David Corn has been fastidious, thorough, detailed and disciplined in his nearly daily coverage of the Leakage and Karl Rove's evolving, pivotal relationship to said leakage. Here's an excerpt from his blog posted on July 19th, '05:
...a portion of a New York Times article published today:
Elaine D. Kaplan, who from 1998 to 2003 was head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that investigates complaints of prohibited personnel practices, said: "Government employees and officials who are negligent with classified information can lose their jobs for carelessness. They don't have to be convicted of intentionally disseminating the information. Crime has never been the threshold. That's not the standard that applies to rank-and-file federal employees. They can be fired for misconduct well short of a crime."
Much of the attention has (justifiably) been on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. But as Representative Henry Waxman has recently noted, when Rove shared Valerie Wilson's employment status at the CIA--which was classified information--he might have violated Executive Order 12958, which says:
Officers and employees of the United States Government...shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently....disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified.
The Nation is always insightful; Corn's writing, amongst that of many other highly skilled, brilliant analysts can be found on its pages. Thanks to the reporting of many journalists, Rove's trail of slime will now certainly herald more attention, and the effectiveness of his manipulative smarmy politics will hopefully be hampered.
Another example of how Truth has been subsumed (maybe steam-rolled is a more fitting adjectival descriptor) by the screaming-punditry of so many chillingly-obscene-dissemblers in both the government and media establishments is the lack of coverage or discussion about the true motive for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. First it was WMD, which has been thoroughly disreputed. There was no WMD in Iraq, Hussein's government was in compliance with UN dictates. Bush misled us into the war based on false claims of imminent threat from WMD in Iraq. Once the falseness of WMD in Iraq was exposed, the mission's purpose was changed, now we were disenabling a ruthless dictator (who put him in power in the first place...) Fine, so then Democracy was the issue. Now we find that the Bush administration illegally supported the campaigns of certain individuals. Was the election legitimate? More and more analysts are saying, "no." Now, it is a "war on terror." As anyone whose head is not firmly planted up his or her own butt knows, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 - or international terrorism for that matter - prior to the US led invasion / occupation. Frankly, I am disgusted and flabbergasted by the display of ineptitude, corruption and blatant disrespect for international legal standards, not to mention those of common human decency.
How many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the war - (Here's a conservative estimate of combat related civilian deaths, from The Guardian.) - and all for what? Well, as you likely know dear reader, the real cause of the military incursion and sustained operation in Iraq is not the promotion of Freedom or Democracy. No, the real reason the US government has spent $300 Billion of your tax dollars is to gain access to strategic oil reserves and geographic location.
Think about it! Then, do something about it! The Truth awaits! Veritas Vos Liberabit!
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