By JOHN W. DEAN
(Cont'd) Lying About The Reason For War
Fri Oct 7, 2005 01:02
64.140.159.7
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
http://writ.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
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Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction:
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
By JOHN W. DEAN
As I remarked in an earlier column, this Administration may be due for a scandal. While Bush narrowly escaped being dragged into Enron, it was not, in any event, his doing. But the war in Iraq is all Bush's doing, and it is appropriate that he be held accountable.
To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."
It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.
Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case.
John Dean, a FindLaw columnist, is a former Counsel to the President of the United States.
# # #
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
http://writ.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
----
Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction:
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
By JOHN W. DEAN
============
Featured Article: Plame Affair
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Main_Page
The Plame Affair began in July 2003 when journalist Robert Novak wrote a column revealing that Valerie Plame, the wife of former United States Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, was a covert operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who specialized in undercover operations involving weapons of mass destruction. The exposure of Plame was done in part as an act of political retribution against Wilson due to Wilson's New York Times editorial in which Wilson challenged a statement in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address in which the president said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." The materials to which Bush was referring have since become known as the Yellowcake forgery.
The Plame Affair also involves the subsequent investigation of the Bush White House leak. This investigation is being lead by Independent Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General James Comey ( after then Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the case) and the cover-up by White House staff and officials including Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Ari Fleischer, and perhaps others.
Background
In February of 2002, retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a career diplomat who had worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, was asked by the CIA to investigate claims of attempted uranium ore purchases by Iraq from the African nation of Niger, in response to questions from Vice President Dick Cheney based on a foreign intelligence report relating to the sale of uranium yellowcake from Niger (see also Yellowcake Forgery).
Wilson had African diplomatic experience which led to his selection for the mission. He is the former ambassador to Gabon, another uranium-producing African nation, and was once posted in the 1970s to Niamey, Niger's capital.[1] Wilson, who was open about the CIA's sponsorship of his trip which he called "discreet but not secret".
His investigation revealed that it was highly unlikely any such sale occurred and he reported it to the CIA.
After repeated warnings by the CIA not use the claims about Niger uranium purchases throughout 2002, those claims again resurfaced in Bush's State of the Union Address. After several attempts to anonymously warn the media and the White House about the spurious nature of those claims, Wilson finally wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, which were published on July 6 2003,[2]. In it, he suggested that the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence findings about the Iraq seeking uranium from Africa, which were being used to justify war against Iraq.
Wilson also noted that U.S. Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington.
Eight days after publication of Wilson's article, an article written by syndicated columnist Robert Novak was published, which said that the choice to use Wilson "was made routinely at a low level without CIA Director George Tenet's knowledge." More crucially, Novak went on to identify Valerie Plame as Wilson's wife: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."[3] Although Wilson wrote that he was certain his findings were circulated within the CIA and conveyed (at least orally) to the office of the Vice President, Novak questioned the accuracy of Wilson's report and added that "it is doubtful Tenet ever saw it."
On August 29, 2003, Wilson]] IV, a career diplomat who had worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, alleged that Karl Rove leaked the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. Although the leak is most likely a violation of federal law, no charges have yet been filed against Rove.
The full article can be found here.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Plame_affair
http://writ.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
----
Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction:
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
By JOHN W. DEAN
As I remarked in an earlier column, this Administration may be due for a scandal. While Bush narrowly escaped being dragged into Enron, it was not, in any event, his doing. But the war in Iraq is all Bush's doing, and it is appropriate that he be held accountable.
To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."
It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.
Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case.
John Dean, a FindLaw columnist, is a former Counsel to the President of the United States.
# # #
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
http://writ.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
----
Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction:
Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
By JOHN W. DEAN
============
Featured Article: Plame Affair
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Main_Page
The Plame Affair began in July 2003 when journalist Robert Novak wrote a column revealing that Valerie Plame, the wife of former United States Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, was a covert operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who specialized in undercover operations involving weapons of mass destruction. The exposure of Plame was done in part as an act of political retribution against Wilson due to Wilson's New York Times editorial in which Wilson challenged a statement in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address in which the president said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." The materials to which Bush was referring have since become known as the Yellowcake forgery.
The Plame Affair also involves the subsequent investigation of the Bush White House leak. This investigation is being lead by Independent Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General James Comey ( after then Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the case) and the cover-up by White House staff and officials including Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Ari Fleischer, and perhaps others.
Background
In February of 2002, retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a career diplomat who had worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, was asked by the CIA to investigate claims of attempted uranium ore purchases by Iraq from the African nation of Niger, in response to questions from Vice President Dick Cheney based on a foreign intelligence report relating to the sale of uranium yellowcake from Niger (see also Yellowcake Forgery).
Wilson had African diplomatic experience which led to his selection for the mission. He is the former ambassador to Gabon, another uranium-producing African nation, and was once posted in the 1970s to Niamey, Niger's capital.[1] Wilson, who was open about the CIA's sponsorship of his trip which he called "discreet but not secret".
His investigation revealed that it was highly unlikely any such sale occurred and he reported it to the CIA.
After repeated warnings by the CIA not use the claims about Niger uranium purchases throughout 2002, those claims again resurfaced in Bush's State of the Union Address. After several attempts to anonymously warn the media and the White House about the spurious nature of those claims, Wilson finally wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, which were published on July 6 2003,[2]. In it, he suggested that the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence findings about the Iraq seeking uranium from Africa, which were being used to justify war against Iraq.
Wilson also noted that U.S. Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington.
Eight days after publication of Wilson's article, an article written by syndicated columnist Robert Novak was published, which said that the choice to use Wilson "was made routinely at a low level without CIA Director George Tenet's knowledge." More crucially, Novak went on to identify Valerie Plame as Wilson's wife: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."[3] Although Wilson wrote that he was certain his findings were circulated within the CIA and conveyed (at least orally) to the office of the Vice President, Novak questioned the accuracy of Wilson's report and added that "it is doubtful Tenet ever saw it."
On August 29, 2003, Wilson]] IV, a career diplomat who had worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, alleged that Karl Rove leaked the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. Although the leak is most likely a violation of federal law, no charges have yet been filed against Rove.
The full article can be found here.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Plame_affair
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Thursday, 10/06/05
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