| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
01 Oct 2003 09:35:09 AM |
| Object: |
What did Bush know, and when did he know it? |
From a Madison Capital Times editorial, 10/1/03:
http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/editorial/57893.php
Warping the White House
It is disgusting that partisans are now attempting to dismiss concerns
that the Bush White House sought to punish a critic, former U.S.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, with leaks of information that might have
endangered his wife and undermined CIA operations that have sought to
investigate weapons of mass destruction.
Bush defenders who retreat to the "our president can do no wrong"
position look every bit as intellectually dishonest as Clinton
defenders who did the same.
The bottom line is this:
President Bush and his aides stand accused of involving themselves in
a serious crime - exposing the identity of a Central Intelligence
Agency operative.
Former President George Herbert Walker Bush, an outspoken advocate of
the law making it a crime to expose the identities of CIA operatives,
has referred to the leaking of an agent's identity as a form of
treason.
Yet Republicans in Congress seem to be reluctant to investigate the
concerns expressed by CIA Director George Tenet, who has asked the
U.S. Justice Department to open a criminal investigation.
AttorneyGeneral John Ashcroft's Justice Department has been slow to
act, but now appears to be moving on the issue.
Concerns about whether Ashcroft will finish the job have led to calls
for an independent investigation.
Considering the failures of the Congress to address this issue and the
suspicions about Ashcroft and his aides, it seems only reasonable that
an independent investigation be authorized.
Those who attempt to dismiss this matter are not merely defending a
president who, if he had any knowledge of political retaliation of
this kind, is no more fit to serve in the nation's highest office than
Richard Nixon was in 1974.
They are placing party ahead of country - a wrong for which they
savaged the defenders of former President Clinton.
Imagine if the Clinton administration stood accused of illegally
identifying an intelligence agent.
The calls for impeachment would have been so loud that nothing else
would be done in Washington.
Bush's critics have, for the most part, been more restrained.
That is appropriate. But no one, no matter what their party, should
hesitate to demand that investigators find the answers to two
questions:
Who, if anyone, in the administration leaked information about
Wilson's wife?
What did the president know, and when did he know it?
___________________________________________________
And these right-wingers hypocritically refer to themselves as
"patriots." This incident proves how shallow the right-wing claim to
patriotism is.
Harry
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