The Interrogation of George W. Bush , The Plame Affair

[shraby]

Asked about the implications of the President's interview with Patrick J. "Bulldog" Fitzgerald, the special counsel appointed to look into the "outing" of a CIA agent by hawkish government officials, White House spokesman Scott McClellan wasn't lying when he replied:

"No one wants to get to the bottom of this matter more than the president of the United States."

Reflexive Bush-haters are quick to dismiss this as obfuscating rhetoric, meaningless noises emitted as a matter of course, like other bodily functions best unnamed. Yet I believe McClellan, if only because the President, in an important sense, is as much the victim as the perpetrator of the crimes under investigation. A lot is going on here, and yet, so far, only one or another tentacle of the monster has surfaced at a time, with the details of Fitzgerald's multi-pronged investigation kept under wraps. The interrogation of the President, however, indicates that the creature is about to surface, along with some indictments.

We don't know what was said during the interview, a little over an hour long, but we can tease out a few safe surmises from the tangle of speculation. First, whomever "outed" CIA agent Valerie Plame in order to get at her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson – a prominent critic of the Iraq war – probably didn't get their orders directly from the President. Secondly, assuming Dubya didn't personally get on the phone to columnist Bob Novak and divulge Ms. Plame's identity and occupation, it was probably one of his henchmen, or, more likely, one of Dick Cheney's minions, although we can be fairly certain the President didn't issue a direct order to that effect.

(more)

<http://www.antiwar.com/justin/>

[punpirate]

1. Well, Justin Raimondo...

... has forgotten the grounds of impeachment of Nixon--misprision of a felony. The essentials to meet that criminal statute are all there. Failure to inform authorities of knowledge of a crime because one has an implicit interest in not doing so.

Bush knew that it had happened, and very likely knew who did it shortly after it happened, but it was not in his personal (read: re-election) interests to reveal what he knew.

That meets the test for misprision of a felony. The person accused of that felony not only has to know about it, but also must withhold essential information from authorities because he has a vested interest in doing so.