LATimes Points Out Bush & Cheney's Role In Plame Outing (Holy Crap!)

[KittyWampus]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess14jun14,0,985731.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The hardball proclivities weren't limited to behind-the-scenes strategists like Libby and Rove. The unfolding case would connect their actions to Cheney.

In pursuing the case against Libby, the special prosecutor released documents showing that the vice president was focused on questioning Wilson's motivation and credibility from the moment the article was published, just 10 weeks after Bush had landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier under a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished."

Fitzgerald released a copy of Cheney's handwritten notations atop Wilson's article: "Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an Amb. to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

Indeed, the notion that Wilson's trip to Africa was a junket arranged by his wife became a central part of the White House effort to undermine the former envoy, whose lengthy State Department career included postings in Iraq and Africa. The anti-Wilson campaign coincided with White House planning for the 2004 campaign.

Fitzgerald's investigation also led to revelations that Bush — who for months had promised to root out leakers in his administration and punish whoever disclosed Plame's identity — had authorized the release of classified information.

Wilson's contention that so offended the White House — that the administration twisted intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq — has since drawn support from intelligence officials around the globe, including former officers of the CIA. And the Niger uranium case that he described in his controversial article has become exhibit A in the cache of evidence assembled by critics to suggest that the administration cherry-picked intelligence information to justify the case for war.

[annabanana]

1. Now if it would only get the coverage

of overturned rowboats and subway stabbings...
(nom)

[juajen]

2. Commonplace coverage now

If only we'd had this coverage a year or so ago, what a difference it might have made.

[corkhead]

3. Expect a report soon on how "the Earth is flat" for "balance"

[coalition_unwilling]

4. I used to work for a LATimes subsidiary right across the

street from their downtown headquarters (on S. Spring St.). Every day at lunch, both before and after the invasion\occupation commenced, I would eat in their cafeteria with my peace sign\no war buttons on.

A couple weeks ago at the LA Festival of Books at UCLA, I went to a panel on Iraq veterans, moderated by LATims. After the panel finished, I went up and introduced myself to the moderator. He remembered me from those days, but didn't betray any remorse over his paper's cheerleading for the war in the days before it began, nor any remorse over his paper's firing of Robert Scheer (whom I had seen in another awesome panel with Larry Flynt).

The LA Times has a lot to answer for, imho, altho probly not quite as much as the NY Times and WaPost. They fail to recognize that one reason why their paid daily circulation has now dropped below 900,000 has to do with the fact that the anti-war movement almost to a person universally reviles them.