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The High Cost
of Libby’s Silence
By Amy Goodman
07/04/07 "Truth Dig" -- -- “We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” says the
preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Unless, of
course, you are a friend of the president. By commuting
“Scooter” Libby’s sentence, President Bush is also
protecting himself and Vice President Dick Cheney.
I asked former Ambassador Joe Wilson what he thought about
the commutation. It was his 2003 opinion piece that refuted
Bush’s claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa. In
retaliation, the White House leaked the name of his wife,
Valerie Plame, and her CIA identity. Wilson said, “It casts
a cloud of suspicion over the president and begs the
question whether the president is participating in an
ongoing obstruction of justice and cover-up of criminal
activity within the White House.” I asked him how: “By
ensuring that Libby will have no incentive to talk with the
special prosecutor.”
Prisoners often cooperate with government prosecutors in
exchange for leniency. With the prison sentence gone,
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald loses his leverage
over Libby. While Bush and his subordinates stress that
Libby still faces a $250,000 fine, the Libby Legal Defense
Trust was set up to help him out.
Among the listed trustees are former senator, TV actor and
likely Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, and
former CIA director and Iraq war booster James Woolsey.
Woolsey’s firm lobbied for the Iraqi National Congress,
Ahmed Chalabi’s CIA-funded group that provided faulty
intelligence in the lead-up to the war. Woolsey was also a
member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and
involved with the Project for the New American Century, two
influential groups that helped provide intellectual cover
and political muscle for the invasion of Iraq. Given the
power and wealth represented on his fundraising team, Libby
will do just fine with his fine.
Blogger Marcy Wheeler, who followed the Libby trial closely,
told me: “In some ways, commutation is worse [for the cause
of justice] than a pardon. With a commutation, Scooter Libby
retains his Fifth Amendment rights.” If Rep. John Conyers,
D-Mich., for example, were to call a hearing, Libby could
still plead the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination,
remaining silent. Had he been pardoned and been completely
cleared of any wrongdoing, then he would have a harder time
refusing to answer questions. Libby’s continued silence
protects Bush and Cheney.
The commutation also allows the Bush administration to
remain silent. As Bush said, “I have said throughout this
process that it would not be appropriate to comment or
intervene in this case until Mr. Libby’s appeals have been
exhausted.”
So the commutation ensures that Libby will not cooperate
with Fitzgerald, and will not cooperate with Congress. Why
does this matter? Because this case is not about obstruction
of justice, it is not about perjury. Ultimately, this case
is about war.
The Bush administration’s case for war depended on false
claims about weapons of mass destruction. President George
H.W. Bush hailed Wilson as “a true American hero” for his
role as acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq when Saddam Hussein
invaded Kuwait in 1990. But when Wilson publicly debunked
the George W. Bush administration’s claim about African
uranium, he was attacked, his wife was outed, her career
ruined. Her job: an undercover CIA operative investigating
weapons of mass destruction. This week, the United Nations
formally closed down its weapons search program in Iraq, the
U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. So
much for WMD.
Thompson released a statement after the commutation, saying,
“This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his
country, to resume his life.” Good Americans sent to war,
and who died, now number close to 3,600. They will not be
getting on with their lives. And let’s not forget the
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed. More than 20,000
Americans are wounded, some with limbs lost, some blinded,
some brain-damaged. They have no choice but to get on with
their lives, but without a star-studded fundraising
committee.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of unalienable rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It also says
that when a government “becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.”
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily
international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in
North America.
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