Treason and the Valerie Plame Affair

I just read Juan Cole's post Plame Wilson Had worked on Iran Anti-Proliferation. Briefly, Juan discusses the Neocon goal of war with Iran as a motivation for outing Valerie Plame.

I think the measure of how much this country has changed is evident here. Forget Harding or Nixon—Bush's is the worst presidency. We have this gang of Neocons who have taken over: Cheney, Libby, Hadley—I dither on whether to include Bush in this list. In any other administration, there would be little question but that these people would be prosecuted, incarcerated, and quite probably executed. Yet, because these people are part of Bush's political machine, none of them are under any serious threat of punishment.

I think that it is critical for Scooter Libby to be prosecuted and incarcerated, but remember what he is being charged with: obstruction of justice (among other things). This is a very serious charge, but I believe that we can infer that his actions have stymied the prosecutor's investigation into possible treason. I'm not saying that smearing Joe Wilson was some red herring; I do think the Scooter et al thought that they could kill two birds with one stone. As the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously said, Libby "threw sand in the umpire's eyes." What the umpire failed to see, apparently, was treason by Libby, Rove, Cheney, and quite probably others. I don't include Bush in this list, not because he isn't culpable, but because the prosecutor can't indict a President; he can, however, indict the Vice President, to the best of my knowledge.

But how do these actions earn this Administration the title of "Worst?" After all, administrations have screwed up pretty badly in the past. But this administration does not believe in our system of government. More fundamental than our institutions, our constitution—more fundamental even than the idea of democracy—is the rule of law. The idea that the executive is bound by law goes back to the Magna Carta. The Bush administration has demonstrated that it does not believe in the rule of law. Citizens are being spied upon, the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended, congress is prevented from performing oversight, and a CIA officer's identity is illegally leaked.

In this last act, our intelligence operations inside Iran would certainly seem to have been damaged. This could lead to war with Iran. Regardless of the motives of Libby and his "superiors," his acts seem treasonous. We can only speculate as to what Libby's motives were, or who in the White House knew; with the current Congress, it doesn't seem we'll ever know much more.

I didn't really mean to start a blog, but no one was saying what I felt needed to be said. I doubt I'll post too often: I want to be careful to say what I mean to say, and I don't feel compelled to comment on every little news item. I'll try to keep my comments as objective and as fair as I can. I hope that what I write is worthwhile or interesting, even for someone who disagrees with me. I am not a reporter, but a commentator. I view blogging as the modern day equivalent of pamphleteering, so I take my words very seriously. I had never really considered writing a blog, but I finally couldn't take it. I voted against Bush both times, but I never imagined he'd take this country in this awful a direction. This latest news was the final straw; the War in Iraq is bad enough, but the thought that they might do it again is too much.