Sheer Hypocrisy

Just as Tony Blair's UK cabinet tried to dismiss whistle-blower David Kelly as a small-time clerk and "Walter Mitty type", just as Australian PM John Howard's colleagues continue to dismiss former ONA operative and whistle-blower Andrew Wilkie as "unreliable... flaky and irrational", the Bush White House has tried to dismiss whistle-blower Joe Wilson's wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame (see yesterday's blog entry if you don't know the story), as an inconsequential "analyst".

Plame was much more than that. As www.truthout.org reports, Plame was "an operative running a network dedicated to tracking any person or nation that might try to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists."

Even Novak confirmed that in his column: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

Did you hear that? Weapons of Mass Destruction. WMDs.

Ray McGovern, a senior CIA analyst for 27-years, confirms that Plame was "a deep cover operative running a network of informants on what is supposedly this administration's first-priority issue: Weapons of mass destruction."

"These kinds of networks take ten years to develop," says McGovern. "The reason why they operate under deep cover is that the only people who have access to the kind of data we need cannot be associated in any way with the American intelligence community. Our operatives live a lie to maintain these networks, and do so out of patriotism. When they get blown, the operatives themselves are in physical danger. The people they recruit are also in physical danger, because foreign intelligence services can make the connections and find them."

In other words, the world is a considerably more dangerous place because of Plame's outing.

The corrupt and illegal Bush White House administration used WMDs as justification for an illegal pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. They used WMDs as justification for draconian attacks on civil liberties. They used WMDs as justification for trashing long-standing international alliances and treaties. Now they have INCREASED the risk of WMDs out of sheer personal vindictiveness because one man dared to criticize their blatant lies.

The hypocrisy is enough to make you choke.

US citizens must demand a full and independent inquiry. A whitewash by Ashcroft will not do. As the NY Times reports, Karl Rove was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's senatorial campaigns.

To quote El Busho's dad:

"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush, 1999

Impeach Bush now!