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christ almighty
Jul. 5th, 2007 02:34 pmSo I've avoided writing much about politics lately, but this piece of shit from the uber-hack Greg Sheridan pushed me to it.
Sure, it's an opinion piece, but that doesn't excuse statements that are either unbelievably ignorant or, if you prefer, flat-out lies.
Let's spot the big ones:
The only person convicted of anything is Scooter Libby, even though no one, or certainly not the special prosecutor anyway, alleges he leaked Plame's identity.
Actually, the whole case was about his leaking her identity and lying about it to the grand jury (under oath) and to the FBI.
Rather, Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury about when he learnt of Plame's identity and who from.
Wrong, wrong, wrong - did you actually read anything about the case aside from some right-wing editorials?
But answer me this - is there a single telephone conversation you had three or four years ago where you can remember the exact sequence of what you said and what you heard?
In fact, something like 8 people testified that he'd known about it and talked to them about it. He organised meetings with the dreadful Judith Miller to explicitly leak the information.
And finally, it was allegedly all about keeping Plame's identity secret - but her husband, Joe Wilson, was writing New York Times opinion pieces screaming his denunciation of the Bush administration and outlining his CIA-directed involvement in the Niger case, before his wife's identity was leaked.
Re-read Wilson's piece. Where in it does he mention "my wife (a covert CIA operative)". That's right - he doesn't. Dickhead.
When Plame's identity was revealed, though her status was covert, she was not doing covert stuff but working in CIA headquarters as a team leader in counter-proliferation analysis.
Really. She was not-really-super-secret-covert, only covert. There's a special exemption for "only a bit covert" in the laws, didn't you know?
It was she who put her husband on the job to go to Niger to check out claims that Niger was selling uranium to Iraq.
Wrong. Just flat-out wrong, as anyone who'd done even a smidgen of research into the case would know.
We now know it was Rich Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, who first leaked Plame's identity to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.
And this has what to do with exonerating Libby? Libby, Rove and Armitage all leaked her name. Unfortunately, while Rove (eventually) came clean and admitted it and Armitage admitted it straight away, Libby fucking lied under oath about it. Why, no-one knows. But he did. And who knew, but it's still a crime to lie under oath, even if you're a republican. "Someone else did it first" isn't a valid excuse when you're a 5 year old, let alone the chief of staff to the vice-president.
This was because Plame played a key role in hiring her husband for the CIA junket to Niger.
Repeating a falsehood doesn't make it more true.
The whole thing is both an anti-Bush, liberal witch-hunt and a sign of how special prosecutors go completely nuts, become obsessed with questions of process and seek to justify their multi-million-dollar budgets with a conviction, and any conviction of anybody for any offence will do.
Really. The liberal CIA got the liberal John Ashcroft and the liberal Bush Department of Justice to appoint the liberal Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate. The case was tried in front of the liberal Judge Reggie Walton, and appealed to the liberal 3-judge appeals panel. Except that in the previous sentence, replace "liberal" with "Republican and appointed by George W. Bush". What a fucking idiot. Oh, and the "multi-million dollar budget"? $1.4M. Compare that to the $70M spent by Starr in his blowjob-hunting Lewinsky probe. And any conviction will do? Really. The liberal witch-hunt made Libby lie under oath, don't you know. They did!
Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, had to pardon the estimable former defence secretary, Caspar Weinberger, who was equally baselessly persecuted by a former special prosecutor.
Shock me - Sheridan's perfectly fine with Weinberger lying under oath to Congress about Iran-Contra. Nice rule-of-law you got there, Greggles.
... oh fuck it. The lies keep going on and on. Let's just skip to the end:
This travesty of a trial has already ruined Libby's life. The least he could expect from Bush is a modicum of loyalty.
Yes, he's ruined, ruined I tell you. I mean, he's facing no jail time, a fine that his supporters will pay, and faces a horrible future as a well paid hack in a right-wing think-tank. The poor baby.
Sure, it's an opinion piece, but that doesn't excuse statements that are either unbelievably ignorant or, if you prefer, flat-out lies.
Let's spot the big ones:
The only person convicted of anything is Scooter Libby, even though no one, or certainly not the special prosecutor anyway, alleges he leaked Plame's identity.
Actually, the whole case was about his leaking her identity and lying about it to the grand jury (under oath) and to the FBI.
Rather, Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury about when he learnt of Plame's identity and who from.
Wrong, wrong, wrong - did you actually read anything about the case aside from some right-wing editorials?
But answer me this - is there a single telephone conversation you had three or four years ago where you can remember the exact sequence of what you said and what you heard?
In fact, something like 8 people testified that he'd known about it and talked to them about it. He organised meetings with the dreadful Judith Miller to explicitly leak the information.
And finally, it was allegedly all about keeping Plame's identity secret - but her husband, Joe Wilson, was writing New York Times opinion pieces screaming his denunciation of the Bush administration and outlining his CIA-directed involvement in the Niger case, before his wife's identity was leaked.
Re-read Wilson's piece. Where in it does he mention "my wife (a covert CIA operative)". That's right - he doesn't. Dickhead.
When Plame's identity was revealed, though her status was covert, she was not doing covert stuff but working in CIA headquarters as a team leader in counter-proliferation analysis.
Really. She was not-really-super-secret-covert, only covert. There's a special exemption for "only a bit covert" in the laws, didn't you know?
It was she who put her husband on the job to go to Niger to check out claims that Niger was selling uranium to Iraq.
Wrong. Just flat-out wrong, as anyone who'd done even a smidgen of research into the case would know.
We now know it was Rich Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, who first leaked Plame's identity to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.
And this has what to do with exonerating Libby? Libby, Rove and Armitage all leaked her name. Unfortunately, while Rove (eventually) came clean and admitted it and Armitage admitted it straight away, Libby fucking lied under oath about it. Why, no-one knows. But he did. And who knew, but it's still a crime to lie under oath, even if you're a republican. "Someone else did it first" isn't a valid excuse when you're a 5 year old, let alone the chief of staff to the vice-president.
This was because Plame played a key role in hiring her husband for the CIA junket to Niger.
Repeating a falsehood doesn't make it more true.
The whole thing is both an anti-Bush, liberal witch-hunt and a sign of how special prosecutors go completely nuts, become obsessed with questions of process and seek to justify their multi-million-dollar budgets with a conviction, and any conviction of anybody for any offence will do.
Really. The liberal CIA got the liberal John Ashcroft and the liberal Bush Department of Justice to appoint the liberal Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate. The case was tried in front of the liberal Judge Reggie Walton, and appealed to the liberal 3-judge appeals panel. Except that in the previous sentence, replace "liberal" with "Republican and appointed by George W. Bush". What a fucking idiot. Oh, and the "multi-million dollar budget"? $1.4M. Compare that to the $70M spent by Starr in his blowjob-hunting Lewinsky probe. And any conviction will do? Really. The liberal witch-hunt made Libby lie under oath, don't you know. They did!
Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, had to pardon the estimable former defence secretary, Caspar Weinberger, who was equally baselessly persecuted by a former special prosecutor.
Shock me - Sheridan's perfectly fine with Weinberger lying under oath to Congress about Iran-Contra. Nice rule-of-law you got there, Greggles.
... oh fuck it. The lies keep going on and on. Let's just skip to the end:
This travesty of a trial has already ruined Libby's life. The least he could expect from Bush is a modicum of loyalty.
Yes, he's ruined, ruined I tell you. I mean, he's facing no jail time, a fine that his supporters will pay, and faces a horrible future as a well paid hack in a right-wing think-tank. The poor baby.
