Bush's gives the finger to the Rule of Law

Well, Bush has carefully analyzed the results of the "Scooter" Libby trail, and has anticipated, has decided that Libby is too good to go to prison for his crimes. Here is what Washington Post Staff Writer Amy Goldstein wrote yesterday:

The president announced his decision in a written statement that laid out the factors he had weighed. Bush said he decided to "respect" the jury's verdict that Libby was guilty of four felonies for lying about his role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity. But the president said Libby's "exceptional public service" and prior lack of a criminal record led him to conclude that the 30-month sentence handed down by a judge last month was "excessive."

"He did not see fit to have Scooter Libby taken to jail," White House press secretary Tony Snow said this morning in a news briefing.

OK, so Alan Dershowitz seems to think that the Libby Trial was a political trial and so Bush is acting reasonably. Well, Doh. What in Hell does Alan think the conservatives use the so-called Justice system for anyway? Justice? That's just a sick joke if he thinks that.

But in this case the White House orchestrated the outing of a CIA officer, an action that both Reagan and Bush 41 considered Treason and which the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was passed to punish.

When Robert Novak published Valerie Plame Wilson's name and occupation as an officer of the CIA this was an action exactly like the actions of Phillip Agee who published the names and covers of many CIA agents.

The CIA, aware that Valerie Plame Wilson was an agent covered under the IIPA, was required by law to notify the Justice Department of an apparent violation of that law. It became the responsibility of the Justice Department under Attorney General Ashcroft to determine if, in fact, a law had been broken, and if so, then to bring the guilty party to justice. When it became clear to the AG that any guilty parties were most likely in the White House and were personally known by him, AG Ashcroft recused himself from any involvement in the investigation and had a Special Prosecutor appointed. This was Patrick Fitzgerald. His job was to investigate the situation and determine if individual had broken the law (primarily the IIPA, but violations of any other law would be considered)and if so, then to bring them to justice.

A crime would have been committed by the person who, knowing that she was covert, directed that her identity be published. Publishing her identity would require that first, a willing reporter be informed of it and second that the information the reporter was given be confirmed to the reporter's satisfaction. The involvement of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) makes it likely that such an action did take place. It is very likely that the information was given to Richard Armitage, the known source of the leak to Robert Novak to leak to the Press much as it was also given to Ari Fleisher.

So the investigation that Patrick Fitzgerald needed to conduct was into whether or not, and if so who, someone orchestrated the leak of Valerie Plame's covert identity.

Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald was prevented from getting evidence that the responsible parties had committed a crime which could be successfully prosecuted because "Scooter" Libby lied to the FBI and committed perjury to the Grand Jury. The jury in Libby's trial had no reasonable doubt that Libby had obstructed the investigation into the actions of White House personnel in exposing the identity of a covert CIA agent. Libby's crime was in refusing to provide information that would allow identification and prosecution of the individual or individuals guilty of exposing the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson.

The entire argument that there was "No underlying crime" is hogwash. "Scooter" Libby committed felonies when he prevented the Fitzgerald investigation from going after likely criminals in the White House.

Bush's actions add to the suspicion that the entire purpose of Libby's lies and perjury were to prevent someone in the White House from being caught committing a crime. Libby was willing to accept a conviction and temporary loss of his law license to protect that person or those people. It appears that he was less willing to spend time in prison. Patrick Fitzgerald could have come back to the courts and told them that Libby was cooperating, so that the entry into prison could be delayed, and depending on the quality of the cooperation, even prevented.

Bush's Clemency by eliminating the prison sentence was Libby's price for continued silence. Bush and Libby just gave the finger to the "Rule of Law" in America.

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It is an interesting coincidence that both the first and last Presidents of this interesting experiment of a Republic, without an aristocracy and based on democracy, should both be named George. Democracy ended in 2000, to be replaced by an authoritarian militaristic plutocracy. Response to the will of the people governed has been reduced to the bare minimum require to prevent civil war, and even that may not be far enough down in the garbage heap of history for the right-wingers.