Blogging on Meds

Straight from the former Press Secretary’s mouth: Bush outed Plame.

Not Cheney, or Libby, or Rove. George W. “If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is.  And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.” Bush.

Yeah, yeah, he’s been implicated in leaks before, and it’s been tossed around that the Plame leak goes up to the “highest levels”, but the party line has been that Bush had nothing to do with the “really bad,” treason-esque leak — that being the one that outed an active CIA operative, and thereby simultaneously put her (not to mention her contacts) at risk and botched some rather important covert activities (such as working to keep an eye on Iran’s nuclear plans…shortsighted much?).  However, this statement by McClellan — accounting a first-hand conversation with the President himself — is kinda damning.

I know what they’re going to say, assuming they’re pressed enough to say anything (dead silence has worked so well for years, so I won’t hold my breath), after outright denials, obfuscations, and bungled attempts at wordplay: as a President, Bush’s authorization to leak the information inherently de-classifies it, and therefore no criminal act was committed.  From a legal perspective, I suppose this argument might keep him out of jail.  Smooth.

Regardless, whether or not something that some might call “Presidential treason” is loophole-able, here’s hoping admissions like this at least renew the public interest and revitalize the stalling court cases (especially after Plame and Wilson’s recent disheartening, clearly-partisan setback).

If nothing else, stories like this remind us that:

a) the W. White House has set a new bar for disingenuousness (seriously, read this with the added context of McClellan’s new story about his conversations with Bush).

b) yet again (as if we needed another reason), we should be kissing our fingers for the outcome of the recent election.

I’m sure the paper shredders at the White House have been working double-time since November 4th.  Let’s just hope they miss a few scraps, or a few more brave souls follow in McClellan’s footsteps and start talking, so that the American people can push our new leaders to finally bring accountability back to the executive branch of this democracy.

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With growing doubts about the Iraqis agreeing to a Status of Forces Agreement before the end of this year, the US has only one other option to legally stay in Iraq: Get the UN to extend the mandate that allows US forces to operate in Iraq. The fear that the US had was that if the SOFA couldn’t be hammered out, then they’d have to turn to the UN Security Council, where China or Russia could veto a new mandate. The US has been especially worried about Russia, obviously because of the recent breakdown in relations over issues like Kosovo and Georgia. Well, surprise! Russia’s foreign minister said that Russia would support a new UN mandate.

We’ll support Iraq’s request to the U.N. Security Council if the Iraqi government asks for the mandate of the current international military presence to be extended.

Given the tense relations between the US and Russia, why would Russia agree to support a new UN mandate? My guess is because Russia has benefited politically and militarily from having the US bogged down in Iraq for the last 5 years, and Russia is basically positioning itself to bail out the US from an untenable position. Defense Secretary Gates warned of dire consequences if the Iraqis don’t agree to the SOFA, so Russia would position itself as the white knight coming to America’s rescue, and you can be sure they’d play that up to make the US look weak. It’s not a pretty situation for the US right now, and rather than see Russia take credit for aiding the US, the US is likely to ratchet up the pressure on the Iraqis in the coming weeks.

Photo: Iraqi government/AP

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