Inside the bunker

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1607353,00.html

His administration has become its own republic of fear, and Bush is a prisoner to the right

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday November 3, 2005
The Guardian

One year after his re-election President Bush governs from a bunker. "We go forward with complete confidence," he proclaimed in his second inaugural address. He urged "our youngest citizens" to see the future "in the determined faces of our soldiers", to choose between "evil" and "courage". But as he listened that day, Vice-President Dick Cheney knew the election had been secured by a cover-up.

"I would have wished nothing better," declared Patrick Fitzgerald in his press conference of October 28 announcing the indictment of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice-president's chief of staff, "that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005. No one would have went to jail."

The indictment documents that Cheney confirmed the identity of Valerie Plame to him. The indictment also describes a figure called "Official A", subsequently disclosed to be Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, who informed Libby that he had told the conservative columnist Robert Novak of Plame's status. The next day Libby conferred with Cheney on how to handle the matter; that very day, Libby revealed Plame's identity to two reporters. Then Libby falsely testified that he had learned Plame's name from reporters.

On September 30 2003 President Bush emphatically stated that he wanted anyone in his administration with information about the Plame leak to "come forward". On June 10 2004 he pledged that anyone on his staff who leaked Plame's name would be fired.

When the Libby indictment was announced, Bush and Cheney praised him as a fine public servant...

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1. "neoconservative Leninism" Love it!

bunker, vanguard,cabal,spectre

I really enjoy reading Blumenthal.