Robert Parry: Scooter Libby's Time-Travel Trial

[marmar]

from Truthout:


Scooter Libby's Time-Travel Trial
By Robert Parry
Consortium News

Wednesday 17 January 2007

The trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is being billed by the Big Media as a case study of a favorite Washington cliché - "it's not the crime but the coverup" - a smugly delivered line suggesting that Libby committed no real offense beyond trimming a few facts when questioned by overzealous investigators.
But the major US news media is again missing the point. The real significance of the Libby trial is that it could demonstrate how far George W. Bush went in 2003 to shut down legitimate criticism of his Iraq War policies as well as questions about his personal honesty.

In that sense, the trial could be a kind of time machine for transporting America back to that earlier era of not so long ago when Bush and his team felt they controlled reality itself and were justified in tricking the American people into bloody adventures overseas.

It was a time when President Bush swaggered across the political landscape, a modern-day king fawned over by courtiers in the government and the press - and protected by legions of followers who bullied citizens who dared to dissent.

Libby may be going on trial for five felony counts of lying and obstructing justice, but the essence of his criminal behavior was his work as a top enforcer responsible for intimidating Americans who wouldn't stay in line behind the infallible Bush.

Though many Iraq War skeptics - from the Dixie Chicks to longtime U.S. allies in Europe, such as France - were punished for disagreeing with Bush, Libby's most notable target was former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Wilson attracted the White House's wrath in mid-2003 because he was one of the first Washington insiders to question the official consensus about Bush's wisdom, courage and integrity.

Just months after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as Bush basked in stratospheric poll numbers, Wilson went public with first-hand evidence that Bush had "twisted" intelligence to frighten Americans about the prospects of Iraq developing a nuclear bomb.

The former ambassador's heresy was countered by administration officials who leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, covert CIA officer Valerie Plame. They also enlisted Bush's defenders in both the right-wing and mainstream media to wage an unstinting attack on Wilson's credibility.

That campaign of vilification continues to this day, even though Wilson's criticism of Bush's honesty has long since been vindicated. Everytime I write about Wilson, I get a flurry of e-mails repeating administration-inspired canards about Wilson "the liar." .....(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011707J.shtml

[whistle]

1. Will Scooter Libby pull a John Dean role against Dick Cheney and

....George Dubya?

[KoKo]

2. Go to the end of the article (Armitage Section) for New Revelations

for those who don't have time to read the whole article or who already know the "Time Line," and so skipped reading it.

Parry has a "Conservative Source" of his own who says Armitage was working with Rove and the two are tied together and since Armitage is an original PNAC signer he isn't the "good guy" working with Powell that the MSM has tried to portray.

Anyway...worth the scroll down to the Armitage Section..

[KoKo]

3. Wow! Parry disses the Corn/Issikoff book "Hubris" ...check this out..

Quote from article:


In late summer 2006, authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn promoted an angle in their book, Hubris, that identified the State Department's Armitage as Novak's original source on the CIA identity of Valerie Plame.

The Isikoff-Corn disclosure was quickly cited by the mainstream Washington press corps as vindication for the Bush administration and yet another reason to dump on Joe Wilson.

The Armitage Mistake

Since the "conventional wisdom" held that Armitage wasn't part of the administration's neocon inner circle and was a skeptic about the Iraq War, the major news media jumped on the story as evidence that there never had been a White House conspiracy to punish Wilson by outing his wife.

"It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House - that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity - is untrue," a Washington Post editorial declared on Sept. 1, 2006.

While acknowledging that Libby and other White House officials were not "blameless," since they allegedly released Plame's identity while "trying to discredit Mr. Wilson," the Post still reserved its harshest condemnation for Wilson, blaming his criticism of Bush's false State of the Union claim for Plame's exposure.

[Frustratedlady]

4. That article is one of the best I have read when it comes to laying out

the players and events in more of a sequential order than most. This case is so involved, entertwined and complicated, it is difficult to figure out who, when, where and how it all came about. No matter, I still believe that Rove and Bush were the instigators, but are so slimy they will slip away and let others take the fall.

Your "Father" is watching, George.

[DemReadingDU]

5. afternoon kick

Parry always has good articles!