Friday, July 08, 2005

A Fish Rots From the Head

In an article in today's Washington Post staff writer Dan Balz reiterates the key point of the on-going Plame investigation:

...whether senior Bush officials broke the law in the disclosure of a CIA covert operative's identity.
The term "senior Bush officials" doesn't quite describe the level of authority in the White House from which the deliberate, petty and retaliatory leak of covert agent Valerie Plame's name to several reporters originated. Plame and her network of undercover associates had their mission compromised and were put into personal danger by President Bush's most trusted senior political advisor and current Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove.

The reason Plame was sold out by the White House was in retaliation for an article published by her husband, Joseph Wilson.

The debate two summers ago over why the United States went to war engaged some of the most senior officials in the government and included an incendiary accusation by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had challenged the administration over claims that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Africa. Wilson based his claim on information gathered on a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger.

Wilson was right, there was no Iraqi connection in the matter. In fact, the whole assertion of a connection was based on forged documents that were being used by Bush Administration officials despite their obvious falsehood.

There is no doubt that Plame was outed by "senior Bush officials" and that their actions were designed as payback for Wilson's whistle blowing on the bogus nuclear material story. There is little doubt that the man known as "George Bush's Brain," Karl Rove, was behind the leaking of Plame's identity.

The only two questions left are:

1. Is there be enough evidence to charge Rove with an actual crime or has he covered his tracks well enough to avoid prosecution?

2. When did the President of the United States know that his closest advisor pulled the trigger on the disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent?

This stench from this administration is growing stronger and more pungent every day.