Smoke and mirrors
July 26th, 2005 by JoshIf you’ve been following the hard to follow developments in TreasonGate over the past few weeks you’ve probably been wondering where Congress has been with its investigations. After all, every time someone in the Clinton White House hiccoughed there was a congressional investigation launched. Kenneth Starr managed to spend 30 million dollars and four years investigating Clinton to eventual turn up nothing. Clearly this is something Congress should be concerned about.
Well good thing they announced yesterday they will be conducting hearings. Not into who leaked a covert operative’s identity, blowing her cover, and potentially endangering national security, or perhaps into who was responsible for the false intelligence that led us to the failed Iraq War, but rather into the CIA’s use of cover. Bah!
The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence could hold hearings on the use of espionage cover soon after the U.S. Congress returns from its August recess, said Roberts spokeswoman Sarah Little.
Little said the Senate committee would also review the probe of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating the Plame case for nearly two years.
Do we see Turd Blossom’s fingerprints all over this? It fits his M.O.: attack, attack, attack. It is truly mindblowing that Karl Rove’s tentacles are so deeply embedded into the Republican establishment that they will completely ignore matters of national security, or any pressing issue for that matter, in a ruse to deflect attention from their boy wonder. They will attack those we have entrusted to find the truth simply to get their buddy off.
Suburban Guerilla, via Rowhouse Logic, raises the spectre of an Ollie North-eque end around the law: “Run an investigation and grant all those involved (Rove, Libby, etc.) all-purpose immunity. Wouldn’t put it past them…”
Billmon, who I’ve only just started reading, also does a great job of dissecting the spin and perfidy.
July 27th, 2005 at 10:58 am
While I’m not optimistic about any congressional hearings on this issue, I think a discussion/debate about leaks would be very valuable… maybe on “Justice Talking” or some such forum. Leaks have been a primary way that the Bush administration has gotten its viewpoint into the mainstream media. Judith Miller was a long-time conduit of misinformation leaked from people like Rove and Chalabi; and her “reporting” in large measure shaped the widespread public perception that there were WMDs in Iraq that warranted an invasion. Now we see the administration using leaks to destroy other people. OTOH, leaks have led to the exposure of many misdeeds on the part of both government and private industry. I actually find it quite startling that leaks from the grand jury and Fitzgerald’s committee find their way into the news with regularity every day. I can only guess that these are intentional leaks, but I haven’t quite figured out why.