‘PlameGate’ Hardly a Summer Squall
“‘Plamegate’ Hardly a Summer Squall” is very important in making people understand that the Plame leak is only the tip of the unexposed iceberg-sized scandal of fabricated intelligence. However, what everyone except UPI’s Richard Sale is missing is that Lewis Libby’s colleague in the vice president’s office, John Hannah, was an important player in both the Plame scandal AND the phony Iraq intelligence scandal.
Furthermore, seeing that two important members of Cheney’s staff were involved in leaking Plame’s name provides a much more compelling indication that Dick Cheney himself was most likely intimately involved in these scandals than if Scooter Libby alone could be proven to be one of the original leakers. A much brighter spotlight needs to be quickly be trained on John Hannah.
See Richard Sale’s “Cheney’s Staff Focus of Probe” and Calpundit’s “Who is John Hannah?“
Earlier today, I was browsing Unfreerepublic and my sentiments echo Teresa Whitehurst’s to the letter. Please do send her my letter and let her know I am in solidarity with her, as a Christian woman.
Christ did not tell us to obey His teachings unless attacked. He showed us the way to act while under these circumstances. Yet right-wing Christians apparently have a silent clause in the PATRIOT Act that suspends Christ’s Constitution when at war.
“Christian Wahhabis” at Free Republic overwhelming support “nuking Mecca” to “prevent terrorism” and mercilessly, verbally attacked little Muslim girls who were reportedly harassed and humiliated in front of their class. One poster called these little girls “whores” because their mother was angry at the school and spoke out.
These people are vicious, and when you try to tell them what Christ says about all this, they accuse you of adhering to a jihad philosophy. In fact, they appear to be following those few vicious Koran passages, rather than our Lord and Savior’s instructions. Yet they still state that YOU are a follower of Mohammed if you dare disagree with their thirst for innocent civilian Muslim blood.
Our Lord warned us against false prophets and leaders who pray in public to impress the sheeple. The “Burning Bush” comes to mind.
Even I would stray from my Christian teachings if confronted by a jihadist. But if I lose my humanity in the process and seek out people to hate rather than love, the terrorists have won and Christ weeps for my soul.
Thanks Teresa, you are a true Christian role model.
The Politics of ‘Creative Destruction’
I have been an avid reader of Antiwar.com for several years, and your intellectual honesty has impressed me. However, in these times, howsoever vital honesty is, it is not enough. If we wish to forestall the whirlwind, what is required at this exact moment is bravery. For example, take Chris Moore’s otherwise exemplary article on “creative destruction,” which explains convincingly the impetus behind the domestic and foreign policy decisions being taken in Washington.
Yes, Mr. Moore, the neocons have created their “alternate reality,” a nascent state security apparatus within America and endless wars overseas, but the exercise of hard power both at home and abroad would never have been possible without the 9/11 attacks. Your piece, like so many of the other compelling op-eds that run on Antiwar.com, including many of Mr. Raimondo’s, steps right up to the line but shrinks back from its fullest possible implication: the crimes of 9/11 were either facilitated or orchestrated by the cabal ensconced in our capitol. The official story is pabulum for a nation asleep. Like an accomplished pointillist too close to his work, Antiwar.com has, for several years now, put its brush to the canvas of unfolding geopolitical events, exposing the sinister dots. It is time for Justin and his school of contributors to take a step back and reveal to themselves (perhaps for the first time) and their readers the monster in full. I believe a good place to start would be to review the works of David Ray Griffin and Michael Ruppert and make of them what you will. In a free society, bravery in the salons may prevent bloodshed in the streets, and that must rank among the chief goods of liberty.
Chris Moore replies:
9/11 as yet another example of “creative destruction” perpetrated by the neocons? I have yet to see any definitive proof that it was an inside job. That said, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence swirling around that a fairly large number of people somehow knew that attacks were coming. Questions remain unanswered. For example: Were those Israelis seen photographing and celebrating the attacks in a park on the Hudson River in New Jersey in position prior to the attacks? What about the reports that government computers recorded an unusually large volume of orders to short-sell the stocks of companies likely to be detrimentally affected by that kind of terrorist attack – orders placed prior to the attack itself? What about the opinion of Morgan Reynolds, chief economist for the Department of Labor during Bush’s first term, that the collapse of the towers had all the hallmarks of a “controlled demolition”?
Given that it was the neocons who were the primary facilitators for the lies that led to the Iraq war, a war that has cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars and nearly 2,000 American lives, is it beyond the realm of possibility that their ilk would be capable of orchestrating an attack that cost 3,000 American lives and our economy hundreds of billions of dollars? Clearly, they have little regard for human life not of their clique, or for the American taxpayer. Does that necessarily mean they are guilty of treason? No. But they are capable of great treachery. I would hope anyone investigating the above-mentioned reports or any others would keep that in mind.
You should have not reported this story because it smacks of being untrue or Rzeczpospolita‘s usual provocation. Discredited FSB employee Alexander Litvinenko has a personal grudge against that organization and is a defector. He might have told this sort of nonsense to the rabidly Russophobic Rzeczposlolita or he might not have, but that’s irrelevant. Relevant is that the news item references to Agence France Press (AFP). However AFP NEVER published this news item. They don’t know anything about it. Google searching Alexander Litvinenko leads to TWO news items – this one from an Arab paper and another from an Islamist resource.
In my opinion, Antiwar.com is one of most credible and important news resources on the Internet (even as a vast gathering of news links and commentary). You should not publish links to questionable news.
Mr. Wanniski,
It is my belief that, based upon what’s happening in the Plame Affair, John Bolton is up to his eyeballs, if not THE point man, in illegally getting Valerie Plame’s name and covert CIA NOC status via those NSA intercepts requested by the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Bolton confirmation hearings.
I mean, the man has screwed up so much of our official nonproliferation policy – starting with North Korea, moving on to Russia, then to Niger (remember those faked yellowcake-to-Iraq documents?) – and everything the man has touched, his fingerprints are all over this thing.
Any insights on this?
Great piece, by the way, and keep up the good work. I may use some of your arguments and evidence in my dKos blogging efforts (I’m MoronMike), with appropriate sourcing and credit, of course, and I expect more great investigative pieces from you.
Jude Wanniski replies:
You could be right. Novak and Bolton are buddies and go way back, bonded by hatred of Castro.
Can Congressional Republicans Save Bush?
Dear Mr. Paul Craig Roberts,
Thanks for the article. Today, I count 1765 dead military and many more wounded Americans. And the dead Iraqis were never counted. Without any doubt, Saddam is a criminal, but he was defeated by two fellow criminals: George Bush and Tony Blair.
I do not understand why the normally wise American people do not talk about the impeachment of Bush. He deserves to be impeached as soon as possible. … Bush wanted to make a war: He wanted to show his people that he can win a war. He never realized that war is not fun. He cannot know that because he had never been in a war.
I am sure Bush and his neocons will never win this war.
I am 76 years old and I really know what a war means to people as I am a Dutchman.
~ Cees van Nieuwkasteele, Nederland
Judith Miller: Hearsted on Her Own Petard
It must be lonely for Judy in that jail cell (although she will have her enormous ego to keep her company). If she is able to receive mail from the outside, I think we should, daily, send her reports of the dead and injured soldiers who have fought in Iraq, i.e. “The Face of War” by Sandra Tolliver, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, July 5 (a 23-year-old who lost both hands and his eyesight, leaving him with a fractured face and brain injury) or Cindy Sheehan’s “My Son’s Death Wasn’t Worth It,” July 14, 2005. Judy deserves to be kept abreast with vital reading material regarding this war she worked so hard to bring about. To hear Lou Dobbs counting the days until Judy is out of jail makes me want to scream!
~ Nancy Walker
