July 24, 2005

Rove-Leaker Story is Garbage by Bush Haters

Before making way for the new Beltway sensation – appointment of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court – let us give the Plame-Wilson-Rove leak-o-rama a decent burial.

Washington, D.C., reporters throw babies off the sleigh when ravenous readers close in. President Bush and Karl Rove are skinny morsels.

Bush declared War Against Terrorists after 9/11/01. The aim was to take down Taliban and Osama bin Laden thugs in Afghanistan that the United Nations had failed to do with sweet words.

When terrorists took refuge in Iraq, Bush pursued. In explaining this to Congress, he parenthetically (16 words) mentioned weapons of mass destruction for which United Nations inspectors had been searching.

After Saddam expelled the U.N., Bush launched a pre- emptive strike against him in March 2003. Huge caches of conventional weapons were found – not as devastating as an atom bomb but lethal enough.

Saddam had such weapons -- and poison gas – that he had used against his own people, Israel, Iran and Kuwait. He threatened oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

No matter to Bush haters, an anthill of propaganda outweighs a mountain of truth.

Vice-president Cheney in the spring of 2003 asked George Tenet, head of the CIA, to investigate the British intelligence report that Iraq sought to buy uranium ore from Niger.

Upon learning of the request, Ms. Valerie Plame – a CIA officer at Washington -- recommended her husband Joseph C. Wilson for the task. He had been charge de affaires in Baghdad and then ambassador to Gabon.

Plame had been a CIA undercover officer, but her identity was disclosed to Russia in 1994 by a Moscow spy. She was “brought in from the cold” and given a desk job.

Wilson spent 11 days in Niger and concluded a purported letter from Saddam seeking improved trade relations with Niger was false. Prime Minister Blair still claims it was authentic.

It is of more than passing interest that Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are well known as deep-dyed liberals who contributed generously of their money and advice to the Kerry campaign.

Wilson stridently asserts that someone in the White House illegally leaked Plame’s identity to the press in order to punish Wilson by endangering her.

How Machiavellian can you get?

Wilson has written a book in which he debunks Saddam’s penchant for weapons of mass destruction and castigates Bush for war mongering.

The hyperventilating media spooked Congress. It appointed a Special Counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, to convene a grand jury and find someone to blame for something. A report is expected in October.

The law protecting an undercover agent’s identity applies for the first five years of withdrawal from active duty. The statute of limitations ran out for Plame four years ago.

In addition, she has for many years been well known throughout Washington social circles and news rooms as Wilson’s wife and a CIA officer.

Thus, the alleged name leakage is a farce -- embraced only by liberals and panting news hounds. Two will get you ten that the grand jury will fizzle.

The media suffers a Freudian block about last year’s Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into Wilson’s allegations. Chairman Pat Roberts issued a stinging news release.

“The former ambassador, either by design or ignorance, gave the American people a version of events that was inaccurate, unsubstantiated and misleading.”

A couple of reporters face jail to “protect” their snitches.

As for Rove, he is due a Press Club award for warning muckrakers: “don’t go too far” with that garbage.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org