Bushies traitorously reveal spy's identity, internal investigation stalls.

In the spirit of provocative, rabble rousing threads I present this.

Amazingly enough, the internal Justice Department investigation has dropped off the radar of news outlets. Unlike Watergate and Iran Contra, the Bushies have successfully quashed an illegal act by investigating themselves and finding nothing.


http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/n...bpqGY5ObcetG8Td66swLnRtgCqAEuVKq2JFs01bsjI0g8!1644292755?urac=n&urvf=10678106144880.8433865436329041

News



[10-30]

Credibility questions continue on Iraq campaign


By BOB DEANS / Cox News Service



WASHINGTON -- Six months ago Saturday, President Bush stood on the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier and announced triumphantly that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," against the backdrop of a huge banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

Since then, 219 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, former leader Saddam Hussein remains at large and inspectors have yet to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction upon which Bush built his case for war.

And again, it seems, the administration is engulfed in credibility questions stemming from the Iraq operation, this time after Bush blamed the Navy for the banner. His spokesman clarified Wednesday that White House staffers had the banner made, at the request of the ship's crew, then sent it to the carrier before his visit.

The banner flap -- and the more fundamental question of whether Bush erred in raising public expectations following the fall of Baghdad -- has joined a litany of instances in which information about the campaign has come into question.

While Bush said before the war that Saddam's chemical and biological weapons posed a "grave" threat to the United States and its regional partners, no substantial caches of such arms have yet been found by a team of some 1,200 U.S. inspectors.

The claim Bush made in the lead-up to war that Iraq was believed to have sought nuclear weapons fuel from Niger turned out to be based on poor intelligence. Bush first blamed CIA chief George Tenet for the blunder, then later assumed responsibility after Tenet produced memos he had sent to the White House National Security Council warning that the claims were suspect three months before the president included the charges in his January State of the Union address.

Last summer, someone revealed to conservative pundit Robert Novak the identity of a CIA undercover agent after her husband, a U.S. diplomat, publicly criticized Bush's handling of pre-war intelligence. The Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into whether administration officials leaked the agent's identity.

And finally, the administration's own tireless efforts to portray the Iraq campaign as a success -- Bush has criticized the news media as a "filter" that has prevented the public from learned "the truth" about the effort -- have been undercut by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's candid memo of Oct. 16, in which he conceded that the country faces "a long, hard slog,'' in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Against that confused and contradictory background, and by a daily barrage of criticism from Democrats, public support for the Iraq campaign, and for Bush's handling of it, has suffered a steady erosion.

"Out of these little things can come a major league credibility gap,'' said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

"If people don't believe what you're saying, then it becomes hard to convince them that you're a strong leader and that you know what you're doing.''

Other analysts say that given the inherent uncertainties in assessing intelligence and risk, it's unfair to accuse Bush of not shooting straight with the public, as some of his critics have done.

"What they're saying are falsehoods are basically differences over interpretation,'' said Mackubin Owens, who teaches a strategy course at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and a course on the presidency at nearby University of Rhode Island.

"The president, and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair, took the steps that they did based on their best judgment, which had to take into account different points of view," said Owens. "That's just the nature of the beast.''

Still others empathize with Bush's frustration over media focus on the difficulties of Iraq, a place where U.S. forces deposed a brutal tyrant who twice attacked his neighbors and had a history of using chemical weapons. In recent weeks, the United Nations has endorsed a lengthy U.S. occupation that calls for electing an Iraqi leadership on a schedule to be determined by Iraqis. Much of the country is being knitted back together, a trend likely to be spurred by recent pledges of some $13 billion in reconstruction aid from some 73 different countries.

"Nobody wants to make the case that Iraq is currently a peaceful, stable democracy ... it's difficult," said Condoleeza Rice, the national security adviser. "But this is a big, historic change. And perspective on big, historic changes is also important."

Still, the difficulties and continuing bloodshed there have taken a toll on public support.

Fifty percent of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling the Iraq conflict, a weekend Gallup/USA Today/CNN poll showed. That' up from just 18 percent six months ago.

The poll surveyed 1,006 adults from Oct. 24-26 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It showed that 53 percent of the country approves of the way Bush is handling his job overall.

After a week of escalating militant attacks that have killed a half dozen Americans and more than 40 Iraqis, the White House is scrambling to tell, and retell, a narrative of U.S. gains in a war Bush has cast as essential to protecting the country and securing the oil-rich Persian Gulf region.

Administration aides also hope to counter the long list of unanswered questions and disturbing developments on the ground in Iraq and restore public confidence in Bush.

It was against the backdrop that Bush addressed reporters in a Rose Garden press conference on Tuesday, asserting at one point that he raised his credibility by making good on months of threats that attacks would result unless Saddam surrendered his weapons of mass destruction.

"Credibility comes,'' said Bush, "when you say something's going to happen and then it does happen."

He bristled, though, when a reporter asked whether it was premature for him to have flew onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 for an event suggesting that the worst of the fighting was over and that "the United States and our allies have prevailed," as Bush said at the time.

By Tuesday, however, Bush wasn't hailing that message, but rather distancing himself from it.

"The 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished,'' Bush said Tuesday. "I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way."

On Wednesday, though, White House spokesman Scott McClellan acknowledged that White House staffers had made the banner, at the request of the Navy, and sent it aboard the ship prior to Bush's appearance there.

"The idea for the banner and the idea for the sign was suggested by those onboard the ship, and we were pleased to help them with that,'' McClellan explained. "The mission for those people onboard the ship was accomplished."

Bush's critics jumped on the inconsistency.

"If he wanted to prove he has trouble leveling with the American people, mission accomplished," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a Democratic presidential hopeful.

"It's got to be one of the most significant embarrassments of the entire Iraq experience so far,'' Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters Wednesday.

"We've lost more lives since he's declared victory than we lost prior to the time he declared victory,'' said Daschle. "This latest fabrication is yet another illustration of their unwillingness to except reality."

As of Wednesday, Pentagon figures showed 357 U.S. fatalities - 231 of them from hostile fire - since war began in Iraq last March. Of those, 219, or about two-thirds, have died since May 1 - 117 from hostile fire.

In fact, Bush cautioned in his May 1 speech that perils remained.

"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous,'' Bush warned. "The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort."

As Bush said on Tuesday of his May 1 statement, "It's proved to be right, it is dangerous in Iraq."

The thrust of Bush's message at the time, however, was far from a warning.

"When people saw the 'Mission Accomplished' sign, they thought the war was over and our troops would be welcomed with open arms,'' said West. "Bush raised expectations that the war was over and things would go smoothly.''

That, in fact, was no coincidence.

On the eve of the address, one of the most important and meticulously staged speech Bush has delivered this year, Ari Fleischer, who was then White House press secretary, told reporters it was Bush's intent to close a circle on the Iraq campaign.

"He wants to explain to the American people, having risked lives and treasure in pursuit of our goals in Iraq, what the present results are. And that's something that the president began with a speech to the country about, and he wants to again now bring it to a conclusion with a speech to the country,'' said Fleischer.

Bush, he said, would be "speaking in direct, plain English to the American people, so they can understand what was at stake, what has been accomplished, and so we can all join together in saying thanks to the men and women of our armed forces who helped achieve this remarkable success with so little loss of life."

Bob Deans is a Washington correspondent for Cox Newspapers.

 

Nothing will happen since Republicans control the House and the Senate. A congressional investigation could bring the truth out, since there is no way in heck they are going to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate themselves - they would have to be honest people looking for the truth for that to happen.