Sunday, July 27, 2003
Bush Gets Even
How does the Bush administration get even with people that embarrass them? Well if you are former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, you leak the fact that his wife is a deep-cover CIA officer.
On July 14 Robert Novak from the Sun Times, stated in his article that, two unnamed "senior administration officials" had leaked this information.
Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger in February 2002 to check out an allegation that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from them. He reported back that the charge was probably false. He recently wrote an article in the New York times and challenged the Bush administration's account of the Niger episode.
Scott McClellan, the new White House press secretary, acknowledged the news article and said "That is not the way this president or this White House operates." He did not state that anything was going to be done about it.
This White House has been pretty consistent at sending "messages". They like making examples of anyone who speaks up against the President or his policies.
One example comes from what recently happened to Senator Voinovich from Ohio. He had the gaul to oppose Bush's original $750 billion tax cut.
Once it was apparent that the normal arm twisting was not getting the good Senator to budge, Bush, decided to visit the Senator's home state. The purpose for the President's trip was to put pressure on Voinovich from the people within his own state, Television ads were also aired. They compared Senator Voinovich's, opposition to the tax cut, as comparable to French opposition of the Iraq war.
Did senior Bush officials break the law just to smear a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?
The FBI and other legal institutions in Washington must have noted the Novak and Time articles, but no obvious investigations seem to be taking place.
Wilson will not confirm whether the allegations about his wife are true or not. If it is true, her career is over and all the operations she participated in, are in jeopardy.
"Stories like this," Wilson says, "are not intended to intimidate me, since I've already told my story. But it's pretty clear it is intended to intimidate others who might come forward. You need only look at the stories of intelligence analysts who say they have been pressured. They may have kids in college, they may be vulnerable to these types of smears."
If this is true, what does this mean to our democratic process?
Stay tuned.
Sources Cited:
A White House Smear
David Corn
The National
ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
On July 14 Robert Novak from the Sun Times, stated in his article that, two unnamed "senior administration officials" had leaked this information.
Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger in February 2002 to check out an allegation that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from them. He reported back that the charge was probably false. He recently wrote an article in the New York times and challenged the Bush administration's account of the Niger episode.
Scott McClellan, the new White House press secretary, acknowledged the news article and said "That is not the way this president or this White House operates." He did not state that anything was going to be done about it.
This White House has been pretty consistent at sending "messages". They like making examples of anyone who speaks up against the President or his policies.
One example comes from what recently happened to Senator Voinovich from Ohio. He had the gaul to oppose Bush's original $750 billion tax cut.
Once it was apparent that the normal arm twisting was not getting the good Senator to budge, Bush, decided to visit the Senator's home state. The purpose for the President's trip was to put pressure on Voinovich from the people within his own state, Television ads were also aired. They compared Senator Voinovich's, opposition to the tax cut, as comparable to French opposition of the Iraq war.
Did senior Bush officials break the law just to smear a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?
The FBI and other legal institutions in Washington must have noted the Novak and Time articles, but no obvious investigations seem to be taking place.
Wilson will not confirm whether the allegations about his wife are true or not. If it is true, her career is over and all the operations she participated in, are in jeopardy.
"Stories like this," Wilson says, "are not intended to intimidate me, since I've already told my story. But it's pretty clear it is intended to intimidate others who might come forward. You need only look at the stories of intelligence analysts who say they have been pressured. They may have kids in college, they may be vulnerable to these types of smears."
If this is true, what does this mean to our democratic process?
Stay tuned.
Sources Cited:
A White House Smear
David Corn
The National
ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
# posted by Thomas @ 3:50 AM 
