Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Scooter Libby's Time-Travel Trial

By Robert Parry
January 17, 2007

The trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is being billed by the Big Media as a case study of a favorite Washington cliché – “it’s not the crime but the coverup” – a smugly delivered line suggesting that Libby committed no real offense beyond trimming a few facts when questioned by overzealous investigators.

But the major U.S. news media is again missing the point. The real significance of the Libby trial is that it could demonstrate how far George W. Bush went in 2003 to shut down legitimate criticism of his Iraq War policies as well as questions about his personal honesty.

In that sense, the trial could be a kind of time machine for transporting America back to that earlier era of not so long ago when Bush and his team felt they controlled reality itself and were justified in tricking the American people into bloody adventures overseas.

It was a time when President Bush swaggered across the political landscape, a modern-day king fawned over by courtiers in the government and the press – and protected by legions of followers who bullied citizens who dared to dissent.

Read on.

1 comment:

lukery said...

bob - another great piece. well done.

one of the enduring questions is whether Plame was outed to 'get wilson' or for other reasons.

I'm not sure if you have seen Sibel Edmonds' film Kill The Messenger yet (I see that you are on the panel in a couple of weeks) - but the film suggests that Plame's outing has parallels with Sibel's case (and even Richard Barlow's case).