Plame affair

I've been watching the news, as many Americans, of the investigation of the leak by the White House about the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The CIA operative's position with the government, reported by Bob Novak on July 14, 2003 , was political payback for former ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of Plame, who refuted 'evidence' that Saddam was shopping for uranium in Niger in a March 2002 report commissioned by the CIA, a key factor in selling the invasion of Iraq to the American people and the U.N. I've heard conservatives laugh away the implications by stating "she was never in danger" or "this whole thing is actually a smear campaign by the Democrats against the Bush administration." Limbaugh, Snow, O'Reilly and other conservative windbags believe it's much ado about nothing, but I guarantee you these guys know better. One of the reasons McCarthy was so successful at his assault on dissenting views was the ordinary American of the day supported his actions. Plame's husband, former appointee by the elder Bush, dissented publicly with Bush the Younger's advocacy of pre-emptive warfare policy in Iraq and his wife paid the price, despite her work to preserve freedom and the American way of life (isn't that what every conservative American would say about CIA agents?) through the nuclear age. I hope the action by Libby and presumably(though I'm sure the evidence is being destroyed as we speak and for the past two years) Cheney is not acceptable to ordinary Americans, though I believe it is. Olly North's litany of lies during Iran-Contra was acceptable to ordinary Americans until he blamed the White House--not wise to blame the right's champion Reagan, though breaking the Bolen Amendment was perfectly acceptable to GOP cronies. The truth is Americans can act downright UnAmerican if the right buttons are pushed and the right fears exploited. It seems, in honor of Ann Coulter's sinister pronouncement that anyone who doesn't agree with her is treasonous, the GOP has increased the stakes with this bit of political payback, which could be construed as treasonous, as a Paul Krugman column of July 2003 suggests.

The 60 Minutes program of last Sunday(Oct. 30, 2005) explained the Plame affair through the eyes of fellow CIA operatives. Plame's identity as a CIA operative is 'classified' as Non Official Cover, meaning, she has no diplomatic immunity from arrest, prosecution, jailing, or execution if she's discovered as a CIA operative in another country. In other words, her job with the CIA inherently includes risk and now that she's 'outed' as an agent, anyone associated with Plame or her 'company', Brewster-Jennings and Associates might have been exposed to the danger of discovery as covert agents by governments hostile to the U.S. and the free world, Walter Pincus(former associate of Sen. Fulbright) and Mike Allen reported in the Washington Post in October 2003. Novak had no qualms about naming Plame's CIA front employer on CNN and mentioning she donated $1,000 to the Gore campaign (in today's America, proof-positive of Plame's sinister aims on our way of life). Anyone who studies WMD proliferation must have contacts in very dangerous nations to monitor their efforts in acquiring components and producing weapons, so this is no small affair as GOP cronies in the press have been asserting.

There is no doubt the Bush administration was playing hardball against an analyst's husband who wouldn't accept the bullying by the Bush administration and spoke against the 'smoking gun evidence' for invasion and the analyst was fair game. If a Democratic administration had committed this cavalier act, there would be outrage in the conservative windbag community for certain. Hell, Clinton was impeached over a blowjob. Blowing the cover of a CIA analyst for political reasons is a despicable act, particularly by the Vice President's most valued aide and national security adviser in the White House.

If ever there is evidence of GOP hypocrisy, this case is definitive evidence that loyal opposition is intolerable to Republicans. 'Accept the GOP view of the world or else,' is the implication. The intelligence community in America and the free world should be deeply perturbed by the actions from the Vice President's office. If ordinary Americans aren't equally perturbed, then they are complicit too. The guru of 'dirty tricks', Karl Rove, whose activities in Illinois in the 70's for GOP agitators in his 'dirty tricks' school was mentioned(though not his name--he was still a nobody, except to Republican Party chairman George H.W. Bush who was angry about another Republican blowing the whistle on Rove's enterprise to the press) in All the President's Men by Woodward and Bernstein illustrating the scope of Nixon's antics, must be suspected of involvement, naturally, though there might be no evidence to support a conviction for any of the participants in this act of treachery.

I noticed in the news today that an American soldier accused of 'fragging' a superior in Iraq stands the chance of execution. What if Plame was harmed or her field associates aiding her covert work have been or will be harmed, even killed? Would this act of treachery be described as a 'fragging'(though the traditional term means killing a superior, not a lower ranking official--I suppose it would be better characterized as mere murder)? I am astounded at the behavior of the party which I once believed had the best interests of America at heart. I'll never be seduced by their rhetoric again, particularly with George W.'s reckless, inept administration as a glaring example. All the Republicans defending the action are equally as reckless and inept, and throw seditious into the mix of adjectives for this act. Our government has failed us again. The acts from the Vice President's office were indefensible at best, treacherous at worst.

What the hell is happening here? If this type of behavior is tacitly acceptable to the majority of voters, we are in trouble. Our democratic heritage is in serious jeopardy if we allow our highest elected officials to play politics with our national defense and squelch all opposition by ruining careers and possibly causing lives to be lost. The Iraq War was sold to the populus with a litany of lies,half-truths, and legitimate fear of yet another attack within our borders. 2,000+ American military personnel have suffered the ultimate price for this invasion. Possibly 100,000 Iraqis have died in this conflict, though I've seen much lower estimates. The Coalition bombed Iraq at will for years, prior to the 2003 invasion and the 'no-fly' zone had been extended to include most of Iraq. Was this invasion necessary? Obviously, most American voters accepted the pre-emptive policy because they re-elected the man responsible for our troops' presence within Iraq's borders. Where do we go from here? I'm beginning to fear that answer more than ever under the present circumstances.