Rovegate: Scandal that Lays Bare Cynicism Behind Bush's War (Independent)

Excellent Independent UK editorial gives a British take on Rove/Plamegate and connects it to the Iraq War. Includes timeline.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article300731.ece

Rovegate: The scandal that lays bare the cynicism behind Bush's war in Iraq

It has the classic ingredients of a spy thriller: undercover agents, investigative journalists and a Middle Eastern dictator. But as Rupert Cornwell reports, this Washington tale is fact, not fiction
Published: 22 July 2005

- snip -

At one level, the affair about who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, former diplomat's wife and CIA undercover operative, is utterly baffling. A special prosecutor has been on the case for almost two years, but no one has been indicted; indeed it is not even clear any crime has been committed. The journalist who published the agent's name goes about his business seemingly without a care in the world, but another reporter who never wrote a word about Ms Plame languishes in a suburban Washington jail for refusing to divulge her source for the same information. For once in a city where everyone claims to have the inside track, no one is sure what is going on.

But in another way, everything is blindingly simple. The Plame leak may not be a scandal in itself. Unquestionably, it is a dirty outgrowth of a real Washington scandal for which no one has been held accountable: the misuse and distortion of prewar intelligence about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, that the US and Britain used to justify their unprovoked invasion of Iraq.

- snip -

Despite Ms Miller's imprisonment, the Plame affair is unlikely to be a landmark in the struggle for press freedom. In laying bare the Watergate scandal, the use of secret sources rendered a service to the nation. In this case, the confidentiality issue involves sources who may have committed a crime. Today, Ms Miller is a heroine. But not long ago, she was prominent in publishing the WMD misinformation provided by an unidentified source named Ahmad Chalabi.

And so the wheel comes full circle. This tacky, third-rate leak that is starting to scar the President's second term springs from the great deception executed in his first term, luring the US into a war that 60 per cent of Americans now believe was misconceived. That is the true scandal, which has yet to be properly explained.

MORE ARTICLE AT LINK


The outing of Valerie Plame

2002

MARCH: Joseph Wilson returns from a mission to Africa and reports to the CIA that he believes allegations Iraq tried to buy uranium are "bogus". The agency sends a memo to the White House on 9 March summarising his findings.

MORE TIMELINE AT LINK

Recommended. Too damned bad this hit late Friday.
:kick:

by some bombs and all...

My biggest regret is that we'll be unlikely to see such an editorial in a major U.S. paper.

sw

No editorials yet (as far as I know) connecting Rove/Plame to the scam that has been the Iraq war.

Read them all for an amazing bit of journalism. I'd almost forgotten what real journalism is supposed to look like - this is it!

I like the CBC in Canada and the Scotsman as well. Though I must say the Guardian and Independent rule.

That was excellent!

:)

I wish I had put a more interesting head on it to catch people's attention. Anyway, read it if you haven't.

kick