Hard Rain Journal 8-22-06: The Central Theme of Future Historians will be Betrayal, Just Ask Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, Spike Lee & Valerie Plame Wilson
By Richard Power
There are a lot of IFs -- if there is a future, if it allows for historians, and if those historians are reality-based….But if we get past all of those IFs, betrayal will be the great theme to emerge from the history of Bush-Cheney and their cronies. They betrayed US economic security with irresponsible tax cuts that gutted the federal surplus and plunged the country into debt. They betrayed US environmental security by lying to the populace about global warming. They betrayed US national security before 9/11 by downgrading the Al Qaeda threat, and ignoring the numerous warnings (most notably the 8-6-01 PDB). And then afterward, they betrayed US homeland security by failing to kill Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar, and by failing to fully enact the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. They betrayed the right to vote in the elections of 2000 and 2004. They betrayed the men and women of the US military by sending them into Iraq on a foolish military adventure with inadequate equipment, in insufficient numbers and with no exit strategy. They betrayed the national honor, and civilization itself (i.e., the Geneva Accords) by institutionalizing torture and the inhumane treatment of prisoners in US custody. Betrayal, betrayal, betrayal…
Here are three more betrayals that have resurfaced, like floaters, in the public psyche (or should have):
Betrayal of the Oath of Office
In Detroit, on 8-17-06, US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Bill of Rights, and against the Bush-Cheney regime, in the NSA domestic wiretapping case:
“So what does this mean? It means President Bush violated his oath of office, among other things, when he swore to uphold the constitution of the United States. It means he's been lying to us about the program since it started, when he's been telling us there's nothing illegal about what he's been doing. A court has ruled it is illegal. And it means a 75-year-old black female judge in Michigan has finally stepped in and done the job that Congress is supposed to do, namely oversight of the executive branch of government. But the Congress is controlled by the Republicans and they are controlled by the president and they have done nothing in the way of oversight.”
Jack Cafferty, CNN, 8-17-06
To download a .pdf of the full text of Judge Taylor's brave and historic decision, click here.
Betrayal of the Poor
On 8-20-06, Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a four-hour HBO documentary on the death of New Orleans through criminal negligence in high office before, during and after Hurricane Katrina debuted in the New Orleans Arena:
A Ninth Ward resident talks about seeing his dead neighbor floating in the water for days and remarks how "he was all blown up." Herbert Freeman Jr. tells us how he sat outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with his elderly mother in the heat with no water for days while waiting for buses that took too long arrive. "She was asking me questions like every five, 10 minutes, and then I noticed she had nodded off." When a soldier ordered him at gunpoint onto the bus that finally came, he was forced to leave his mother's body behind with only a handwritten note identifying her. "I had to pray for my own salvation," he says, and his voice never once breaks -- but his face shows a man who still can't believe that was the choice he had to make.
A Ninth Ward resident talks about seeing his dead neighbor floating in the water for days and remarks how "he was all blown up." Herbert Freeman Jr. tells us how he sat outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with his elderly mother in the heat with no water for days while waiting for buses that took too long arrive. "She was asking me questions like every five, 10 minutes, and then I noticed she had nodded off." When a soldier ordered him at gunpoint onto the bus that finally came, he was forced to leave his mother's body behind with only a handwritten note identifying her. "I had to pray for my own salvation," he says, and his voice never once breaks -- but his face shows a man who still can't believe that was the choice he had to make.
Cynthia Joyce, N.O. better blues, Salon, 8-20-06
Betrayal of a Secret Agent
Despite the US mainstream news media’s complicity in pushing the story (generated solely by Rove's lawyer) that US Justice Department prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had cleared Rove of wrong-doing in the treasonous outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson and its subsequent cover-up, Rove was quite likely indicted three months ago, and has been cooperating, or claiming to cooperate with Fitzgerald’s ongoing investigation ever since. Why? Well, perhaps it is VICE _resident Cheney who at the center of this scandal, not Rove.
On 8-21-06, Jason Leopold and Marc Ash of Truthout posted an update:
A two-month investigation undertaken by Truthout into the circumstances that led to Karl Rove's alleged exoneration in the leak probe has once again put the spotlight back on Sealed vs. Sealed, the heading under which 06 cr 128 was filed in US District Court between May 10 and May 17….With Rove cooperating, the probe has once again shifted, and the focus now is on another high-level official in the executive branch: Vice President Dick Cheney. Vice President Dick Cheney is a figure of keen interest to investigators working on the outing of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, former undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Sources directly familiar with the investigation said Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and his closest confidants suspect that Cheney was "involved in orchestrating a plot to discredit former ambassador Wilson."…In the case of Vice President Cheney there are, according to the sources familiar with the case, "Constitutional issues that must be researched." Sources familiar with the ongoing probe said that Constitutional experts are deliberating with the Plame investigators, and that the vice president views his status as shielded, to some extent, by executive privilege.
Fitzgerald's investigation into the Plame matter is still active and ongoing, sources said, and will be for some time. Fitzgerald has long considered bringing additional charges against other individuals in the administration....Fitzgerald has yet to comment on the status of the probe or specifically on high profile figures his investigators have focused on....
Attempting to gain a clearer picture of the events leading up to the June 12 letter sent by Patrick Fitzgerald to Luskin, our two-month investigation led to several interesting revelations that were communicated to us by well-placed sources. The letter is constructed in a manner consistent with what would be expected when a federal prosecutor writes a letter to a subject's attorney. The letter, we are told, spelled out what was expected of Rove, and made clear the ramifications should he fail to honor the terms of his verbal cooperation agreement with Fitzgerald. According to experts in federal criminal law, that approach is fairly standard given the circumstances.
It was Luskin, sources said, who seized on the single phrase from Fitzgerald's letter that gave the appearance of exoneration trumpeted by the US commercial press. In fact, the letter, taken as a whole, paints no such picture. According to those familiar with the letter sent to Luskin, it details the obligations of a subject, Karl Rove, who must choose between cooperation and further prosecution. If the document were made public it would indicate those obligations, the sources said.
Jason Leopold & Marc Ash, Indictment Still Sealed, Fitzgerald Still Busy, Truthout, 8-21-06
Meanwhile, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson have filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Rove and Cheney. For more information, go to the Joseph Wilson and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust.
RELATED POSTS:
Hard Rain Journal 7-4-06: Latest Report on Fitzgerald Investigation -- Bush Told Cheney to "Get It Out!"
Words of Power #1: Truths Salvaged from Post-Katrina Debacle
Hard Rain Journal 6-13-06 (Continued): If Treason Occurs, But Everyone Pretends It Didn’t, Is It Still Treason?
Hard Rain Journal 6-13-06: Two Items -- Extraordinary Cyber Security Breach in S.D. Special Election? And More on Rove and Plame...
Hard Rain Journal 6-12-06: Is "Sealed vs. Sealed" the Flashpoint of a Constitutional Crisis?
Words of Power #19: Colbert and McGovern Echo Murrow and Eisenhower, Is the U.S. Nearing Its Tiananmen Square Moment?
Words of Power #16: Lt. Gen. Newbold Bears Witness, Sy Hersh Sounds the Alarm & Patrick Fitzgerald Raises the Stakes
Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net
Plame, Rove, Cheney, Bush, Libby, Karl Rove, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Partrick Fitzgerald, Jason Leopold, Katrina, New Orleans, Spike Lee, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, US Constitution
