Looking Beyond Fitzgerald

So Libby has been indicted. Whoo hoo.

But like the Mercury News says, the major question is not whether the vice president's chief of staff lied to a grand jury, it's whether the Bush administration lied to the American people in justifying the invasion of Iraq (and then tried to intimidate its critics).

In other words, this whole scandal goes way beyond the boundaries of the Fitzgerald enquiry. All this talk about where the enquiry is headed or who Fitzgerald might indict next ignores the fact that very serious facts have already been placed on the table, in full public view. Don't ask what Fitzgerald is going to do about it - what are we going to do about it?

Today there are a handful of articles calling for Cheney to come clean about his own involvement in this scandal and resign. There are calls for Bush to "restore dignity to the White House" by sacking Rove and others who were clearly involved.

But what about Bush himself?

It's the same old story again: either Bush knew that Libby, Rove and others were working to discredit Wilson's claims by outing his wife, in which case he is complicit in the crime, or else Bush didn't know what his own staff were doing, in which case he is an incompetent man surrounded by criminals.

Similarly for the whole Saddam-WMD lie: either Bush knew that Cheney's Office of Special Plans was fabricating evidence, or else Bush didn't know what his own staff were doing, in which case he is once again an incompetent man surrounded by criminals.

An idiot, a criminal, or both? You decide.

Whatever the answer, the world cannot take another three years of this.

UPDATE: Libby's case is the first time in 130 years that such a senior White House aide has been charged (others have resigned before being charged). Juan Cole says it's now time for some more high-profile resignations:

1. Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney.

Dick Cheney told Irving Lewis Libby about Plame working for the CIA. Although both Cheney and Libby had security clearances, it is not the case that any two persons with such clearances may properly share any information at will. Classified information is disseminated on a need to know basis and for specific security-related purposes. For Cheney to bandy about classified information merely as a form of office gossip or for partisan political purposes, even with other government officials, is unethical and poor tradecraft at the very least, and would get any junior CIA case officer fired. So surely the same should apply to the vice president of the United States at a time of war.

2. Karl Rove.

The president's adviser clearly told Matt Cooper of Time Magazine, at the very least, about Valerie Plame Wilson working for the CIA. Since this information was classified, Rove learned it from someone with a clearance. If he did not double check as to whether the information was classified before he released it to the press, then he was criminally irresponsible. If he released it with the knowledge that it was classified, then what he did was highly unethical and possibly illegal. Either way, no one who behaves so cavalierly with national security-related information during a time of war has any place in the White House. Rove must resign. If Bush does not request and accept Rove's resignation, then he becomes an accessory after the fact to a possible crime, and should be impeached as such.

3. John Hannah.

Hannah, a key Cheney aide, also mentioned to Libby that Plame worked for the CIA. He should not have been bandying about this information without a serious national security purpose. He should go.

4. John Bolton.

Currently Ambassador to the United Nations. He has not been implicated in the outing of Plame yet, but he did visit implicated journalist Judith Miller in prison and is tightly connected to key figures in the crime. He has been a twenty-first century Goebbels of national security disinformation aimed at scaring the American public into pursuing a series of disastrous wars (beyond Iraq, he wants wars against Syria, Iran, and Cuba to start). He was not confirmed by the Senate. He is a serial liar or a serial incompetent. He has expressed himself vehemently against the existence of the United Nations and dismisses US international treaty obligations. He should not be representing the American people at the United Nations.

5. Elliot Abrams.

Abrams lied to the Congress assiduously over the Iran-Contra criminal proceedings. During this period, high Reagan administration officials illegally sold off high-poweered weapons like TOWs from Pentagon storehouses to the Ayatollah Khomeini. They then took the Iranian money paid for them and put it in secret bank accounts, using it to fund rightwing death squads in Central America. Abrams was part of this unconstitutional and criminal plot. He should be in jail, but was pardoned. W. appointed him to the National Security Council, where he was in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a while (he is, like Doug Feith, more ideologically so aligned to the far rightwing Israeli Likud Party as to be virtually a card-carrying member; so that was really a signal of US even-handedness!). Now he is said to be in charge of Iran! He should never have been allowed back in high office after lying to Congress and both houses should be ashamed that they did not block his appointment. No wonder there is all this criminality in the White House-- they are allowing criminals to be appointed!