July 4, 2005

"In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House -- in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove, perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered the national security of the United States."


It is two years since PlameGate broke open as a national story, but its implications have long been underplayed by the White House and the Press.

In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House -- in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove, perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered the national security of the United States.

As a warning to those who would expose Bush lies about WMDs -- or any of the daily Bush deceptions -- in July of 2003 the White House revealed to their newspaper water boy, Bob Novak, that Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, was a CIA operative, and she specialized in the illicit trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is befitting the morally corrupt Bush Administration that they would neutralize an American asset in the war against the proliferation of WMDs, while fighting a war allegedly launched against WMDs, in order to make an example of a man, Joe Wilson, who had written a commentary in the New York Times arguing that the Bush Administration evidence claiming WMD evidence regarding a transaction between Niger and Saddam Hussein was false.

In short, the Bush Administration doesn't care if it endangers our national security by undercutting our efforts to curtail the very weapons that they claim they were saving us from. That is how dangerous the Bush Administration is to our national security -- and it is has been before us in plain sight for two years. But the mainstream media has focused on periodic reports that emerge about the "investigation" of the Chicago U.S. Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by John Ashcroft, then Attorney General, to see if any laws were broken.

Fitzgerald, who works now for AG and highly possible Supreme Court nominee Gonzales, must be under enormous pressure to find a way to avoid legally charging any senior Bush Administration officials, particularly Karl Rove. Most speculation is that he doesn't have enough "evidence" to charge Rove or others with violating the law in regards to exposing a CIA operative. The conventional wisdom is that Fitzgerald is now focussing on the possibility of perjury. But that is only speculation. And it's not over until the bald Benedict Arnold (Rove) sings.

Rove is our acting president on domestic policy, and if he can get Gonzales to sit on Fitzgerald (who -- for other reasons unrelated to PlameGate -- both political parties in Illinois want "promoted" to Washington), the endgame of PlameGate will be politically motivated, not legally accountable. If there are no indictments against Rove or other senior White House officials, Bush will declare that his staff got a clean bill of health and the mainstream media will consider the case closed.

Or Rove may have Gonzales, through Fitzgerald, indict a "little fish" to take the heat off, and Godfather style, the victim will be promised to have his family taken care of and a job waiting for him when he gets out of a federal "country club" prison.

Of course, there is another possibility, that Fitzgerald is the rare bird in the Bush Administration, a man who actually upholds the rule of law. In that case he would indeed be unique as he forges ahead despite withering pressure to find legal reasons NOT to indict Rove or any senior Bush/Cheney officials. But, although Fitzgerald has a reputation for relative integrity, we aren't holding our breath.

But here is what we know even without legal indictments and what is getting lost in the latest round of speculation about a two-year old act of betrayal against the citizens of the United States by the Bush Administration: the Bush White House committed brazen treason by deliberately undercutting our national efforts to keep WMDs out of the hands of "bad guys." Why did they do this? Because Karl Rove wanted to prevent future whistleblowers from coming forward to expose Bush lies, in this case the courageous proof by Joe Wilson that another lie had been used to bolster the false claim that Iraq had WMDs.

The PlameGate affair is symbolic of how the Bush Administration puts its own interests of preserving power before the interests of the American people -- and in unbelievable irony, on the one issue that they have trumpeted their "expertise" at: national security.

How the Democrats have apologetically bolstered Bush's "national security credentials" when he has put -- and PlameGate is just the tip of the iceberg -- our nation at greater risk than before 9/11, and used his bumbling efforts to further consolidate power into a shadow, secret government run by Cheney and Rove, is what is in plain sight.

But the mainstream media -- and most of the Democrats in Congress -- can't even see it staring them in the face.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL


BuzzFlash Afternote: BuzzFlash was proud to play a role in exposing PlameGate two years ago. We had read the original Novak column and thought the Valerie Plame comment was peculiar to say the least, but it took David Corn of "The Nation" to note its significance as an act of betrayal. We then championed Corn's column and wrote several pieces in quick succession.