The Entire Bush White House Should Be Impeached

By Allen J Duffis
Published: August 5, 2005

“The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top.”
President John F. Kennedy

     The ever-growing Valerie Plame Wilson affair has made it perfectly clear, that this presidential administration is both politically and morally corrupt, well beyond redemption. And it is now time for congress to invest serious consideration toward application of the impeachment option on a grand scale.

     Of course I am fully aware there is no such legal facility for impeaching an entire presidential administration. Nor would it be likely a Republican controlled congress would ever take such action, even if an avenue were available to them. But I do know that this travesty of the criminal misuse power cannot be allowed to fade away with time; something evil was perpetrated.

     The basis for the Plame affair revolves around the Classified Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, that all government officials are required to sign, under oath, before taking office. It states, in essence, the following:

“I have been advised that my breach of this agreement may result in the termination of any security clearances I may hold, removal from any position of special confidence and trust requiring such clearances or the termination of my employment.”

     This Act and binding agreement is a direct evolvement of the 1917 federal law concerning the intentional leaking of classified information. That law states that anyone ‘knowingly’ committing such a breach of trust is guilty of a felony. So what is the problem? Here are the known facts:

     We now know that someone in the Bush White House leaked classified information about the identity of an American Intelligence Agent, Valerie Plame, an active CIA operative who just happened to be the wife of a former ambassador, Joe Wilson.

     February 2002: Joe Wilson is sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate a possible Iraq/ Niger nuclear connection. Was Saddam Hussein seeking processed uranium (yellow cake) from Niger to resuscitate his nuclear weapons program?

     January 28, 2003: President Bush gives his State of the Union Address, in which he describes (including the now infamous 16 words) Iraq’s efforts to buy processed uranium from Niger.  But many on the White House staff knew the data was untrustworthy and obtained from, possibly, forged Italian documents. So why was the questionable data included in the President’s address?

     March 2003: The Iraq war begins. No Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are found.

     July 6, 2003: Former ambassador Joe Wilson (via an Op Ed piece in the New York Times) disputes the White House’s claim of an Iraqi WMD program, and any ‘smoking gun’ threat in the form of a ‘mushroom cloud.’ He accuses the administration of exaggerating the claim to bolster its case for war with Iraq.

    From there we know from several reliable sources, including Chief White House Correspondent, David Gregory, that almost immediately there came into play a vigorous campaign to smear the reputation of Wilson.

    July 7, 2003: Bush departs for Africa with his team which includes Colin Powel, Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and a classified memo, clearly marked “Secret”, in which the identity of CIA agent, Valerie Plame was listed. The trail of this’ let’s dirty Joe Wilson’s credibility’ would appear to have its genesis on this trip.

     July 9, 2003: Karl Rove has a talk with columnist Robert Novak, in which Wilson’s wife is part of the context.

     July 11, 2003: Rove speaks to columnist Matt Cooper, during which Wilson’s wife once again enters into the conversation.

    July 14, 2003: Conservative columnist and television commentator Robert Novak ‘outs’ Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

     July 17, 2003: Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper also identifies Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

     July 2003: President George W. Bush at a press conference proclaims that he will fire ‘anyone’ in his administration that leaks classified information.

     October 7, 2003: White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan holds a press conference in which he states, “I have spoken with both Karl Rove and Lewis Libby, and have been assured by both men that they were not involved in ‘any way’ with this security leak.”

     Sept 29, 2003: At the request of the CIA and others in congress, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is assigned to investigate the leak.

     June 2004: President Bush has buffered his previous stance, and now say’s he will ‘dismiss’ anyone in his administration who leaks classified information.

     July 2005: President Bush backslides (referred to during the last presidential election as flip-flopping), and now declares that he will ‘dismiss’ anyone in his administration that is ‘convicted’ of leaking classified information.

     July 10, 2005: Karl Rove’s lawyer admits Rove discussed Valerie Plame’s role in the Niger affair, with Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper, but did not name her. This revelation has already been substantiated by Cooper, who stated Rove told him Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, but did not mention her name. Cooper also said that Lewis Libby confirmed that bit of information – without mentioning her name.

     As the main character in “Alice in Wonderland” states, things are getting 'curiouser and curiouser'. In fact, this entire affair has become so incredibly weird; you almost expect to see a big white rabbit holding a large pocket watch, running through the midst of it all shouting, “I’m late for a very important date!”

     I offer this analogy to reflect the incredulity of the latest explanation from the embattled Rove camp, that he and Lewis Libby never knew Ms. Plame’s name or CIA connection, but gained such from reporters, not from a classified memo that rode on the same plane with them to Africa on July 7, 2003.

     To date, all of the reporters mentioned as possible sources for Rove and Libby, including Tim Russert of NBC, have emphatically denied these allegations. After all, how the hell would they gain such information? This Rove and Libby defense is not only insipid it’s downright stupid and insulting to the American people.

     Any thinking person has to ask (as Tim Russert did of Republican National Committee Chairman, Ken Mehlman on a recent edition of “Meet the Press”): ‘if this had been the Clinton White House, would you have accepted these explanations?

     It should be noted, Mehlman danced around the point blank query, buying time until he could fly off in another direction; he never answered the question directly. So what’s new?

     No matter their political outlook, this sordid, despicable affair has to be an affront to the moral code of all Americans; be they Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative or Liberal.

     The identity of a covert U.S. Intelligence agent engaged in developing contacts on possible WMD programs in hostile nations is revealed, compromising her safety, and that of the individuals in her network. And this heinous abuse of power was carried out for no other reason than to get back at her husband, a former ambassador, for publicly disagreeing with our country’s present leadership.

     If found guilty by the Special Prosecutor, at the minimum, those involved should be indicted for obstruction of justice and lying to Congress and the American people. And if in the process it is discovered that President Bush was involved, in any way, he should be impeached.

     After all, isn’t that what the staunch conservative crowd demanded of Bill Clinton for engaging in sex with a subordinate? Keep in mind however; his act didn’t lead to the deaths of almost 2000 American soldiers and an estimated 135,000 Iraqis. And no matter how you cut the moral pie that fact, in and of itself, says something.