In his new book, George W. Bush repeatedly challenges the charge that he misled the country into the Iraq war. He writes, "I didn’t like hearing people claim I had lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction." But while defending his integrity, he presents assertions that are outright false: for instance, that Iraq had a WMD infrastructure and was pursuing such weapons at the time of the invasion [it did not and was not], and that Saddam Hussein had refused to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors [he was not fully cooperating with inspectors, but the inspectors had reported Iraq’s cooperation was increasing]. His account is often selective — such as when he recounts a 2003 meeting with Tony Blair and fails to mention that at this session Bush raised the possibility of kick-starting the Iraq war with a phony provocation. But Bush’s selectivity is glaringly apparent when he recounts one of the dark moments of his presidency: the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.
Bush describes this episode for one purpose: to discuss the "most emotional personnel decision" of his presidency—whether or not to pardon White House aide Scooter Libby, who had been convicted of lying to FBI agents and a grand jury during the investigation of the Plame leak. He notes that this affair began when former ambassador Joe Wilson, Plame’s husband, wrote a post-invasion op-ed challenging Bush’s pre-invasion claim that Iraq had sought to buy uranium [presumably for use in a nuclear weapons program] from Niger…
Bush maintains that the trouble started when conservative columnist Bob Novak reported that Wilson "had been sent to Niger not by Dick Cheney or any senior member of the administration, as Wilson had suggested, but on the recommendation of his wife, Valerie Plame, who worked at the CIA." Yet Bush doesn’t describe precisely what Novak wrote. Here’s the key sentence from that scandal – triggering column: "Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger." That is, Bush ducks acknowledging that more than one official in his administration leaked this information to Novak. Later in his account, he refers to Novak’s "source" — not "sources" —and mentions that Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, had told Novak about Plame. Bush neglects to remind his readers that Novak’s second source was Karl Rove, his key political strategist. Bush also doesn’t say that Libby talked to reporters about Plame or that White House press secretary Ari Fleischer might have done the same. In fact, Rove, a key player in the Plame saga, doesn’t appear in Bush’s account at all.
During the Plame scandal, Bush said, "If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action." And, on behalf of Bush, Scott McClellan, who succeeded Fleischer as press secretary, denied at the time that Rove was implicated: "He wasn’t involved. The president knows he wasn’t involved… It’s simply not true." Yet, as it turned out, Rove was neck-deep in the scandal. Not only had he been Novak’s second source, he also had told Matt Cooper, then a Time magazine reporter, that Plame was a CIA officer.
The subsequent investigation led by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald focused on Rove’s role and whether Rove had testified accurately about his conversations with Novak and Cooper about Plame. As Michael Isikoff and I reported in Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, Fitzgerald came close to indicting Rove for not testifying accurately, but ultimately he chose not to.
Meanwhile, once Rove’s involvement became public, Bush and the White House refused to discuss it or to retract the White House’s previous denials about Rove. Contrary to Bush’s vow, there was apparently no "appropriate action" taken regarding Rove’s leaking of classified information [Plame’s employment at the CIA was classified information; her outing endangered her and WMD-related operations she had worked on]. In his book, Bush Photoshops Rove out of this scandal. By doing so, Bush doesn’t have to explain why he took no action against Rove or justify why he did nothing after his press secretary falsely told the public that Rove was not connected to the Plame leak.
Bush ardently defends his decision to commute Libby’s sentence without pardoning him [blah, blah, blah]… For Bush, the Plame case is only a tale of a difficult decision about a pardon. It is not about political skulduggery or dishonesty at the highest levels of the government. Whether Bush’s narcissistic treatment of this event counts as a lie or not, it certainly isn’t honest.
I wondered if Bush would even mention the Plame Affair, but I was resolved not to buy the book to find out. I’ve never thought Bush’s refusing to pardon Libby mattered one way or another, just the usual Bush Administration BUllSHit, but I was curious what he’d say about it. And it’s good to hear it from David Corn who was the one who pointed out that "outing" Valerie Plame was a crime. His book, Hubris, was the first real meaty expose of the level of BUllSHit.
I came into this story when Judith Miller was sent to jail in the summer of 2005. Bush’s reelection in 2004 had a profound effect on me, and when I began to read about Judith Miller and Fitzgerald’s Investigation, it gave me a way to focus my angst about the war and the whole Bush thing. The outing of Valerie Plame remains the central piece in the awakening that we had been duped into the Iraq War, and I owe Joseph Wilson a personal debt for saying it out loud – even though it cost his wife her career. It may have hurt him, but it sure helped me. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what or how deep it all went.
Bush’s notion that he made a heroic decision not to pardon Scooter Libby is telling, and says a lot about his approach to being our President. When he says something like, "I didn’t like hearing people claim I had lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction," or talks as if the whole WMD hoax was based in fact rather than simply a fabricated excuse, he’s avoiding the whole issue that he illegally invaded a sovereign country, essentially assassinated their President, disrupted that country’s ability to function, sent thousands of Americans and Iraqis to the grave, and squandered our money and reputation – all for no discernible reason in fact. Or when he focuses on Scooter Libby, he ignores throwing Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson under the bus. And what about Cheney, Rove, and Libby masterminding the outing of a secret agent? Whether or not he pardoned Scooter Libby is the least important aspect of the entire story.
In spite of his editing, most of what he said was untrue [more BUllSHit]. Even though he was not the author, Powell took responsibility and apologized. Not George W. Bush. It wasn’t his fault that the speech given to him wasn’t correct. It wasn’t his fault there were no WMDs. In fact, nothing was his fault, because he wasn’t really functioning as our President. I would label his time in the White House as "occupant," and leave it at that.
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