Thu
Mar 8 2007
12:26 pm
The Last Word by Don Williams: Scooter Libby and this not so sacred earth
By: KnoxViews

Scooter Libby and this not so sacred earth
By Don Williams

If Lincoln was right to suggest that the dead hallow the earth, then America and Iraq grow more sacred by the day. Take Tuesday, March 6, when Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Scooter Libby, was pronounced guilty of lying and obstructing. Media related another story that day, but in such a way that you would’ve thought it happened in a different universe. It was about how suicide bombers murdered at least 100 Shiites and injured more than 250 during a holy pilgrimage in Iraq.

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Sad to say, the connection between Libby and the freak show in Iraq still seems lost on the media. Read the editorial on Libby in the March 8 News-Sentinel to see what I mean. You’d never know that Libby’s lies had anything to do with the unraveling of the Middle East.
Yet Hundreds of thousands have died because of such lies, including thousands of Americans. I doubts those deaths will make either Iraq or America more sacred, but each life lost or mangled is worth remembering when gauging the significance of… call it Plamegate, in keeping with a four-year tradition of invoking Valerie Plame, the CIA employee exposed to the world by her own government.

Other names could as easily be invoked. Richard Armitage, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Joseph Wilson, Judith Miller, Matthew Cooper, Robert Novak, Tim Russert, Bob Woodward. The circle grows with each name thrown on the fire, including Dick Cheney and George W. Bush--who once said he’d fire anyone who’d helped expose Plame to the public.

But as I wrote in 2005, “It’s not the living you should remember most when mulling Plamegate, for the scandal is really about war and the reasons so many are dying in Iraq. Not dignified deaths by and large…”

I won’t repeat the litany. The ways people die in Iraq have become all too familiar, haven’t they? And we’re harder human beings for it, not so easily stirred. Some look at the Walter Reed veterans hospital scandal and stifle a yawn, maybe while adding another yellow sticker to their SUV. In such ways do we support the troops.

Horrible things happen in war, we say, and nod sagely, as if exonerating someone. Yet there’s no exoneration for needless war, and this one didn’t have to be. The commonsense goal of keeping horror from devouring our treasury, our children, our hearts and minds, is what makes preventing war an honorable thing to try. It’s why Jesus said, “Blessed is the peacemaker.”

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove did not try to prevent war. Neither did most journalists and broadcasters and members of congress. To one degree or another most of them beat the drums for invading Iraq, starting in 2002, and they beat those drums loud and often, until many in a manipulated public began to celebrate the war. Violins, waving flags, trumpet blasts and more attended the most ordinary stories leading up to war.

No one beat the drums more loudly than Bush, and no one worked more diligently to keep the war fires burning than Cheney. At bottom that’s what Plamegate is about. It’s about leaders whipping up a frenzy, while trying to hide damning evidence that the reasons given for war were suspect. And it’s about how many thousands of the living came to be numbered among the dead.

To some, the controversy comes down to 16 words in Bush’ 2003 State of the Union address. “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Those are the words Joseph Wilson sought to debunk in his July 6, 2003 New York Times Op-ed piece, What I Didn't Find in Africa, which raised the ire of Cheney and others, for Wilson suggested many other government claims should be investigated too.

Condoleezza Rice, who’d made a career of cleaning up after Bush-isms, took a novel approach to the controversy. Appearing before the cameras, she focused on those 16 words. In doing so, they kept the spotlight off lots of other words—many in the same speech. That’s why reading that 2003 speech is so entertaining and maddening. Bush laid down the case for war as if carefully laying a fire. Citing dubious sources, he asserted that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs, including…

“Biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax; enough doses to kill several million people… more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin; enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure… the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands… upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions… several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors… an advanced nuclear weapons development program… a design for a nuclear weapon and… five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb… he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production….”

As if striking a match, he deftly pushed Saddam's name up against al-Qaeda and the horrors of 9/11: “Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own. Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans, this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.”

Quite a few mouthfuls there to try and reduce to 16 little words, but somehow Rice and company pulled it off and, in doing so, manipulated a complicit media. Fox broadcast numerous reports bolstering the case for those 16 words, and much media went along, ignoring mountains of words that long since had burst into “Shock and Awe.”

Four years later, we know much of the case for war was wrong. Voices from inside our own government have reported how Saddam feared and despised al-Qaida, the true purposes of those aluminum tubes and mobile labs. We know what Hans Blix and others tried telling us before Bush pulled the plug on weapons inspections—that the promised mounds of anthrax and other WMDs just weren’t turning up in Iraq. We know much of the bad intelligence for war came from a man named Curveball, whom we bribed, a man named Chalibi, who conned us, and a man named al-Libi, whom we tortured into telling lies.

And we know the yellowcake uranium scare, even if partially true, was based largely on forged documents, and that Iraq was years away from gaining nukes. It was such truths that Wilson tried to expose and that Cheney, Libby and others tried to hide. The sad truth is that they lied and people died. Maybe even someone you know in these hallowed hills.

Copyright © 2007 by Don Williams, All Rights Reserved

Topics:
R. Neal's picture

The KNS editorial referenced

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2007/03/08 - 1:56pm.

The KNS editorial referenced by Don is another bizarre screed (like their '04 Bush endorsement) that leaves you wondering just what the hell they are saying.

(link...)

They should stick to local issues and leave the heavy lifting to Don.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Poll comments indicative of reader confusion

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Thu, 2007/03/08 - 7:26pm.

Randy: "The KNS editorial referenced by Don is another bizarre screed (like their '04 Bush endorsement) that leaves you wondering just what the hell they are saying."

Yes, Randy, and comments left by readers participating in the poll indicate just how confused they were.

In reading those comments, which also indicate which choice each commentator made on the poll, you'll see that very few people voted in the manner their comments reflect they should have voted!

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Digging deeper?

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 12:16pm.

A news story of "page A3 importance" appears in today's (Friday's) News-Sentinel: Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, indicates that Valarie Plame is confirmed to testify before the panel next week. Libby prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has also been "invited" to testify on March 16, but has not yet responded.

In his letter to Fitzgerald, Waxman writes that "The trial proceedings raise questions about whether senior White House officials, including the vice president and Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove , complied with the requirements governing the handling of classified information."

The story also cites that a civil lawsuit filed by Plame and Wilson against Libby, Cheney, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and others is still pending.

(Edit: I moved this comment to the "Libby Verdict" thread, where Rikki and others raised questions on just this topic Wednesday and Thursday. I suppose the conversation is better continued over there...)

Justin's picture

I'm ashamed of my

Submitted by Justin on Thu, 2007/03/08 - 2:00pm.

I'm ashamed of my country...and myself for once supporting this administration. Never again.

jhow66's picture

ashamed

Submitted by jhow66 on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 6:43pm.

Then get the hell out if it.

talidapali's picture

Uhhhhh...

Submitted by talidapali on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 8:22pm.

no.

My people have been here for ten thousand years at a conservative estimate.

You leave. We didn't ask you to come here in the first place.

_________________________________________________________

"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"

"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

talidapali's picture

I'm gonna have some cards printed up...

Submitted by talidapali on Thu, 2007/03/08 - 3:46pm.

so that if I can ever afford to go on vacation in the next two years and actually cross an international border...just so I won't have to wear my voice out...

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States of America is from the United States of America."

I still cannot fathom how this buffoon got elected in the first place, much less re-elected.

_________________________________________________________

"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"

"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

Yossarian's picture

Don is shining one of the

Submitted by Yossarian on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 2:11pm.

Don is shining one of the brightest journalistic lights in these dim hollows. The Voice will be his natural home. Let the hectoring fiends of "all certainty and no facts" gnash their teeth and rend their garments.

As for how Bush was elevated to the pResidency, Greg Palast had the story of how it was done, logistically (aside from five members of the Supreme Court violating their oath of office). But it was only broadcast on the BBC and published in British papers. The story of how vitally important news (to the democratic process) gets to be vitally unimportant to publishers is a blank spot in history most Americans don't even seem to be curious about. Many don't even seem to realize how managed the news is. Not even since "Project Mockingbird." Not even since "Project Truth." Not even since Bill Casey said the CIA owns everyone of any significance in the American media. Not even since the Bush illegal media message purchasing scandal (per GAO finding). I calls it "American Pravda" in these late years.

Of course, as someone who has tried to understand America's continuing drift toward police state status, in the process learning something about the amount of help America's elite gave the N*zis, I've been alarmed as hell since they pulled off the coup. With "American Exceptionalism" replacing "Master Race" in the lexiconography and "9/11" replacing "Reichstag Fire" in the campaign to stampede the human herd in the desired direction, the Fourth Reich demonstrates its mastery of techniques utilized effectively by the Third.

We are ruled by largely unnamed and unseen persons, to largely unsuspected ends. What was spoken of in the margins for many years, "the Shadow Government," was openly acknowledged by BushCo. (TM) after 9/11. "It" was in charge and Congress didn't get the word any sooner than Joe Public did.

Try having a democracy, or a republic, under those conditions.

At least none of the members of Congress died from the anthrax. I suspect they've been minding their Ps & Qs, though. Those who also didn't die in a mysterious plane crash, that is.

"Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

jhow66's picture

donna

Submitted by jhow66 on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 6:49pm.

I thought we were rid of this freak. Not only is he a freak, he is a liar. Oh well I guess we can say it is because of the full moon lately. Please go away and cry in your own corner.

Andy Axel's picture

Mouse in your pocket?

Submitted by Andy Axel on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 7:07pm.

"We?" What do you mean "we?" "Your own corner?"

First #9 says that this isn't R. Neal's house, and now jhow66 is claiming proprietorship of KnoxViews.

Y'all sound like a bunch of seagulls. MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!

____________________________

Recursive blogwhore.

Number9's picture

No Andy,

Submitted by Number9 on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 8:27pm.

Y'all sound like a bunch of seagulls. MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!

Ours.

Andy Axel's picture

Delusional as usual.

Submitted by Andy Axel on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 8:57pm.

Where does this sense of entitlement come from?

____________________________

Recursive blogwhore.

R. Neal's picture

Well, we will now be free of

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 9:04pm.

Well, we will now be free of this particular freak troll. I apologize to Don Williams for letting jhow66 go on for so long, but I thought it an instructive look into the mind of an idiot troll. That lesson has apparently been illustrated more than enough here lately, so we are going to have a house cleaning, starting with this idiot. I'm sure "howie" will wear this proudly as another scalp on his belt.

Here are some of his other greatest hits from other venues, not even counting his vomit on McElroy's blog. This is what allowing this "guest" to continue to be a guest would evolve into.

I hope others agree we don't need this at KnoxViews, and won't fault me for my bad behavior and heavy handed tactics towards such "guests" in our community.

(link...)

Sorry earl I forgot that you was a new member to the "club" which is club for all those "with shit for brains". Oh and by the way twit, Kim has more brains in her little pinky then you do in your whole body. But then again everyone knows that as you belong to the "club". Feel free to as more questions as we try to help those that belong to the "club".

Posted by: jhow66 at December 10, 2006 01:53 PM

(link...)

Wonder how long it's going to take "clint" and "dr l." to realize that ass kissing doesn't work either. Wonder how then would handle all these problems? Ever hear a solution from them? Naa just whining and bitching about Bush. They have whats called BDS. Poor souls as there is no cure for it because they can't even get anyone elected dogcatcher.

Posted by jhow66 | July 27, 2006 10:46 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

(link...)

"slingshot"? hmmm p'p' by another "sock". Only a queer could come up with that kind of response.

Posted by: jhow66 at January 20, 2007 09:40 PM

(link...)

Hey angry “clam” how about me calling fat ass Murtha a traitorus bastard which is holding back what I really think he is. As to your wimpy ass “dare”–up your cowardly ass (which by the way is under your nose). Have a good day!

Comment by jhow66 — 8/17/2006 @ 10:03 am

(link...)

Typical bootlicking,apeasing asskissing,whining, cowardly far left "libby" reponse. All "libbys" must be taught from the same script (somebody has to tell them what to say!) as they all sound like a broken record.

Posted by: jhow66 | October 29, 2004 at 01:35 AM

(link...)

Why does anyone give a crap what some dumbass fag says? Ignore him at every turn. Don't respone to any of his post. Don't visit his site if he has one. Act as if he does not exist and he will not to anyone but himself (if you can call "it" a him).

Posted by: jhow66 on August 16, 2006 10:49 AM

(link...)

"John Smith"--sounds just like your typical asskissing, bootlicking,nerdy,pc,lets talk before you cut my head off,know it all bleeding heart liberal. LMAO

Posted by: jhow66 at November 16, 2005 03:51 PM

(link...)

Like I said in another post,old "pucker puss" (lee lee) (resident turd polisher) is a lowlife America hating SOB piece of pig shit. Humans (but I dought that he or her is one) do not deserve to live in a country such as ours because they or so stupid or outright dumb that they believe the wild crap that they post. The only reason p'p' hangs around here is the kos kiddies and du barred him because of his stupidty. To believe what p'p' does you got to be ---hell there is no word to discribe such an idiot.
BTW glad I still get under your skin asshole.

Posted by: jhow66 at January 27, 2007 02:18 PM

Now we know that "slingshit" really is a queer.

Posted by: jhow66 at January 27, 2007 10:53 PM

(link...)

Okey dokey if queers can marry then I can have as many wives as I want. Right?

Posted by: jhow66 at October 25, 2006 04:55 PM

(link...)

B'google-you are one lowlife SOB. May you be the 1st to get his ass blown to hell.

Posted by: jhow66 at December 11, 2006 09:24 AM

hugie-we only endorse genocide for kos kiddie rejects such as your kind. Sorry.

Posted by: jhow66 at December 11, 2006 07:44 PM

(link...)

(Regarding a doctor who wanted out of the Army on religious grounds)

I say she is a traitor-stick a gun up her ass and pull the trigger. Count down until I get hosed--5-4-3-2-----

Posted by: jhow66 at October 8, 2006 09:44 AM

Andy Axel's picture

So much for "ours."

Submitted by Andy Axel on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 9:16pm.

Welcome to the bit bucket, Jhow66.

____________________________

Recursive blogwhore.

Number9's picture

Oh brother,

Submitted by Number9 on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 9:49pm.

So much for "ours."

Of course he had it coming.

I never once responded to Jhow66. I don't respond to any of the drive by trolls.

Give it a break Andy. We disagree. It's not like it's the first time.

R. Neal's picture

I never once responded to

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 10:40pm.

I never once responded to Jhow66. I don't respond to any of the drive by trolls.

Give it a break Andy. We disagree. It's not like it's the first time.

This is interesting. Who mentioned you, #9? Yet you seem to feel a compelling need to inject your martyred self into every controversy, including the ones you make up

Number9's picture

Who mentioned you, #9?

Submitted by Number9 on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 11:25pm.

Who mentioned you, #9?

Andy.

I guess the "ours" concept is not universal. You'll understand if I don't call you boss.

WhitesCreek's picture

Ooo, Bubba...

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Fri, 2007/03/09 - 11:05pm.

I love it when your T hat flashes fire.

Do what needs to be done whenever you feel like it. You have more patience than I, and I respect you for that.

BTW, your trees here in the gorge are starting to bud. You should come see them sometime.

Peace

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