Leaking Valerie Plame's Name Hurt National Security
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When Karl Rove and his Republican groupies decided to burn Valerie
Plame they did a very dangerous thing. They outed someone involved in tracking
Iranian proliferation. But they did something else. They exposed an intelligence
agent who was on the trail of the country that actually was involved with al
Qaeda and the terrorists who hit us on 9/11. The outing of Valerie Plame for
political reasons, because her husband had exposed the dangerous game President
Bush was playing with our national security, has further damaged our ability
to police Iran and a terrorist group more lethal than al Qaeda: Hezbollah. Evidently, Bush and the Republicans who control Congress have
forgotten Iran's
connection to 9/11. Others of us have not.
The world has become an even more dangerous place since 9/11.
One of the reasons is the short-sided national security policies of George W.
Bush and the Republicans. Bush preemptively invades a country, ignores warnings
and plans, which culminate in a widening civil war that has tens of thousands
of Iraqis fleeing cities for refugee compounds for safety. Meanwhile, to protect the reasoning for war, which was not based on fact, the Bush administration outs an intelligence officer charged with keeping an eye on Iran's nuclear weapons.
There is a reason gas prices are so high today. One of the main reasons is
that the national security policy of George W. Bush and the Republicans is causing unrest, insecurity and instability across the globe. Iraq's oil industry is in worse
shape today than before we invaded. Today in Iraq, there is a “mafioso”
infecting the oil industry, leading to widespread corruption that further
destabilizes the country. The talk about Iran
and the ratcheting up of tensions between our two countries is just making
the situation of oil stability worse. It could lead to nothing short of a global
catastrophe.
Making matters worse and the situation even clearer is what was confirmed yesterday.
“Intelligence sources say Valerie Wilson was part of an operation three
years ago tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran.
And the sources allege that when Mrs. Wilson's cover was blown, the administration's
ability to track Iran's nuclear ambitions was damages as well. …WILSON: “Well the CIA I think has responded first by asking the Justice
Department to open an investigation and my judgment the leak of national security
information is a betrayal a minimum of one's security clearance and certainly
of the public trust and I for one can't understand how Mr. Rove remains on
the payroll of the US Government.”Early in the case, Rove admitted to investigators that he outed Valerie Wilson's
identity to columnist Robert Novak — Novak was the first journalist to publish
Wilson's identity and the first to talk about it to investigators.(snip)
But in regards to Karl Rove, Lawyers in the case say prosecutor fitzgerald
is still trouble by the timing of Rove's rolling disclosures: It seems that
Rove's memory perks up with every new indication someone else will expose
him.
All along, Iran sits and plans and plots strategy to expand their power base.
But instead of bi-lateral talks to engage President Ahmadinejad, who seems to
now have a nuclear ally in Iran's Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Bush and Cheney begin taunting Iran, a country far more dangerous to U.S. interests
than Saddam was at the time we invaded Iraq.
You've got people like Bill Kristol, who helped crystallize preemption on Iraq,
now taking
to task Condoleezza Rice for maintaining moderation on Iran. If we listen
to Bill Kristol again, not only will we have $150 barrel oil, but we'll likely
be hit at home by Hezbollah.
Republicans are not only ignoring what gas prices are doing to the American
family, but they are making the world a less stable place with a world view
and national security strategery that is making the United States weaker, less
trusted, more isolated than at any time since the nuclear age began. We know
that Bush and Karl Rove and the Republican Party are not above playing politics
with national security. They did it with the leaking of Valerie Plame's name for political purposes, which made the fight against the war on terror much more difficult, as did the war in Iraq. They've endangered the U.S. before through their political
brinksmanship. We should realize that in an election year, they're not above
doing it again.
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