When Truth Tried to Stop War

[Octafish]

3. Bush made wives 'fair game' in war on whistleblowers.

...was how Ray McGovern put it.

Behind L'Affaire Wilsons Wives are "Fair Game" in Bush's Preemptive Attack on Whistleblowers

Wives Are Now "Fair Game" in Bush’s War on Whistleblowers

by RAY McGOVERN Former CIA Analyst
CounterPunch Oct. 3-5, 2003

What could have been going through the heads of senior White House officials when they decided to blow the cover of Valerie Plame, wife of former US ambassador Joseph Wilson? What did they find so compelling that they would burn her entire network of agents reporting on weapons of mass destruction, put those agents is serious jeopardy, and destroy her ability at the peak of her career to address this top-priority issue?

Was it another preemptive attack, which–like the attack on Iraq–seemed to the White House a good idea at the time? It certainly fits that pattern, inasmuch as little thought seems to have been given to the implications, consequences, and post-attack planning.

It is clear to me that the objective was to create strong disincentive for those who might be tempted to follow the courageous example set by Ambassador Wilson in citing the president’s own words to show that our country went to war on a lie.

After being sent to the African country of Niger in early 2002 at the behest of the Vice President’s office, he reported back that the report that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger for Baghdad’s putative (and, we now know, non-existent) nuclear weapons program was false on its face. As if further proof were needed, it was later learned that the report was based on forged documents.

When, despite all this, President Bush used this canard in his state-of-the-union address on January 28, 2003 Wilson faced a choice not unfamiliar to just-retired government officials. He could sit comfortably and smirk over brandy with friends in Georgetown parlors, or he could speak truth to power.

Conscience won. In a New York Times article on July 6, Wilson blew the whistle on the Iraq-Niger hoax, stating flatly what we all now know–that “some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”

The consummate diplomat, Ambassador Wilson chooses his words carefully. He was fed up, though, with the specious reasons adduced to justify the unprovoked US/UK attack on Iraq–the same reasons that prompted three courageous colleagues to leave their careers in the foreign service in protest. Wilson even permitted himself the comment to Washington Post reporters that the Iraq-Niger hoax “begs the question as to what else they are lying about.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/10/03/wives-are-now-quot-fair-game-quot-in-bush-s-war-on-whistleblowers/

These gangsters have made a killing off Iraq. What's a top spy or a spy network stopping the spread of nukes to them? That they remain free shows who really runs America.