Why Do You Support Treason, Fred Thompson?

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/why_do_you_supp.html

by
Brent Budowsky

Dear Fred Thompson.

You are one of Americas strongest public supporters of Scooter Libby in the CIA Leak case and, as a potential commander in chief, there are some questions you should answer for the Nation:

If you are commander in chief, would you believe it is proper for your senior White House staff to publicly identify the names of covert officers?

As commander in chief, don't you feel a moral, military and patriotic obligation that is sacred to protect the lives and safety of those who serve under your command?

Don't you believe that public identification of covert officers threatens our troops and our security by harming our ability to wage war when necessary, by weakening our intelligence capability?

Regarding covert officers engaged in actions aimed to kill those planning terrorist attacks against Americans, are you on the side of our covert officers, or on the side of terrorists, who are aided and abetted by disclosure of the identities of covert officers working against them?

If you are commander in chief, faced with the decision about whether America should go to war, do you want the most accurate intelligence to make that decision and if necessary most effectively wage war? Or do you believe in receiving distorted or untrue "information" or misrepresenting intelligence information to "sell" the war that accurate intelligence might suggest would be reckless or unwise?

Do you understand that the compromising of intelligence information, intelligence officers and front companies not only endangers the lives of Americans, and endangers the lives of foreigners who cooperate with our security programs, but endangers the very lives of our Armed Forces personnel who depend on good intelligence to survive, and win?

As commander in chief, would you put the interests of the Republican Party, or your personal campaigning, ahead of the interests of covert officers protecting our communities from potential nuclear terrorism?

As you prepare to run for the Presidency, please answer this: if someone at a high level on your White House staff is ever convicted of perjury, would you promote or fire that person?

Finally, on the CIA leak case, do you judge those serving under your command by which felonies receive criminal conviction or which acts hurt our security, endanger those who serve, threaten our communities and serve the interests of the terrorists who attacked on 9-11 and those who may be planning a nuclear 9-11?

Is your priority, sir, patriotism or politics?

I'd love to see a Law & Order "ripped from the headlines" script about a senior aide to the Mayor of New York exposing an undercover cop who was on the verge of being able to shut down a major gang war. Instead, he's gunned down (L&O rule-take the headline, twist it around to fit NY City, and add a murder)--and it comes to light that Arthur Branch, DA, was encouraging and helping the aide. In a stunning twist, Jack McCoy prosecutes Branch, which results in him being kicked out of office in disgrace. McCoy is quoted as saying, "Hey, I'm a moderate -- but I want people in office that follow the law and work together to make this city a better place!"

:thumbsup:

He is the vehicle that the neoconservatives hope they can continue their ride with in '08.

BTW, most people think that Alexander Butterfield was a CIA insider in the Nixon White House; if this is the case, this makes Thompson's knowing what questions to ask Butterfield all the more interesting. Is Thompson tied closely to the CIA in a covert fashion ? After all, GHWB didn't disclose his CIA ties while being presented as a candidate for CIA director as an 'outsider'

The Bush Administration’s Dilemma Regarding a Possible Libby Pardon
And How Outsiders Such as Fred Thompson Appear to Be Working on a Solution
by John Dean

“Thompson, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Tennessee, gave an audience his assessment of the prosecution against Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice in a speech on May 12, 2007. He claims that the investigation was a sham from the outset: that there should have been no Special Counsel selected, and there never was any violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Indeed, he claimed “that there was no violation of the law, by anyone, and everybody - the CIA, the Justice Department and the Special Counsel knew it. Ms. Plame was not a ‘covered person’ under the
statute and it was obvious from the outset.”

This is a remarkable charge - suggesting that the CIA referred the matter to the Justice Department knowing that Plame was not covered by the law; that the Justice Department commenced the investigation even though it had the same knowledge; and that the Special Counsel continued the investigation even though he, too, knew she was not covered. Yet why would Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department have undertaken a baseless investigation? Why would a busy and highly-respected U.S. Attorney from Chicago take the assignment of Special Counsel if the law did not apply? And why would that same highly-respected U.S. Attorney make representations to a federal judge that the law did cover Valerie Plame, if it did not? It seems Fred Thompson has made a remarkably irresponsible charge.
“Furthermore,” Thompson claimed, “Justice and the Special Counsel knew who leaked Plame’s name and it wasn’t Scooter Libby.” Yet, Thompson added, “the Beltway machinery was well oiled and geared up so the Special Counsel … spent the next two years moving heaven and earth to come up with something, anything,” and finally “came up with some inconsistent recollections by Scooter Libby.” Inconsistent recollections? Apparently Thompson does not have a clue about the evidence that was presented at the trial, which proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Libby concocted a complex lie to explain away key behavior.

Nonetheless, based on his two-plus years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Thompson informed the audience, “In no other prosecutor’s office in the country would a case like this one have been brought.” Apparently, other prosecutors tolerate perjury and obstruction of justice. In addition, later in his speech, Thompson explained, “I have called for a pardon for Scooter Libby. When you rectify an injustice using the provisions of the law, just as when you reverse an erroneous court decision, you are not disregarding the rule of law, you are enforcing and protecting it.”
That twisted report of the Special Counsel’s investigation, and disturbing view on what to do about it is a bit frightening - especially coming from a man who wants to be president. But it is arguments like this that are the basis of the drive for leniency from Judge Walton, for a pardon, and, more broadly, for a change in public opinion regarding this case.

John W. Dean, a FindLaw columnist, is a former counsel to the president.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/01/1601/

I remember a picture of him hugging Libby's wife. He's a good friend of the family. Of course POLITICS is more important to him. He doesn't give a crap about Valerie Plame and what's happened to her.:(

Traitor! Right Wing actor!