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Libby lied, troops died

By Sidney Blumenthal
Created Mar 7 2007 - 9:42am

The conviction [1] of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's
former chief of staff, on criminal charges of obstruction of justice and
perjury brings only a partial conclusion to the sordid political tragedy
that is the Bush presidency. Yet the judgment on this matter goes to the
heart of the administration. The means and the ends of Bush's White House
have received a verdict from the bar of justice.

Foreign policy was and is the principal way of consolidating unchecked
executive power. In the run-up to the Iraq war, professional standards, even
within the military and intelligence agencies, were subordinated to
political goals. Only information that fit the preconceived case was
permitted. Those who advanced facts or raised skeptical questions about
sketchy information were seen as deliberate enemies causing damage from
within. From the beginning, the White House indulged in unrestrained attacks
on such professionals. Revealing the facts, especially about the
politically-driven method of skewing policy, was treated as a crime against
the state.

For questioning the undermanned battle plan for the invasion of Iraq, Army
Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki [2] was publicly humiliated by neoconservative
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then cashiered. For
disclosing negligence on terrorism before the Setempber 11 attacks,
counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke [3] was accused by then-National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice of acting purely out of motives of
personal greed to promote his recently published memoir. For exposing the
absence of rational policymaking in economics as well as foreign policy,
Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill [4] was threatened with an
investigation for allegedly abusing classified material. Once he was
intimidated into silence, the probe was dropped.

In the aftermath of former ambassador Joseph Wilson's revelation that the
most explosive reason given for war against Iraq - that Saddam Hussein was
seeking yellowcake uranium in Niger to fuel nuclear weapons - had no
apparent basis in fact, the Bush White House revved into high gear against
the critic. Wilson, however, was even more dangerous than the others because
he was a witness to the false rationale for the war.

As Libby's defense counsel insisted, Scooter was merely one of many in the
White House assailing Wilson's integrity. Others, including Bush's political
strategist Karl Rove, were involved. To a degree, the smear campaign was for
a time successful, fueled by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence
Committee and elements of the Washington press corps. But the trial
exhibits - documents entered by the special prosecutor - knocked down every
single one of their falsehoods.

Libby's defenders argued that there was no underlying crime. He was not
charged with revealing the identity of Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, as a
covert CIA agent, which was a charge raised by the White House gang in an
effort to prove she sent Wilson on his Niger mission - another of the lies
spread about him.

But Libby committed his crimes to cover-up the role of his boss and to
protect his own position in the attack on Wilson. At base, then, the reasons
for war were the scandal.

Libby was no mere factotum. He was a central member of the neoconservative
cast of characters, who began as a protégé of Wolfowitz and was elevated to
the role of Cheney's indispensable man.

Libby's conviction not only indelibly stains neoconservatism. It is a
damning condemnation of the Bush White House belief that the ends justify
the means and its aggrandizement of absolute power. Ultimately, this is a
verdict that can never be erased from the history of the Bush presidency.
_______

About author Sidney Blumenthal is a former senior adviser to President
Clinton. sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com [5]

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson