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Tuesday, July 3, 2007 |
Main Catch in War on "Virtually a Free Citizen" in Pakistan. New evidence that the Bush Administration's war on terror is more show than substance.
In a 2004 presidential debate, Bush sought to assure Americans that the war on terror was going well. He presented the case of a Pakistani nuclear scientist named A.Q. Khan who had been caught selling secrets to rogue elements across the world. "We busted the A.Q. Khan network," Bush said. "This was a proliferator out of Pakistan that was selling secrets to places like North Korea and Libya."
Scary stuff, right? But according to a new AP article, highlighted by Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly's blog, Khan has been living a life of luxury, relaxing at his "villa in the capital" and meeting with friends, family, and associates. An official connected to Pakistan's nuclear program told the AP, "[Khan] is virtually a free citizen."
So what's going on? Turns out, the Bush Administration looked the other way while Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan and set up the nuclear scientist's absurd form of house arrest. According to Seymour Hersh, Khan is "revered in Pakistan as the father of the country's nuclear bomb," and parts of the Pakistani government have long been suspected as being complicit in the international trade of nuclear secrets. Khan hardly seemed like an appropriate scapegoat, considering all this.
Who knows what Khan is doing with his freedom — all we do know is that he isn't serving the sentence he deserves. Hersh's 2004 article in the New Yorker on this topic is well worth a read. It explains why Pakistan is willing to be a major ally in the United States' war on terror, and why the U.S. makes ridiculous exceptions for Musharraf and his government. Anyone who has read it can't be surprised by the new reports of A.Q. Khan's kid-glove "jail time."
PS — Iraqi nuclear scientists are even more free than Khan, and may be stirring up trouble around the globe. The reason? The American military didn't give a damn about them after the invasion.
PPS — While we're on the topic of the Washington Monthly, check out Paul Glastris' editor's note from the last issue. Glastris argues that Democrats should be more public about the fact that they make wars like Kosovo (i.e. victories) and Republicans make wars like Iraq (i.e. failures). [MotherJones.com | MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary]
9:50:23 PM 
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When the CIA first demanded an investigation be done to determine who leaked the identity of a covert operative to a journalist, Bush promised that the White House would perform their own investigation. He also pledged that anyone found who had divulged such sensitive information would no longer work in his White House.
We now know that no internal investigation took place. We also know that Karl Rove also leaked Valerie Plame's name to members of the press, and Rove still works at the pleasure of the president. Bush lied to the American people on this matter more than once.
The act of revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent's name was an act of treason. It was to seek political retribution against someone who alerted the public to the lies that led our country into launching an ill-conceived war of choice.
Exposing Valerie Plame did more than just ruin her career, it destroyed a network of informants and the cover of "Brewster Jennings" a CIA front organization.
We have no idea how many people died because of this act of vengeance on the part of the Bush administration, nor will we ever know how it compromised our intelligence gathering in the Middle East.
Bush by stepping in and tampering with Libby's sentence has shown that he values loyalty to him over the rule of law.
Perjury, obstruction of justice, and contempt for the rule of law: all in a day's work in this criminal, corrupt administration.
The only way to stop them is to impeach, indict, and then convict them.
Otherwise, all the crimes they have committed will elicit get out of jail free cards as Bush slinks into a retirement of cleaning brush in Crawford.
However, there's no telling how much damage they can inflict on this nation and the world before January 2009. Cheney wants to invade Iran and unless Congress takes powerful measures to stop them such as impeachment, we may all pay a terrible price.
Linda McCabe
9:16:56 AM
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Editorials Hit Libby’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card. NEW YORK - The bloggers, politicians, and TV pundits weighed in quickly Monday after President Bush took the surprisingly sudden step of commuting Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s 30-month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case. Now newspaper editorials are appearing, and nearly all of them have condemned the Bush act.
First [...] [CommonDreams.org]
9:13:24 AM
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Scott Shrake: People Like Us Don't Go to Prison, Scooter. Have a Nice Summer.
The day after Scooter Libby was convicted in March, I was at my gym in the morning, and there were a couple of middle-aged white guys in the locker room, and one said loudly, "Man, Scooter got hosed!" I got the feeling, maybe because this is Washington, that the guy knew him. Looking back, it was a hint of what would ultimately happen.
My first big brush with history in D.C., the day I attended Scooter's sentencing, has been evacuated of meaning, made into a mockery of the justice system by President Bush. I feel personally invested in this whole thing, because I was there watching Libby get his sentence, and my gut reaction to Bush's commuting of it yesterday is one of alarm and disgust.
Some readers misunderstood me when I said in my post that I was surprised at the length of the sentence. It wasn't because I didn't think he deserved it -- it was because I did. I was shocked that someone (Judge Walton) had pierced the Teflon of this administration like that.
There seems to be no limit to what this administration will do in its own interests and against the interests of the citizens of the United States. Just ask the jurors in the case United States v. I. Lewis Libby what they think right now.
Chris Matthews seemed quite sympathetic to the Scootmeister when he phoned in to his own show tonight from his July vacation. Aw, come on, he was saying, hasn't Scooter paid enough? I mean, he's been embarrassed! Disbarred! Isn't inconvenience enough punishment? Meanwhile the guests from the Right on the show (with David Shuster guest-hosting) were trying to retry Libby and find him innocent after the fact. Matthews, in his usual strangely fascinating mixed verdict, included the proviso that this is basically a bunch of bullshit on the part of Bush, an outrage, BUT: [sigh of relief] people like us don't go to jail, you know? (Pay no attention to Martha Stewart over there. Or Judith Miller. Or the Watergate guys.)
Curly Sue star Fred Thompson has come out with a statement: "This will allow a good American... to resume his life." A "convicted felon" kind of good American? And one who helped bring us this super-popular, super-short Iraq war/occupation?
Tonight you've got prominent Democrats telling people not to be complacent about this, to resist the temptation to just roll your eyes, and instead to "flood the White House" with protest messages. Well, that won't help. The deed is done. There's only one message, and it's to get in the voting booth and GET RID of the party that gave us this travesty, every chance you get.
Lots of smarter people than I am are tearing Bush's decision apart on all kinds of solid legal and political grounds tonight. My only contribution to the discussion is to point out what this really says about President Bush, the blue-blooded draft-dodger-in-chief in a crowd full of warmongering draft dodgers. This favor to Scooter comes from an emotional place in Bush, I surmise. He obviously didn't calculate the political price for this decision, because it will definitely not sit well with the voters in 2008 (but, I mean, throw it on the pile!).
No, he commuted the sentence because people like the "hawk" George Walker Bush DO NOT go to the battlefield or jail or anyplace where you have to depend on your strength and grit and wits to survive. They also don't sweat, they glisten. And they aren't truly answerable for their misdeeds. Embarrassment is enough punishment, thank you very much, and there's plenty of that to go around.
TheUWI [at] gmail.com
 [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed]
7:49:45 AM
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Craig Crawford: Jail the Messenger, Free the Leaker.
At the end of the day, only a journalist went to jail in the CIA leak investigation. President George W. Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's jail sentence means that only reporter Judy Miller spent time in the slammer -- and that was for protecting Libby, the leaker. The former White House aide let Miller sit in jail for nearly three months last year without revealing to prosecutors that he was the source she was refusing to name. While Miller was no angel in this matter, she was not convicted of a crime. And Libby goes free despite being convicted and sentenced for perjury and obstruction of justice. The president now says jail would be an "excessive" punishment for Libby, but he showed no such concern when a reporter was incarcerated for protecting his White House. The most lasting legal significance of this case will be its chilling effect on journalists -- even on those who, unlike Miller, try to protect whistleblowers and other sources who are genuinely serving the public interest. -- MORE ON crawfordslist.com
 [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed]
7:43:11 AM
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Charles Karel Bouley: Paris Hilton Is Now A Martyr.
It's official: Paris Hilton has served more jail time at the hands of
an overzealous judge, seen more of the inside of a jail cell, eaten
more prison food than Lewis Libby ever will. The Dictator In Chief
again has proved that you don't mess with his boys, and if you do,
he'll ride in and rescue them; they can do no wrong. And if they do,
so what, they're the ruling class and nothing bad can happen to them.
Let's get one thing straight: Libby is a traitor to the United States
of America. He released the name, whether under direction from his
boss the Vice President or not, of a covert agent in an intelligence
agency during a declared time of war with troops deployed. Her job
was to find bad people with nuclear materials, a job she could not do
after that point. That is treason. I believe he should have been
tried for that charge, and yes, if found guilty, then hung as many a
traitor has been. We are a nation of law, or so I always hear.
But instead, he was given a slap on the wrist sentence for a lesser
offense of perjury, for which he would serve less than three years
and pay $250,000 out of his probable millions in fines. He tried to
delay the sentence, but the courts wouldn't hear of it. So, he was
about to be off to jail. Ride in Cowboy Bush and his Cronies. Instead
of pardoning him all together, which eradicates the crime, he
commuted a sentence he viewed as "too harsh" so no jail served but
conviction stands. No judge or court in the land can overturn a
commutation, period, the way George likes it. It's good to be the king.
When are we going to impeach this man?
It is a sad day when Paris Hilton spends more time in jail for
driving on a suspended license after a DUI than a traitor to our
nation. But these days, treason doesn't mean much. We allow the
buffoons in Washington DC to do it all the time. Unjust occupations,
lies, deceit, waste, bankrupting the nation morally and financially,
laughing in the face of justice, stacking the Supreme Court to set us
back in to the stone ages...on and on I could go. And none of them pay,
but Paris, well, the public outrage over her being sent home was
heard around the world in nations that don't even have a Hilton.
People, get your priorities straight.
It's yet another sad day in America. But these days, there seems to
be more of them than not. But don't worry, take this pill, cheer up.
Your nation has gone to hell ruled by dictators. But at least Paris
did her time and Libby won't do a day.
 [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed]
7:42:16 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Patricia Thurston.
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