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Power Grows Arrogant

Monday, July 21st, 2003

The Bush White House grows troublingly more Clintonian by the day. Nevermind the word-parsing and buck-passing, there also seems to be a rather ruthless war team in place that would make ol’ Syd Blumenthal proud. Don’t cross this administration. Two stories from the last two days caught my eye.

The first:

You may remember early last week a story about U.S. troops in Iraq who were complaining about low morale, fatigue, the hopelessness of the occupation, and wanting to come home. One said if Rumsfeld were standing directly in front of him, “I’d ask for his resignation.” Those troops were apparently disciplined, as well they should have been.

But ABC News reporter was disciplined, too. By the White House. For breaking the story. Last week, Matt Drudge posted on his website a story outing Kofman as homosexual and, worse, Canadian.

Drudge told the Washington Post that his source for outing Kofman came straight from the office of new White House Communications Director Scott McClellan. McClellan of course denied it. But why would Drudge — who leans right and is pro-war — lie on this one?

Next up?

Joe Wilson, the diplomat whose NY Times op-ed brought the Niger-uranium story to the fore. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell:

NOW IN AN NBC News exclusive, Wilson says his family is the subject of a smear campaign. Wilson tells NBC News the White House deliberately leaked his wifeâ??s identity as a covert CIA operative, damaging her future career and compromising past missions after he criticized the administration on â??Meet the Pressâ? and in the New York Times.

He told me, â??Itâ??s a shot across the bow to those who might step forward, those unnamed analysts who said they were pressured by the White House for example would think twice about having their own families names being dragged through this particular mud.â?

Either these smears are coming from the top down, or the White House doesn’t have its troops in order — this from a White House that is notoriously tight-lipped.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2003 at 9:09 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “Power Grows Arrogant”

  1. #1 |  Jon H |  July 22nd, 2003 at 8:42 am

    Wilson’s charge isn’t just a smear, it’s a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    (Ironically enough, the law was pushed for by George H. W. Bush in 1982.)

  2. #2 |  Conor |  July 22nd, 2003 at 9:43 am

    There’s no way the president himself is saying, “Let’s blow this guy’s wife’s CIA cover just to get him back.” And why the heck is the media reporting this, anyway, if they think this is damaging to her? Is ABC really just an open conduit for any leaked information, with no filter? It would seem so.

  3. #3 |  Jon H |  July 22nd, 2003 at 10:28 am

    Conor wrote:
    “There’s no way the president himself is saying, ‘Let’s blow this guy’s wife’s CIA cover just to get him back.’”

    Don’t be so sure. See below.

    ” Is ABC really just an open conduit for any leaked information, with no filter? It would seem so.”

    The story first came out through conservative columnist Robert Novak, in his Sun-Times column.

    http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.shtml

    quote:

    Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.

    (end quote)

    It turns out that the administration officials sought out Novak to give him this information. He didn’t go looking for it. (See below)

    More information today at http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/iraq/ny-uscia0722,0,6160519.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

    quote:

    Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. “I didn’t dig it out, it was given to me,” he said. “They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.”

    quote:

    Novak reported that his “two senior administration officials” told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her husband, Wilson, to Niger.

    quote:

    A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked “alongside” the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.

    (end quotes)

  4. #4 |  Chris Farley |  July 22nd, 2003 at 11:00 am

    Your turning into a conspiracy buff. Can you tell me who killed JFK?

  5. #5 |  felix |  July 22nd, 2003 at 11:10 am

    You mean W is not the God-fearing, compassionate conservative, American patriot that he pretends to be?

    Next thing, you’ll tell me Clinton lied about a blow-job!

    Merde alors!

  6. #6 |  Craig |  July 22nd, 2003 at 12:00 pm

    conspiracy theories are rampant these days…left leaning bob somerby has a level headed take on this:
    http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071503.shtml

  7. #7 |  Joshua Claybourn's Domain |  September 2nd, 2004 at 9:15 am

    Uniter, Not a Divider part II

    More possible smear campaigns from the White House. I’ll just report the facts and let y’all comment on this one.