According to the Associated Press, "the U.S. bill for
rebuilding Iraq and maintaining security there is
widely expected to far exceed the war's price tag, and
some private analysts estimate it could reach as high
as $600-billion (U.S.)" For what? Meanwhile,
SeeNotNews reports "Sen. Joe Lieberman attacked the
left wing of his party Sunday, saying Democrats "don't
deserve to run the country" if they move left and
embrace "the failed solutions of the past." I expected
yesterday's attack on "left-wing Democrats" from Sen.
Joe Lieberman ("D"-Sanctimonicutt)His politics are an
abomination. But I did not expect the disgraceful
WASHP editorial which President-Elect Al Gore's speech
last week provoked. The WASHP Editorial Board wrote of
the Democratic candidates: "Some of the candidates are
more off course than others. If they listen to former
vice president Al Gore, who took it upon himself last
week to suggest a theme of attack for the nine
candidates, they will all go off the cliff." Do the
people who wrote this "editorial" live on the same
planet as you and I and Nelson Mandela? Does night
follow day for them? Does blood flow in their veins?
Have they ever actually read the US Constitution or
the UN Charter? Lately, some WASHPs news stories on
Iraq and 9/11 have had edge and depth. Indeed, the LNS
recently forwarded you a remarkable piece on the
cooking of intel on Iraq. It is a sad and painful time
in America. I do not know if the American people will
rise up in November '04 and vote to purge itself of
the Bush cabal and its heinious offenses against human
decency and common sense, I do not know if the deep
fix in the corporate news media will deteriorate, I do
not know if the conscience of individuals within the
corporate news media's elite will force them to break
the spell, connect the dots and start to tell the
truth about the illegitimate incompetent and corrupt
regime, I do not know if the eventual Democratic
nominee will follow the lead of Gore, Sen. Robert Byrd
(D-WV), Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fraudida) and former Gov.
Howard Dean (D-Jeffords) and "pick a fight" with the
little bully in the White House, but if we want to
rescue the future then the eventual Democratic
presidential nominee must bite into the twisted,
malignant "advice" of the WASHPs Editorial Board and
their favorite momma's boy from Sanctimonitcutt, taste
its acridness and its foulness, spit it from his
mouth, damn the consequences, cast his fortune, his
life and honor into the fire, if he does the
electorate will respond to him, whether the corporate
news media elite snaps out of its denial or not, and
the future can be snatched from the Orwellian oblivion
into which we are hurtling...Bravo. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer has demonstrated courage and
clarity of mind...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/134261_ambassed.html
Sunday, August 10, 2003
CIA disclosure is dangerous
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD: There's a
cancer somewhere in the Bush administration. Two
officials revealed national security information to
embarrass or scare critics of the administration's
mishandling of Iraqi intelligence.
Columnist Robert Novak wrote recently that the wife of
former Ambassador Joseph Wilson -- the man who blew
the whistle on the Niger uranium fraud -- is a Central
Intelligence Agency operative, specializing in weapons
of mass destruction. Novak attributed his information
to two senior administration officials. Time magazine
has said officials provided similar information.
It's illegal for government officials to reveal the
identities of CIA operatives who have worked overseas
within the preceding five years.
In carefully discussing what he called the
hypothetical possibility his wife is a CIA employee,
Wilson noted that the use of her maiden name would
compromise work done before their marriage five years
ago.
Properly, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has asked the
FBI to look into the disclosures. But Congress must
vigorously examine whether there is an organized
effort to suppress information about the
administration's handling of pre-war intelligence on
Iraq.
In a discussion broadcast on C-Span last week, Wilson
said he believed Novak's sources wanted CIA analysts
to fear that their families could be affected if they
tell Congress that Vice President Dick Cheney or his
aides had pressured them to slant intelligence.
It's easy to understand the emotional nature of the
pressure -- just look at the suicide of a British
intelligence agent who was a news media source and was
pressured by the Blair government.
Wilson said the suicide and the administration leaks
force CIA employees to think, "Do I really want to run
the risk of going up and talking to (Sens.) Pat
Roberts and Jay Rockefeller?"
Roberts, a Kansas Republican, is chairman of the
Senate Select Intelligence Committee, and Rockefeller,
a West Virginia Democrat, is vice chairman. Their
committee is looking into the intelligence on Iraqi
weapons.
The White House has said it doesn't condone leaking an
agent's identity. But the administration must try to
identify, fire and, possibly, prosecute those
responsible.
Abuse of national security for political aims is
wrong. Until Congress and the public know that there
has been an unfettered inquiry into the handling of
intelligence, the administration will face growing
distrust.
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