YaleDailyNews: Tsk tsk, Bush: Is there an enormous scandal at the White Ho

GUEST COLUMN | KEITH URBAHN

Published Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Tsk tsk, Bush: Is there an enormous scandal at the White House?

Nearly five months after President Bush declared the end of "major combat operations in Iraq," and still without a shred of evidence of nuclear and biological weapons, the administration is now confronting an internecine blame game for the dubious intelligence on WMD. Marking a significant departure from the acquiescent image that the CIA has held in the Bush administration, the CIA has filed a complaint with the Justice Department against senior Bush officials who, by leaking the identity of an agent engaged in covert operations, broke federal laws that protect individuals working for the government in secret. Remarkably, the identified agent, Valerie Plame, is wife to Joseph Wilson, a chief critic of the Bush administration's irresponsible use of evidence of WMD. Is it merely a coincidence that the administration decided to leak the name of an outspoken critic's wife?

No chance. The terrorizing tactic was intended to undermine Wilson's criticism while simultaneously intimidating others who knew about Iraqi intelligence to remain silent -- in short, an act more appropriate in Hussein's Iraq, Kim Jong Il's North Korea, or Khomeini's Iran (ironically, the very nations targeted by the Bush administration as "evil" for their support of terrorism).

More: http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23371

this was not an isolated event. It is a pattern of behavior, and should not be tolerated for ONE SECOND in a democracy.