone interview, June 2004. How eloquent.
At least he know's the difference between right and wrong. That simple fact can make all the difference.
