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Begging His Pardon
We have yet another remarkable revelation of the mindset of Washington's ruling clique of neoconservative elites -- the people who took us to war from the safety of their Beltway bunkers. Even as Iraq grows bloodier by the day, their passion of the week is to keep one of their own from going to jail.
It is well known that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- once Vice President Cheney's most trusted adviser-has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for perjury. Lying. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie. Scooter Libby deliberately poured poison into the drinking water of democracy by lying to federal investigators, for the purpose of obstructing justice.
Attempting to trash critics of the war, Libby and his pals in high places-including his boss Dick Cheney-outed a covert CIA agent. Libby then lied to cover their tracks. To throw investigators off the trail, he kicked sand in the eyes of truth. "Libby lied about nearly everything that mattered," wrote the chief prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. The jury agreed and found him guilty on four felony counts. Judge Reggie B. Walton-a no-nonsense, lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key type, appointed to the bench by none other than George W. Bush-called the evidence "overwhelming" and threw the book at Libby.
You would have thought their man had been ordered to Guantanamo, so intense was the reaction from his cheerleaders. They flooded the judge's chambers with letters of support for their comrade and took to the airwaves in a campaign to "free Scooter."
Vice President Cheney issued a statement praising Libby as "a man...of personal integrity" -- without even a hint of irony about their collusion to browbeat the CIA into mangling intelligence about Iraq in order to justify the invasion.
"A patriot, a dedicated public servant, a strong family man, and a tireless, honorable, selfless human being," said Donald Rumsfeld-the very same Rumsfeld who had claimed to know the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction and who boasted of "bulletproof" evidence linking Saddam to 9/11. "A good person" and "decent man," said the one-time Pentagon adviser Kenneth Adelman, who had predicted the war in Iraq would be a "cakewalk." Paul Wolfowitz wrote a four-page letter to praise "the noblest spirit of selfless service" that he knew motivated his friend Scooter. Yes, that Paul Wolfowitz, who had claimed Iraqis would "greet us as liberators" and that Iraq would "finance its own reconstruction." The same Paul Wolfowitz who had to resign recently as president of the World Bank for using his office to show favoritism to his girlfriend. Paul Wolfowitz turned character witness.
The praise kept coming: from Douglas Feith, who ran the Pentagon factory of disinformation that Cheney and Libby used to brainwash the press; from Richard Perle, as cocksure about Libby's "honesty, integrity, fairness and balance" as he had been about the success of the war; and from William Kristol, who had primed the pump of the propaganda machine at The Weekly Standard and has led the call for a Presidential pardon. "The case was such a farce, in my view," he said. "I'm for pardon on the merits."
One Beltway insider reports that the entire community is grieving -- "weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness" of Libby's sentence.
And there's the rub.
None seem the least weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness of sentencing soldiers to repeated and longer tours of duty in a war induced by deception. It was left to the hawkish academic Fouad Ajami to state the matter baldly. In a piece published on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, Ajami pleaded with Bush to pardon Libby. For believing "in the nobility of this war," wrote Ajami, Scooter Libby had himself become a "casualty" -- a fallen soldier the President dare not leave behind on the Beltway battlefield.
Not a word in the entire article about the real fallen soldiers. The honest-to-God dead, and dying, and wounded. Not a word about the chaos or the cost. Even as the calamity they created worsens, all they can muster is a cry for leniency for one of their own who lied to cover their tracks.
There are contrarian voices: "This is an open and shut case of perjury and obstruction of justice," said Pat Buchanan. "The Republican Party stands for the idea that high officials should not be lying to special investigators." From the former Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore, a staunch conservative, comes this verdict: "If the public believes there's one law for a certain group of people in high places and another law for regular people, then you will destroy the law and destroy the system."
So it may well be, as The Hartford Courant said editorially, that Mr Libby is "a nice guy, a loyal and devoted patriot...but none of that excuses perjury or obstruction of justice. If it did, truth wouldn't matter much."
Bill Moyers is managing editor of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS. This essay appears on tonight's program. Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers Blog at www.pbs.org/moyers.
38 Comments so far
Show AllI'll make a prediction. And this will all these Republican presidential candidates adding their two sense. If Libby is pardoned, the Republicans can kiss 2008, and at least 2012 good-bye. Anyone who is willing to think seriously about what this country has gone through will stamp any Republican, no matter how honorable they are with a giant "R" stamp...R for REJECT!!!
From this article:
"disinformation that Cheney and Libby used to brainwash the press"
REALLY? how pretty a defence. I was brainwashed, so I didn't have any courage against the great wave of insanity.
NGO's, diplomats, former weapons inspector Steve Ritter, most foreign press services etc..., etc.. are good examples of people who were talking sense, but were left hanging, by a spineless USA press.
And now their excuse is "We were brainwashed."
If this is true, let just one of these well respected journalists stand up in front of the world and talk in the First Person. "I was brainwashed."
I don't think so. "I WAS AFRAID." is closer to the truth. If I was a journalist at the time, I probably would have had fear, for my career, for my family, etc... Whether I would have had the courage to overcome that fear, I don't know.
Also, in the interests of true unbias thought:
1) why is Libby not being pardoned (and in jail right now I think)? The only explainiation is that GW Bush will not pardon him, despite what the majority of his party wants.
If we are going to judge a man by his actions, lets have the personal integrity to put one tiny checkmark in the "right decision" column.
And let's not forget the hypocrisy of the Republicans who cried over and over again about what a serious crime perjury is, when it was Bill Clinton being impeached over a lie about getting a BJ in the White House.
Lobo Gris
And justice obstruction and perjury in this case unmasks a cabal of scurrilous character and actual assassins of their dedicated subordinates from truly loyal agents to brave troops in the field. NOT these "nice guys and loyal, devoted patriots"; mirrorspeak of Manifest Insanity.
Mr. Moyers, you are an American treasure and a real patriot. Your eloquence, your thinking clarity, your compassion reveals so well what is in my heart. This administration has lowered the bar on everything it touches, it has destroyed evrything that this great country was built on, it has twisted the definitions of "character," "patriotism," "accountability," "integrity."
This ADMINISTRATION-CORPOROTOCRACY has committed many, many crimes and is hiding in the skirts of the media enablers. So many covert, illegal items in the news that are invisible on the front pages of newspapers and TV broadcasts. It has become a mad magician distracting us with fear, bread & circuses, while in the background it is building its own private BLACKWATER ARMY (not unlike Hitler's Brown Shirts) that could eventually be used domestically to terrorize American citizens. It is robbing our treasury, and STEALING IRAQ'S OIL (those backroom deal$ are not in the $potlight, are they?).
PLEASE, MR. MOYERS, PLEASE CONTINUE TO VOICE FOR US CITIZENS our anguish, our anger, our sense of injustice. No one does it better. PLEASE, MR. MOYERS, CONTINUE TO SHED A SHARP INVESTIGATIVE LIGHT on all the covert, indecent, illegal activities of this shameful, arrogant administration and their LOYAL THUGS.
Of course they can't leave Libby out to hang without pretending to be compassionate and concerned. He knows too much. He could probably sink the whole ship. I am sure that rewards await him on his release from custody, but I wonder if the Bush administration can make such pretense to justice as to let him serve his whole sentence before rewarding his loyalty to the liars, cheaters and murderers whom he serves. Because that is exactly what his "honost, loyal, patriotic behavior is doing: Protecting those who are destroying everything we were TOLD the United States represented as school children. Ah, but children are young and naive. Hardly ready for the truths of grown up politics. How can we possibly teach our children that, in this democracy, being birth is far more important than merit (certainly, no one can believe that GW bush has gotten ANYWHERE by virtue of his own intellect and effort!). Can we teach them that it is okay for the government to LIE as long as there is profit enough to be made from the lie? Can we teach them that the lives of the lower classes are an acceptable exchange for the interests of the rich? Because that is what Libby is protecting. He is protecting an administration that does not respect life. Sure, they claim to support the lives of unborn children, but they only protect them until they breach the womb. Then it is all fair game. And, really, they don't even protect them in the womb. Ask the Marine families who drank the poisoned tap water at the North Carolina base, Camp Lejeune. These protectors of life protect the unborn only so they may have future fodder for wars and work. It is sacred as a sacrifice at their altar. Libby is not a decent human being. Being personable and charming does not make a person DECENT. The decisions they make it times of moral crisis are what define people. Scooter Libby is a sycophant in the service of the lowest moral order our human race can produce. And that will be his saving grace. Those he serves will have no scruples about subverting the law for one of their own. The trouble, Scooter, is what if you aren't one of their own. What if you're loved like the soldiers in Iraq are loved? Then you will have the lamentations in public as your "friends" drink to your gullibility in private and let you rot away. As you should.
If the Neoconsevatives can get Libby pardoned then they'll show the American public who's really in charge.
I'd rather see more turkey pardons on Thanksgiving than a chickenhawk pardon.
"From the former Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore, a staunch conservative, comes this verdict: "If the public believes there's one law for a certain group of people in high places and another law for regular people, then you will destroy the law and destroy the system.""
It's not that there is one law for people in high places with the Bush administration; it's that there is NO LAW for them. Off the top of my head I can't think of a single act where they've said, to quote Dick Nixon "We could do that...but that would be wrong."
Even when events prove them wrong they still don't admit they're wrong, Saddam's WMD's morphed into bringing "democracy" to Iraq, when the democracy rhetoric fueled the Sunni insurgency they didn't admit they were wrong, now that the entire Middle East is about to break out in war between the Shia and the Sunni they still don't admit they were wrong. Having said that, given the Bush family's ties to the House of Saud are such that ginning up a Shia vs. Sunni war with the U.S. bombing Iran back to the Stone Age, may well be their plan.
I'm a believer in cause and effect so when I see something like Jimmy Carter's recantation of his statement that the Bush administration is the worst Presidency in the history of the republic I assume there was a cause for his recantation. When, faced with nearly limitless grounds for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney, Nancy Pelosi states "impeachment is off the table." I assume that there was a cause for her position. (And I don't think the "Albatross" of letting Bush drive the Ship of State into the rocks is the cause of Pelosi's position on impeachment.)
Wellston's death, the anthrax letters three weeks after the Bush administration's top people started dosing themselves with Cipro, the exact antibiotic to prevent anthrax, massive illegal wiretapping, disappearing enemy combatants, creating "enemy combatants", building an army of mercenaries; how much evidence do we need to conclude the Bush administration has gone outlaw?
When Bush does attack Iran, a blatantly illegal act of aggressive war, I believe he will also go blatantly illegal here at home, free speech will no longer be allowed, even in free speech zones, antiwar and anti Bush demonstrations will be banned, rightwing talk radio will encourage the Dittoheads toward violence against "liberals" and the war will be used as an excuse to delay elections.
All denial of what's happened in America under the Bush administration accomplishes is advancing their cause.
The ruling clique of neoconservatives are ruling this country as if it is their private corporation. Libby is likely to be pardoned regardless.
Cheney's Secret Energy Meetings were connected to the Iraq War and all the lies.
Expose them with another PBS documentary.
for those of you who missed it, the interview w/grace lee boggs on b.m.'s journal on 6/15 was inspirational. you should definitely check it out on his website.
My favorite Bill Moyers Story--
In the White House all heads were bowed as Moyers was asked to offer a prayer prior to the meal. In the middle of his prayer with all heads bowed LBJ interrupted with a loud,"can't hear you Bill"--to which Moyers replied with equal volume, "I wasn't talking to you sir!".
Anyone with that kind of quick thinking moxie is needed to deflate the blimpiam egos which haunt Washington DC.
Bill Moyers is so impressive I'd vote for him for President even if he ran as a Democrat.
Right you are Bill Moyers. Maybe you will know if there is someone in the government with the courage and conviction to require the lice at the head of our government to report to the nearest jailhouse to await trial for their crimes.
Yes Bill is quite the good definition of charactor, in light of the bums around him, that, may put him in a humbler light...sorry Bill' nonetheless, it is disgusting, the way these Beltway bums operate.
Exposing one of the United States Central Intelligence Agencies crucial under-cover operatives is paramount to attempted murder for one, treason for another, such a light sentence for the asshole that did it is in itself bullshit. But knowing that she and another CIA operative stopped a Shipment of nerve-gas containing missiles, via Turkey into Iraq in the late 90's is even further called into question when the Carlyle Group was the shipper, and we know who is on the board of that shady outfit, which brings up this private equity bullshit, hidden ownership in a landlord/corporate fiefdom sociaty, IN A DEMOCRACY? NUTS, Standing Army, Private Army were are on the slippery slop and gaining speed, WAKE UP AMeriCA, !!!!
ooh me too...
"From the former Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore, a staunch conservative, comes this verdict: 'If the public believes there's one law for a certain group of people in high places and another law for regular people, then you will destroy the law and destroy the system.' "
gilmore continued, "so come on, people! we can't let one of our own get caught! and if they are, we must contest the conviction from now to eternity. get on your computer, write it on your signs, tell it to the radio: we are innocent. we are ALWAYS innocent!"
MOSES Kassandra: Eloquent points. And Pavrovian dog, my sentiments exactly. THANK YOU, BILL MOYERS for truly speaking truth to power, and letting the rest of us know what's up, keeping score in a manner that's being chronicled so no one can ever say they did not know. You do a holy work in raising consciousness and letting the TRUTH radiate.
Rachel Maddow of Air America pointed out on Countdown w/Keith Olbermann yesterday that Bush would encounter some difficulty pardoning Libby after he (as Governor of Texas) refused to pardon Karla Mae Tucker, the first woman executed since the Civil War. Of course, it isn't about the rightness or wrongness of pardoning Scooter, it's whether or not he can get away with it. Given Bush's lame duck status and the fact that getting away with things is what he's all about, I'd say there'll be a pardon, justice and the American people be damned, before old Scooter serves a day in real jail.
Mr.Moyers: You serve our country nobly with your insights
"One Beltway insider reports that the entire community is grieving — 'weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness' of Libby's sentence. And there's the rub."
Bill Moyers' ability to examine and tell a story is amazing. Time after time he hits the nail on the head.
Those standing to the Right of the aisle on the political scene cannot accept responsibility for their own misdeeds, and cannot recognize simple facts and truth when their cohorts have been caught in the act of committing a crime. Perhaps this is inevitable given their level of moral development equates to the state of two year olds, and everything is "mine."
"And there's the rub, indeed."
Hells fire, whats the bitch? There is legal precedence for pardoning Libby. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon there definately is a different justice for the "common" man and the politician. Will libby get pardoned-who knows, depends on what he knows and how reliable he is to take the fall. He might end up out in a D.C. park found by a ranger with a bullet in the back-suicide!
Who's on first? That's the question here.
What people should really be questioning is the all pervasive influence of the CIA in domestic politics.
A democracy cannot exist with a culture of "covert CIA operatives" running around inside of the diplomatic establishment all over the globe.
Libby's outing of an agent actually gave the public an extraordinary, a brazen and almost unprecedented glimpse into the secret workings of its government.
A government by the people and for the people can't be run in secrecy.
Beyond that, the Valerie Plame scandal portrays an American public more loyal to salaries and lucrative employment opportunities than to any form of government, democracy, truth, society or even creative productivity. Basically, the Bush administration has worked hard to fire anyone who doesn't hold its political views. This is actually economic sanctioning.
And it works. And the public is more sensitive to that than to the deaths of soldiers. You see the soldiers have signed contracts (which are being abused of course) and they are getting "paid to die." The public doesn't worry much about that. Ah, but getting fired, that's much more serious in the mind of the average wage earner in America.
What do Libby, Valerie Plame, Joseph Wilson, the American Military and every pundit in America have in common?:
They act as advocates in exchange for employment: They are wage slaves.
Libby got into trouble because of his habit of aligning himself with powerful interests and marketing himself as a terrier tough advocate to clients. Now, that's landing him in jail, suprisingly in a sort of Republican "Trent Lott" moment. He had a history of successful advocacy for fabulously wealthy and powerful clients, such as for instance Marc Rich, the Clinton pardon recipient.
Valerie Plame got into trouble along with Wilson due to the internal politics that drive the CIA establishment, linked I believe mostly to personal economics, which conflicts with the politics of changing administrations. I am amazed that the American people find time to weep over that.
American soldiers find themselves in harms way because they have traded their freedom for a contract which now amounts to a Faustian bargain. American's frankly don't seem to give a damn about that. Americans stopped the Vietnam War and got rid of Nixon because of the draft.
The answer to these abuses lies in reducing government payrolls in Washington DC, shutting down the CIA as we know it, while using more publically accountable organizations to carry out standard information gathering work, such as the Pentagon and the FBI; reinstating a civilian military service, along the lines of countries such as Switzerland, with shorter terms of service, but required for all.
The "all voluntary" military service is a disaster for democracy: It's a mercenary force, made up of the economically disadvantaged, and making it a government perogative to destroy the middle class. Beyond that the government is now building a truly mercenary army by outsourcing military work to a new breed of foreign legionaires dubbed "private contractors."
It's a mess.
Why imprison Libby? The trial has been a failure because the public has missed the entire point of the public hearing. Every American today is unquestioningly working as an economic advocate for a system that is carrying out acts equal or far worse than those taken by Libby in "outing" Valerie Plame. This is actually an office politics scandal.
Money over mind, economic success ueber alles, that's operative principal here. What will America gain by imprisoning Libby? Actually, I read that he has been disbarred making it impossible for him to earn a living after he gets out of jail. I'm playing the devil's advocate here: but doesn't the whole affair just smack of vengeful inter-office politics within the American political system? Is this really justice? Poetic justice, perhaps... But, really justice for all? I don't know.
Libby should actually seek protection under labor law.
"You see Herr Judge, I vaz just doink my jzob fur der Commander und Chief."
Great comments on the great Bill Moyers article by all of you. To MADHOOSIER, you've got something there,but left out Mel Carnahan from Missouri. Remember when his plane "crashed" after he beat Ashcroft for U.S. Senator? Mel's wife took the position, but something's strange when it's always liberal people who die these untimely deaths by accident. Maybe Pelosi's afraid, as well as other progressives.
Libby and the rest of these thugs belong in prison,now!
There are very few things I can think of that explains the audacity of the Bush administration, among the few would be if Bush junior was following in the foot steps of Bush senior. As you'll recall there was another era of political assassinations about a generation ago...I'm also fairly certain that Zapata Oil, George H. W. Bush's company, was a CIA front company and that Bush senior was a CIA operative very high in the Bay of Pigs operation.
Nah, the neocons have to say those things about Scooter and try to get him off. They know he is taking the fall for their deeds and what little integrity they have demands that they come to the aid of one of their own. If the Dems cared at all, they'd go after the war criminals so that the pawns didn't get so much attention.
As far as I am concerned, Libby got off light. And after Bush pardons him another demonstration in the double standard of justice in this country for politicians and the rest of us.
Einstein: Interesting argument. In my parlance it lends credence to the US under the aegis of Mars, war god, which serves Mammon, 'god' of mulah. AS if other expressions of the Divine pantheon were irrelevant. The balance is so off kilter, even nature reflects this; but no system can be sustained when its workings depart so far from NATURAL law.
Thank you Mr. Moyers for once again speaking the truth so eloquently. Your moral character and personal fortitude are displayed in your writings. May you continue to serve as an exemplar of democratic citizenship for many years to come. Peace.
As Shakespeare putatively stated, "Me doth thinkest thou protestith too much"....
These villains crying crocodile tears over poor ole' SCOOTER.....
Covers the real truth of their own complicity and guilt in spreading the same perjury, propaganda and prevarications ole' SCOOTER was perpetrating....
Exactly, and if they can't protect such a "highly respected" one of their own like Libby, then they all might be at risk in the near future.
As Stephen Sondheim says in Into The Woods "nice is different than good". I'm sure Hitler was nice to his girlfriend and co-murderers. Mr. Libby is probably a really nice guy - and what he did was so not good. How many have died now because of the occupation of Iraq? It's unspeakable, these crimes from our "nice" American leaders.
Scooter has taken the fall. He'll remain silent and be pardon within time. My worry is not with the known Bush & company team as it is with those whom we think are on our side, but in actuality cover for this administration. Special Chief Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What does he really know and why would he say "the trail is over we can all go back to our regular jobs" This trail is not over and until the people say so we have only just begun. The Titanic has not hit the iceberg, we are the iceberg and were colder than ever and further away.
Mr.Moyers you always write so cogently, but I am sorry to say, I think some of your interviews leave alot to be desired. Case in point, your recent interview with Senator Kerry. He made several glaring misstatements which you left unchallened. We did not invade Iraq to bring democracy or get rid of a dictator. We invaded because Saddam was becoming too uppity about Iraq's oil resources and therefore we had to get rid of him. You should have pointed that out.
Kerry said the Iraqi people are better off now than under Saddam. That is patently absurb, as you know. Yes, Saddam killed thousands and stomped on human rights, but at least under him there was medical care, infrastructure, education, comparative equality for women, and order. I wish you had asked Mr. Kerry if he thinks there might be one person in Iraq who has not lost a loved one and isn't emotionally tramatized?
As to why the politicians refuse to get us out of Iraq despite the overwhelming desire of American people and even many in the military, it has nothing to do with concern for Iraq or fear of giving the terriorist a victory. You should have told Kerry that our stupid policy of putting most of our resources in Iraq instead of going after terriorist cells with the help of their host countries and the U.N. and working to ban nuclear proliferation (which is the real threat and I mean small bombs not Iran)is what needs to be challenged and changed.
You should have let Kerry know that you know the real reasons why most of congress and the adminstration want the war to continue: the huge profits to be made by the corporations by not building paid for health clinics, by hiring mercenaries, and by making sure that the Iraqi parliment signs away almost all the oil profits to the oil companies.
Your interviews with Joseph Campbell were great, please contiue in that tradition by questing every premise of arrogant politicians like Kerry who think that U.S. government (otherwise known as MNCF - multinational corporation front) should have unlimited power to decide the fate of nations and the planet.
Irving Liebowitz, now "Scooter Libby" , was as much a part of the machinery which brought on an illegal war as was Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Judith Miller, Crystal, and the rest of the Neocon cabal. There is no larger crime that a human being can commit. The perjury was integral to preventing the truth of the massive criminal conspiracy to leak out. And he was, of course, an insider while all the plans were being made which have now resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. He was not a part of a scheme to steal a candy bar, but to destroy a country, a people. The media is doing it's best to assist you in losing perspective on the magnitude of the evil he wrought. Unfortunately, many Americans are easily befogged. Remind people that although he is a very tiny man, in more ways than one, he daily participated in the production of a vast holocaust and should be thanking his lucky stars that he got thirty months and not thirty years.
All this talk about the Outing of Valerie Plame, the CIA spook wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Am I the only remaining person in America to be outraged that one of our Ambassadors was married to a CIA agent? Is THAT what this country now stands for? What FILTH! If that is acceptable to the American people maybe we deserve the likes of Bush and Cheney and Libby!
Just for things like this I read these pages! Thanks you all!
It says a lot about the deficiencies of American democracy that charlatans like Bush II are elevated to the Presidency while really worthwhile human beings like Bill Moyers and Garrison Keillor have no chance of leading their country. Let me not hear Americans trumpet THEIR brand of democracy.
Kudos to Bill Moyers and other voices of reason that have not yet been silenced by this government or their ultra-wealthy conspirators in control of the corporate media!
I fear that just around the next corner there is lurking a "major terrorist attack" (manufactured or otherwise) that will point directly at Iran, thus justifying adding them to our list of futile efforts in the Middle East... and distracting from anything this administration does where Scooter might be concerned.
The "evidence" will have to be even more convincing than "WMD" this time, but it's certainly not above this gang of thugs to MANUFACTURE something good enough to convince Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson.