I don't think he was disputing that it was a crime, more that what he was covering up might be more important than the fact that he covered something up. I can see some parallels with Watergate, but the prosecutors need to find someone like Dean Achison (?SP) who dropped Nixon right in it. Did Cheney authorise the release of Palmie's name? Did he do it on the instructions of the President? Either of these is at least as serious as using the FBI and the IRS as a tool to attack your political enemies.Nutty said:Bergen
"It's Not The Crime; It's The Cover-up"
Sorry it is a crime to Pervert the Course of Justice and even if you do it to protect the President of the USA or his mates. As did the Labour Party staff who evaded and bent the laws their own Goverment and PM had brought in.
They are Pollies and honestly believe that the laws brought in to control us plebs do not refer to them. See MP's pensions, Smoking in the Houses of Parliment's bars and resturants etc. Its a world wide problem, Power Corrupts, Total Power Totally Corrupts.
Nutty
Nutty said:They are Pollies and honestly believe that the laws brought in to control us plebs do not refer to them. See MP's pensions, Smoking in the Houses of Parliment's bars and resturants etc. Its a world wide problem, Power Corrupts, Total Power Totally Corrupts.
Nutty
Bergen said:Maxi_77 said:Unless things have changed since I last really took an interest in this whle affair the original problem the outing of CIA Val has turned out to be a non crime, and our hero has been banged up for covering up something that did not need coverng up. A bit like Archer who got done for a false alibi when he already had a 'good' alibi he was not that keen on using.
It certainly was not a "non-crime". Valerie Plame was a CIA NOC and had set up a private energy consultancy firm [Brewster-Jennings] that provided cover for intelligence operations focused on WMD. She built the cover up pretty well by studying at the College of Europe in Bruges and at the London School of Economics. When her cover was purposely exposed the entire network was compromised. It was the CIA itself who asked for an investigation and the appointment of a federal prosecutor.
The crime was hidden pretty well but they botched the cover-up.
In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, the USA and Britain went to great lengths not only to falsify intelligence but to rubbish, smear and discredit anyone who presented facts contrary to the Bush / Bliar spin. In the US the Army CoS General Shinseki was publicly humiliated and forced to resign; the US counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke was forced to resign and so was Paul O'Neill the Secretary of the Treasury. They all had one thing in common, they had publicly questioned the false intelligence that was leading to the invasion. They were just the tip of the iceberg and when Ambassador Wilson said categorically that the Bush intelligence on Niger uranium ore was patently false then the White House targeted Wilson's wife Valerie Plame.
In the coming weeks and months we will see more British soldiers killed in Iraq. When all the spin and the hype is stripped away the bare fact will remain is that they were committed to a war based on nothing more than the lies of politicians. To be the last young man to die for these lies is a tough bullet to chew.
RM
Bergen said:Then clearly more has been released since as I say I really took any interest as at that time it was reported that she was but a head office desk wallah and as such not protected by law from disclosure. Now as what ever she was doing, her cover was blown from the start why does her real positin come out so much later especially as the apparent reason at the start for he exposure was not her own job but the fact her husband had been given a job on her advice to investigate the West African Uranium Ore story.
On the other hand I I understood these things properly I would probably be being paid more than I am now.
Bergen said:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As to diplomats and jollies, for some (based on meeting a few) it is the expenses not the location that matters, not that I am in any way suggesting that Mr Wison is a freeloader, but the diplomatic profession has probably more than it's fair share.
I don't think that a week long trip to Niger would have given much opportunity for Ambassador Wilson to freeload. He had not only previously been Ambassador to Iraq but also had worked Niger diplomatically and had some close contacts there. The choice of him to undertake the mission to Niger made sense.
Where it is really going to get interesting is that now that Libby has been found guilty in the criminal prosecution the civil prosecution that has been on hold can now go ahead.
Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson have named Cheney / Libby / Karl Rove plus 6 un-named co-conspirators in the case.
The Brits were up to their necks in the disinformation and lies that surrounded the claims about the Niger uranium and even Colin Powell found the allegations below his own low standards for inclusion in his now infamous UN speech in February 2003. The simple fact of the matter was that after his return from Niger, Wilson said that "If the administration is prepared to lie about this uranium then it begs the question regarding what else they are lying about".
Very un-diplomatic language; small wonder the neocons had to shut him and his wife up.
RM
Jenny_Dabber said:Ah ha political stuff! Moving this to the CA forum guys n dolls, if it gets moved back to the QD, so be it!