Krugman: Karl Rove’s America

What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we’re not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we’re living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

Posted by: b | Jul 15 2005 7:00 utc | 3

I thought it might be a few years from now, but this might wind up being settled on the streets. The US had a nice run but it may be over!

Posted by: R.L. | Jul 15 2005 7:07 utc | 5

There is a quote in GK Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday about being ready for the battle of Armageddon (a spiritual battle between good and evil, not the crap the rapture loonies peddle) and the times we live in constantly remind me of that.

Posted by: Lupin | Jul 15 2005 7:49 utc | 7

Hehe…
Pat: Run, little piglet, run!
Karl: Oink, oink.

Posted by: MarcinGomulka | Jul 15 2005 8:54 utc | 9

Since July 1, I’ve been getting overly excited about the prospects of a Rove indictment. It reminds me too much about how I felt in the days before the 2004 election when Zogby called it for Kerry.
I still don’t see how it will be proven that Rove knew Plame was covert. Under either IIPA or the Espionage Act, it appears to me that he would have needed to have some knowledge of her covert status in order to be indicted. Even if there’s a witness that claims that he or she told Rove that Plame was covert, he can still simply deny it. It would be Rove’s word against the witness, which is not a particularly strong case.
I just don’t see how the IIPA or Espionage Act would apply. If I am misinterpreting the law, please let me know…

Posted by: lawrence | Jul 15 2005 10:47 utc | 11

Fitzgerald certainly knows what he’s doing. But he’s taken on the case and has no choice but to play the game at this point. Even if he’s been dealt a bad hand. Some people have suggested that Fitzgerald must have something good up his sleeve if he’s sending reporters to jail. But what if Miller has all of the aces? Perhaps her testimony is the key to everything, but she won’t testify…

Posted by: lawrence | Jul 15 2005 12:22 utc | 13

This is why I think it’s better for the Dems to either call bullshit or simply wave past the current GOP foo-fah. Fitzgerald isn’t going to give a flying fuck about this, and indictments can’t be spun.

Posted by: ahem | Jul 15 2005 12:59 utc | 15

I was ecstatic when Fitzgerald was named to this job two years ago–serious shouting joy–because he’s been our US Attorney around Chicago for a couple of years now and has a reputation as a nonpartisan no-nonsense bulldog. I get the impression that he won’t be satisfied until every politician who’s committed a crime goes to jail. He’s going to get our former governor (Ryan-R) put in jail, and I about half-expect him to get Daley sent to jail someday. He’s my prosecutorial hero, beating out even Spitzer, since he doesn’t seem to share Spitzer’s interest in higher office.
Rove should be worried.

Posted by: Levi | Jul 15 2005 13:18 utc | 17

Apparently Rove testified that Novak already knew Plame was CIA. So who told Novak? And does Rove have clearance to know Plame was CIA? If not, who told him? There’s been speculation that
Miller was a source herself. If so, who told her? Who are the two suspected WH leakers, if not Rove?
I think Rove is not the actual target of the prosecutor.

Posted by: gylangirl | Jul 15 2005 14:12 utc | 19

jm, great link. wow.

Posted by: gylangirl | Jul 15 2005 14:25 utc | 21

I hope people will follow jm’s link to Justin Raimondo’s ‘Rove-gate: Who Leaked to the Leakers? ‘ It’s a very comprehensive look into “The Cabal” as they call themselves.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 15 2005 14:59 utc | 23

I’ve said ever since 9/11 this is all about Yassar Arafat. If you recall, last we heard, Sharon had him bottled up in his headquarters, bombed but defiant, and bus-bombings happening every week in Israel.
Then OBL’s boys did their thing, Ari Fleischer did his thing, Bolton-Hannah/Libby-Cheney did their thing, Bush did his thing, and now the USA is the New Israel, wrapped in flypaper half-way around the world.
In the meantime, the Zionists are quietly re-jerrymandering Gaza, and building up a permanent wall, and building their nuclear stockpile.
War is big business, the best. 3% of a $B sale is $30,000,000 a pop!
So now it’s “Novak leaked to Rove”, and no mention of Hannah/Libby. Plame was “all public knowledge”, and Ari Fleischer goes scot free.
You’ve got to give them credit, they just pulled off a terrific coup.

Posted by: tante aime | Jul 15 2005 15:11 utc | 25

You just know behind closed doors in the White House (and elsewhere) there is intense strategy plotting occurring every spare minute on the Rove issue. It’s ludicrous to be told otherwise. Much of Bush’s entire second term hinges on a favorable outcome. By “second term” I mean the billions of dollars being funneled to hundreds of various entities that turn right around and give back a percentage of it to the RNC. I’m tempted to think there is so much money at stake an unfavorable outcome won’t be permitted. The law, the Constitution, international conventions and treaties, even the very laws of science and nature, don’t matter to these people. They’re impediments and trifles to be shredded and discarded as necessary. The same will hold true in protecting Rove and anyone else involved in this travesty.

Posted by: steve duncan | Jul 15 2005 15:49 utc | 27

The speculation here is energetic.
I’m not mocking the interest in the Rise & Fall of Bush, but am concerned what, if anything this means for the rersponse of the political class, of the pentagon, of War Profiteers, of Elites, to WOT itself? Like Vietnam, an interregnum of handwringing over mistakes made by LBJ led to Nixon and even greater carnage (Cambodia!)
We seem to be entering a similar interval in which condemnation by one part of the political class is used for further justification of war. Note how the Democratic (and McCain on the “other” side) leadership response is generically “They fucked up, now we must finish what they began.” Dems, if history is any guide, will morph into Nixon–or to honor billmon’s Terminator metaphor, the Dems are Cyberdyne Inc., reassembling the monster abandoned by the republicans.

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 15 2005 16:24 utc | 29

The final piece in the Plame puzzle is obstruction of justice.
Karl Rove’s strategy—and the explanation for Robert Novak’s low profile—emerged today with backgrounders to the AP and New York Times.
The Rove defense is “I heard it from Novak”.
Federal Prosecutor Robert Fitzgerald obviously doesn’t believe it. Otherwise he would have wrapped up the investigation long ago.
So Rove is under the gun for the big one: obstruction of justice.
In other words, Fitzgerald believes that Novak and Rove colluded to create the cover story.
And, remorseless tough-guy prosecutor that he is, he’s probably sweating the poor schlub that Novak claimed was his source for the leak with 5 years in jail unless he/she spills the beans on the cover-up scenario.
And maybe he’s got Judith Miller in jail because he thinks he can make her corroborate Rove’s “you tell them that you told me instead of me telling you” M.O. on this or other incidents.

Posted by: Peter | Jul 15 2005 16:38 utc | 31

slothrop, we aren’t setting an agenda here, just doing a little research on current affairs, as opened up by Billmon’s initial post on this particular thread….Would you like to kick off an agenda thread?

Posted by: alabama | Jul 15 2005 16:55 utc | 33

alabama
no, no. I read every one of your posts twice. Your research is valuable and interesting and vastly exceeds my own knowledge about the subject.
I’m simply raising what I believe to be a terrifying probability in the way the Rise & Fall of Bush is used by his political “enemies,” that’s all.
My Terminator bricolage was faithful to the thread. Did it seem strained?

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 15 2005 17:01 utc | 35

fitzgerald earns the name bulldog, unlike the other bulldog we heard about this year. i wonder how far back he’s going to go. if he is investigating David Wurmser and John Hannah might he also be following the yellowcake via flietz and bolton, as raimondos link inplies? in that case not only would it lead directly to cheney but also drag in the entire office of specail operations . luti the whole gang. that’s the implication. and if they were boltinizing the info might that lead to the possible creation of the original niger docs? hersh story leads us to believe that the cia created the docs but what if it was the flietz wing of the cia that mustered up the yellowcake docs

But how does this kind of “fixing” play out? Insights leap out of recently declassified e-mail messages from the office of Undersecretary of State John Bolton, archdeacon of politicization. I was particularly struck to learn from the Washington Post that Bolton’s principal aide and chief enforcer, Frederick Fleitz, is actually a CIA analyst on loan to Bolton. In this light, his behavior in trying to cook intelligence to the recipe of high policy is even more inexcusable. CIA analysts, particularly those on detail to policy departments, have no business playing the enforcer of policy judgments, have no business conjuring up “intelligence around the policy.Fleitz must have flunked Ethics and Intelligence Analysis 101. Or perhaps the CIA does not offer the course any more. “

Posted by: annie | Jul 15 2005 17:27 utc | 37

slothrop, I think the Cyberdine dialectic is faithful not only to the thread, but to Pynchon’s reticular imagination…which is totally cool.
sweet link, annie!

Posted by: alabama | Jul 15 2005 17:50 utc | 39

thank you, jm!

Posted by: alabama | Jul 15 2005 18:09 utc | 41

above mcgovern link claims

Bolton ordered and received updates on the notorious “Fact Sheet” of Dec. 19, 2002, that claimed Iraq had been trying to procure uranium “yellowcake” from Niger. In other words, John Bolton played a key role in ordering that discredited intelligence be used to support the president’s case for war, three months before the attack on Iraq.

what that statement doesn’t take into account is that bolton had been stovepiping back in the summer/fall of 2001. maybe his investment in the yellowcake goes alot father back than the dec 02 factsheet. and if bolton is as ruthless as everyone seems to think and had been working on this for quite some time.

In particular, according to Hanley, Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront Jose Bustani, Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and demand that he resign.
The OPCW is the UN-related organization established in1997 by Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention to be their agent.
Bustani “had to go” because “he was trying to send [OPCW] chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad and that might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war.”
But Bustani refused to resign. So, he was relieved of his position in April 2002 at an OPCW meeting in a manner – orchestrated by Bolton – that has since been ruled “unlawful” by a judicial body to which UN agencies submit personnel cases.
Bolton also attempted – apparently concurrently and for the same reason – to force Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resign.
And when ElBaradei refused, Bolton pressured the IAEA Board of Governors to deny ElBaradei a third term.

aparently failure and negotiation are not an option for this guy.
now if the fleitz character was in his good graces and the 2 were determined to find what they were looking for , what better way than to simply eliminate the fact checkers and create your own reality. that’s why they kicked powel’s guy out of the conferences.

Posted by: annie | Jul 15 2005 18:27 utc | 43

thanks to you, b.
and btw, Billmon, it’s clove oil and vinegar that kills weeds and rue that repels fleas, fwiw.
LOL

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 15 2005 18:54 utc | 45

oh, and one more thing…if their were two sets of forgeries, and the second were so bad, would those be the ones Hersh referred to in his mention of former agents who did not expect the info would be allowed?
…but b/c the info was stovepiped by Rummy, Cheney, et al, in the Team B OSP, those docs got through as well?

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 15 2005 18:58 utc | 47

jeez, i’m so egg in face w/ my links. i have to preview EVERYTIME. anyway my point being, if the first report wasn’t up to par in oct , then the letterhead doc were stolen in dec/jan that preceeded the second flushed report.why couldn’t the theft have been a plant to support the second set of docs?

Posted by: annie | Jul 15 2005 19:04 utc | 49

“The report in La Repubblica, largely based on unidentified Italian secret services sources, also linked a theft at the Niger embassy in Rome during the 2001 New Year’s holiday to the affair.
La Repubblica, quoting a source from Sismi, the Italian military intelligence service, said that in late 2001 or early 2002, M16 obtained the documents. The source implied that Italian colleagues provided the information to British intelligence officials.”
so both years they had a theft at the embassy? hm

Posted by: annie | Jul 15 2005 19:21 utc | 51

this a text i have written for another kind of fascist – it would seem to be the dreams of karl rove – perhaps it belongs on this thread
All this time. I have expected them. When the political winds change. I know they will not forget Heimmann. There have been times when I have expected them to pluck me out. To take me to their sanctuary. To examine me. Like some specimen. They want to hold me up. Hold me up to the world like some ventriloquist’s doll. Heimmann will not do that. He will show this good for nothing scum what he is made of. They will think they have a prize in their hands. No. No. They will have a bomb. A bomb that will explode into their money lending hands. That is certain. I know they follow me. Do they think for one moment that it is possible to fool the man who controlled Europe with an intelligence network the like which had never and has never been seen in human history. In the same hour I could have a man picked up in Lodz. Another in Brussells. A woman in Prague. A teenager in Paris. They could all end up in my office the next day. They could be dead the day after that. That is power. That is strength. Every morning at my desk I would have reports from each of the occupied countries. From their cities. From their towns. From their villages. I had comprimised . I had corrupted. I had debased key individuals If I wanted information it was on my desk. The next morning. The next hour. Looking back it seems I had half of Europe in my debt one way or another. I had corrupted them. They had corrupted themselves. They are still here. Some of them doing very well. Key people. I cannot touch them. In this world who would believe Heimmann. He is not to be believed I can hear them saying. I’ll tell them many things they don’t want to hear. I’ll not end up on the scaffold praying to smaller gods than I am myself. I’ll not tell them I was only following orders. I am not frightened by their puny justice. They’ll try to shut me up but I will speak until I have no more to say. They want to know how such a man is made. I’ll tell them. They needn’t ask. I’ll tell them at once. I’m a man they can only imagine. They all live in my shadow. I know them already. I will know their faces. I will have knoxn their fathers. Mothers. Uncles. Sisters. Brothers. I will have known their relatives. Their friends. I will have taken whole families on my train to their final departures. They do not frighten me. Where are they now ? I can hear them. I have seen them. I am sitting here alone waiting for them. When will they come ? I am not going to run anymore. When we left the railway station Eckstein made no attempt to speak to me. To explain his action. I made no attempt to speak to him. My mind was rushing with many thoughts. There were moments when I felt like I wanted to pull out my pistol and end it there and then. I wanted him. He was simply one more man that I had control over. That was the truth of the matter. He could expect no grace from me. He satin the carriage as if nothing had happened. He passed me some papers that I had given him earler in the day. This man. His sons will try to do business with me but they have another thing coming. I am not an old man they can intimidate like they would an arab in the desert. I’m no savage they can beat into submission. They will feel the sharp whip of my toungue crack them across the face. Who do these assassins of Christ think they are dealing with ? They are not dealing with some flunked doctor now. In a forest. Somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. My men gathered up the entire staff of a particular lycée in Paris that we knew to be the centre of resistance against us. They were gathered up in the middle of the day when they least expected it. It was in full view of the locals. Everybody pretended not to notice. We gathered them on a truck. The entire staff. There were Israelites amongst them. I am certain. They had changed their names but the lycée would have been a natural home for them. Packed off into a truck and driven to the outskirts of Paris. In a forest. They pleaded with us. demanding to know why they had been taken. From their beloved lycée. An old man – a professor came up to me. A Jew of long standing I would have thought. He came to talk to me. He wanted to know why they were here. I told him. Because you serve no purpose. I pushed him back into the throng and my men fired upon them until no one was left standing. An officer. A middle-aged man who was not involved in the shooting came up to me and asked brusquely why we had shot these people. I pulled out my pistol and shot him point blank. I told him – that’s because you don’t understand our purpose. He fell on his knees as if in prayer. We got back in the truck leaving this mess. They think they know why they want me. I am a sinister man – they say. Do they think people have long memories ? People were forgetting as soon as we had done these actions. After the war people’s memories got very distorted. Some of the young do not even know there was a war. They do not want to know. No one wants to remember. I remember everything. People want to move towards a future. What a future we left those we conquered. No sooner had the war finished than the French were in Vietnam. Then in Algeria. Employing the same methods that we had taught them. They were unflinching in their brutality. The English were no sooner out of the Blitz and they were putting the boot into the colonies and giving their own population some punishment. The Americans were in anywhere they could get a fight going so that they may profit. By brutality Israel was founded and by brutality it was maintained. A litany of the occupied becoming the occupier. Their methods were no different except they were less efficient. They followed our rule book as if they had written it. Yet they presented this mimicry as if they alone were saving civilisation. The Russians never pretended civilisation and they renewed their savagery with a fervour with their new satellites. Living here. Watching the globe. I have laughed until my sides split to think that these men think they can judge me. By what laws ? We are the ones that developed those laws. They mirror our every action. They sit on high and tell me Heimmann this world cannot live with a man like you in its midst. Humanity has to rehabilitate itself – they will say. Humanity has to do away with people like you. They will insist. These liars. These frauds. Any one of these countries including Israel would benefit with the service of a Heimmann working for them. Ministering to their needs. No doubts about that. They would do well to employ me. They could not secrete me behind a door in some office. They know they would have to show others their naked face. This they cannot afford. They hide their face behind two penny brutes that they keep on a chain in countries like these. They keep their hands clean. They forever wash them. That’s your trouble Heimmann – they would say — you got your hands too dirty with your tasks. We cannot be contaminated by you they would claim. They are drowned in their own filth. They cannot clean up the filth they have accumulated. They want the benefit of my methods but they do not want to pay the price. Perhaps they think they can make a public spectacle of me then they can go about their business without reference to my deeds. To do away with me is to pretend to do away with the deed. This is the thinking that made America. They will not forget Heimmann and his deeds. They will live on. In both books and life. This world cannot forget Heimmann. He is the door through which they constructed the post-war world. It is to him that they owe a debt. While they destroy town after town. City after city.
Country after country. They can always point to the misdeeds of Heimmann to detract from their own deeds. They are without culture. They are without intelligence. Their reign will not last. When I was a young man. After the First World War. I would look at maps and know that what was there today might not be there tommorrow. That empires were doomed to collapse. That one country would become another. That whole continents would be transformed. I drew on these maps. I imagined new boundaries. The creation of new borders. I imagined this then. Behind every change I saw the chosen ones or some other inferior race that needed to be extinguished. Now every day the world is faced with this reality. It was in the last days of the war that I visited the camp where Eckstein was held. He was still working in the chamber commando. Many of those he might have called colleagues in his task had already gone to join their number. Not Eckstein. He was skin and bone with a sack on top but he was still there. He would go soon. He had been a lucky man. He had seen day turn into night. He had seen the future. I went up to him in the camp. He did not seem to recognise me. I tapped him hard on his arms. He looked up for a moment. Continued with his task except now he was almost unconciouslly mimicking me. He was following my every movement and gesture. The look on my face he mirrored. It was as if he was passing through me. I spoke to him but he could not answer. The man in charge of the camp was about to strike him but I fended off the attack. The weather will finish him off I said. They are the last words I spoke to him. We walked away from him but as I went into the main block I could still see him mimicking me. That’s the last I saw of him. I am alone sitting in my office. I have been told the Red Army are nearing Berlin. They are not far away. I can hear them. In the distance. The others are in a frenzy. There are already some who have deserted and others who have gone to Switzerland to make a peace. There are orders going everywhere. Orders are not being followed. This very day I have seen full uniforms left in piles all over the place. Left there. As if the owners had stripped off and just walked naked from the uniform. Ghosts. This city is a madhouse. I cannot believe this is hhappening. All the shops are either closed or ransacked. My men are staying loyal. They at least give this appearance. I do not know. The means of communication are nearly all gone. Fourteen year old boys travel the city with messages from one leader to another. These boys carry news of what is happening on the front. Without them it would be impossible to get information from one place to another. The leadership seems to be everywhere and nowhere. The radio has gone and rumour has become the deadline. You hear everything. Men I have known throughout our struggle run pass me in the street. No one greets one another anymore. Fear within the nation is greater than I have ever felt. Those who have their wits about them still fear me though they do their best to bypass me. I am not being noticed. Who are these orders for ? Who am I issuing them to ? An order has a short lifespan here if you can find someone to delegate it to. All around me. They all want to save their skins. That’s the politics of our days and nights. We have night no longer. Every night we are being bombarded and light fills what is left of the sky. You cannot believe what I am seeing. Yesterday after the Russians had hit the zoo with mortar fire you could see wild animals prowling through the city. Wild animals. I am situated in the middle of a nightmare. It is happening so fast. There doesn’t seem enough time anymore. I cannot breathe. I need air. The cage is closing in. Why can’t I breathe. My body feels as if it is in convulsion. I go through my files searching out names. I pore over schedules. I seek out names and numbers. Places. It’s falling apart. I’m looking at reports I made in 1934. They are detailed and precise. They speak to me now. My memory serves me well. The whole city is falling apart. These are my people. This is my country. What are we doing? The camps should be burnt to the ground. Lock stock and barrell. I have sent the order. I don’t know whether it’s been acknowledged. Whether there is anybody to acknowledge the order. Our cities look like a collection of rubble. Few buildings are left standing. They’re pummelling our city to ash. We who have brought culture to the world now see that culture smashed to pieces. Opera houses. Theatres. Cathedrals. Galleries. Museums. Rubble. Eckstein and his sons have folloxed my scent though I will smell them first. They are very close. I hear and see. I am not imagining them. I can hear them. I can see them. They are close. So close. I will know them. They will listen to me. I have a story to tell these stamp collectors. They will hear more than their ears can bare. They will hear a word or two that they may have not thought possible to utter. I will utter them. Eckstein will have told his side of the story. That’s certain. A sob story. I would be a large figure in that landscape. No doubt about that. Eckstein will have his lists. My name will be at the top of them. I’ll not hide that fact. That’s what they expect me to do. Hide the facts. I am sitting in this office in a burnt out Berlin while mty men are going to the wall. I am powerless to do anything at all. They would expect my assistance. I have none to give. These were days that I thought all was gone. I hung on to the fact that all men are open to corruption. This is my talent. Our days were not at their end. Someone would do a deal with us. The situation is still open I thought. I am at my best when I am confronted with adversity. I was working without break. Alone. I was surrounded by a building full of information and it was useless. I felt helpless. I have lived in this jungle of a country for too long. Without contacts. Without any network. To have lived in this cesspit and calle dit home has made me feel disgust. I cannot breathe. I imagine this city as it had once been. Ten years ago. The beauty of Berlin had the power to oppress those of limited imagination. It still made all the cities we conquered look insignificant. To be in Berlin was to feel a man again. A man better than other men. Now it was in flames. As far as they eye could see. The buildings I had loved since I was a child ripped apart as if some great giant had held the city in his hand and shaken it all over the place. Emptying it of everything. Including people. It was an unimaginable sight. I cannot see his face. I saw him not long ago. I’m certain. I can’t sleep. I am continually disturbed by all sorts of sounds. I cannot hear myself. The heart is irregular. Covered in sweat. I was put to good use. I put myself to such good use. Ten years. A mammoth task. In ten years I had done to the chosen people what no man order or nation had ever had the strength to do. Not one of their number on the continent would have been untouched by my hands. I had entered their homes. I had emptied their families. A father here. A mother there. A grandmother. A daughter and son. Whole generations and families perished. I closed the door on their future. I turned their past against them. I turned them against each other. I chopped every branch of their culture from the tree and left them on the ground to be collected as firewood to burn the heretics. It will take a million years to rebuild their culture. Perhaps never. There can be no question about t
hat. No question. No devil in their holy books was quite like me. The chosen people of today are different people. Not the same as the ones I did business with. Certainly not. They had built a home where they could despise others as they despised themselves. The only home they deserved was in the camps. Here they had a community. A community like no other. Here the jew of every type was one. Half jew was all jew as far as I was concerned. From each corner the jew was brought ot meet his long lost cousins. Never before such a congress of jews. They only meet in disaster. It is in anguish that they find their brotherhood. In the chambers they went as one enormous family. They were one big family in the pit. Their homes are the burial grounds of Europewe dug for them. Ash bone and earth. I cannot breathe. All the time i’m catching my breath. A pain across my chest will not go away. I feel as if I need a walking stick to stand straight. They are going to do away with me. I know them. I can hear them. Their smell. I know it. They are here. They cannot hide from me. I know they are here. I am a master of their trade. I know they’re here. They cannot hide from Heimmann. I will not walk to them. As they marched happily to the furnace. No. They’ll find me too much trouble. They know that from their fathers. From books. They’ll know what they get when they capture me. Why do they come now ? Why now ? They have left me alone. They could have come here before. They now want me. What use am I to them ?. An old man in the dock. They want me. A young man has come crying to me. He’s no older than eighteen. Perhaps younger. New to the dirty uniform. He told me it had all come to an end. This young man. He had been at the bunker. A guard. They shot themselves four hours ago he said. His death and that of his bride did not disturb me. I remember staring out the window at the searchlights thinking that none of them can face the end. He who faces the end can watch history do the striptease. This man must know the end. I then turned on the boy in a fit of rage. Grabbed him by the coat and swung him against the door. I screamed at him that they had left us. Too scared to hold the flag. We are betrayed at every corner I told him. The swine never sleep in their own filfth. They leave us to embrace the end. I was still holding on tightly to the young man. This boy. It was clear that he was frightened out of his wits. He didn’t know where to turn. I wanted to hurt this boy as I have never wanted to hurt someone in my life. I was holding this child to blame for what was happening. I remember screaming that I needed more time to carry out my task. I was screaming it out so loudly that it seemed to drown the room in sound. The boy couldn’t have known what I was talking about. Just another official going mad before his eyes. He said nothing while I was holding him. He was sweating through the coat with fear. I let him go. Find a leader. Find a leader. I shouted to him as he fled the building to the dust and rubble

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 15 2005 19:43 utc | 53

I’m so glad you all took to the link I posted. I knew I was in the right place.
These people have a lot of enemies and they are expendable. Everyone is. And maybe they did more back stabbing than what was anticipated. Or as I mentioned before, they were set up.
I think it’s leading to the State of the Union speech, but there is probably more than just the yellow cake fabrication. So I think we are dealing with obsrtruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress, and probably more. The legal system is elaborate, and they’ve broken a multitude of major laws.
Rove had to be set up so it looks to me like they are scheduled for a fall, but with no pardons this time. They might be starting with Rove as a psychological factor and to weaken the whole group, since he is a solidifying force with his iron grip of control. But it looks like he’s been made a fool of.
Criminals are always caught if they continue long enough. The power that desires their downfall always exists. And they weaken from within as the war among the factions escalates.
It remains to be seen, of course, but no one is omnipotent. Very, very far from it.

Posted by: jm | Jul 15 2005 22:37 utc | 55

@Fauxreal
As I’ve said before once you start replacing intelligence analysts and operatives (realists) with idealogues or ‘Yes’ men, then you’re in real trouble, especially when you compound that by actively bypassing existing systems/agencies to create an overridding ‘OSP’ and WHIG’, accountable to no-one, who’s reason for existence is to source uncorroborated intelligence to fit your agenda/objectives, even so far as to conduct ops and to fabricate meterial where necessary …
Chalabi was at least a double-agent, possibly even treble, when did he get ‘cut-out’ re Iraq ? Who was he linked to, the neocons ? He’s now happily a powerplayer in the Iranian-allied (non-US) Iraqi government …
As we discussed at the time and in a recent thread, the only beneficiary ‘long-term’, forget Haliburton & Co, in a strategic holistic sense, is Iran.
The US cannot succeed in Iraq. It will have to withdraw, eventually, that’s simply a question of time and ultimate cost.
The bad decisions were made by the neocons, and they were making thier long chain of bad decisions based on, what, exactly ?
Strongly held, well-fed beliefs, using intelligence cherry-picked and ‘provided’ by whom ?
Yet, Iraq, the previous impediment to Iranian influence in the ME and Central Asia is now solidly in its direct sphere of influence and the former natural allies of the US in Iraq, the Sunni’s, are now totally alienated and have somehow become our most dangerous foes (*smile*)… and at what cost to Iran, none. The ultimate irony is manipulating/influencing the neocons to spend US treasure, legitamicy and lives to accomplish it for them, thier greatest enemy, how ironic. And Irans allies are Russia and China … very much the ‘Great Game’ of Central Asia renewed …
The current Cabal in the WH go back a long ways, they are all veterans, interwined to one degree or another with Iran-Contra, etc.
Daddy Bush, Bush junior, and all the associated hangers-on, have been players behind the scenes for personal criminal benefit and thier vested-interests/backers whenever they’ve been in power … just more damaging than the Dems, who are generally better at presenting a more acceptable, ‘charming’ facade …
Military exchange programs, Intelligence exchange and co-operation programs, etc, in every instance whether with a long time ally or otherwise, have a secondary objective, and that is to identify and seed ‘Agents of Influence’, co-opt individuals and secure assets … we’ve been perfecting such techniques since the Italian elections after WWII … one of the reasons Venezuela will have nothing to do with our such programs … it comes in very handy when your guy eventually becomes a senior politician or a commanding General, i.e. policy and coups, or in the current instances the creation and planting of false raw source material which can be ‘laundered’ into ‘respectable’ intelligence …
And, no, I’m not a conspiracist, it just needs a tight-knit group with a common agenda working within much larger legitimate bureaucratic systems … like a cancerous cell … and Bushs fellow travellers and daddies veterans have significant proven experience in the field …
Watergate, the Church hearings, Iran-Contra did not turn the tide … and I personally doubt, against hope, that Fitzgerald will swing the tide towards new wave Fascism.
The recent, obviously, planted stories as of friday re “Rove heard about Plame from the media’ will be part of an ongoing series of manufactured stories fed into the MSM … any story relevant to these events has to be considered from the perspective of ‘What is the intent/angle’ of the article ?
Judith Miller has been consistantly feeding the MSM with, frankly propaganda bullshit, on behalf of the WH for far too long to be considered anything other than an ‘operative’ … hence why she would rather swing for contempt than testify … it doesn’t take a large number of Miller clones to release the necessary ‘stories’ into the ‘stream’ for the others to pick it up and run with it … though some of the best ‘plants’ are from the wire services themselves …

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 15 2005 23:56 utc | 57

I agree that the USA was a pawn in a bigger game. These players have no allegiance, but they are paranoid, and double crossing is the favorite activity. The neocons might have fallen into a trap.
Things are never what they appear. It seems that the issue might be about water and trade routes. Apparently it’s taking a large amount of water to create pressure to get the remaining oil out of the Saudi fields.
The end to this international game is not at all happening, but probably the actors are changing. We are dependent on them since we need the goods they deliver… the highways, railroads, gas wells, oil wells, pipelines have to be manned by someone and we have an ongoing contract with the elites.
Corruption is periodically rooted out, and tight fascist control is a matter of personal preference, nation to nation. It’s always about business, and it is always experimental.
People can still thrive within this system until change comes from deep within over a long period of time.

Posted by: jm | Jul 16 2005 0:22 utc | 59

Outraged- what I found interesting about those stories I noted above is that Newsweek notes that Franklin met with Ghorbanifar, and continued discussions with him after the Paris meeting…I don’t have my time frame clear…Paris meeting, Italy meeting..or were they at the same time?
And Laura Rozen notes that AIPAC was supposed to focus on Iran…building a case against them, I suppose…which looks to be what some of Ghorbanifar’s article is about…Osama, Saddam, and every terrorist in the world is in Iran…
And Franklin, who met with Ghorbanifar, and who passed along info to AIPAC, has been indicted (not by Fitzgerald…but makes you wonder whether the two investigations cross, considering the bigger players.)
While people point the finger at Israel all the time, (and rightly, if Kwiatkowski was telling the truth about Israeli Generals meeting with Wurmser, etc. w/o having to sign in before the Iraq invasion) the greater truth seems to be that Iran played the neocons in the “longer” game…something people also wonder about in relation to China and our national debt and their financial power.
But again, it’s interesting to note that quasi or real dictatorial factions in more than one country have the similar objective to maintain power via war…because war is state control over a population.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 16 2005 1:58 utc | 61

@jm – Greatly enjoy yr. posts, but would you pls. be clearer about yr. use of “they”. It’s not always clear who you’re referencing as there are many players.
Also, I’m having a problem w/this statement in yr. last post (8:28):
The neocons prepared for a long time for a fascist takeover and this was their one big chance. I don’t believe it’s possible given the personality of our country.
Don’t you see both sides preparing for a Totalitarian Police State? Why only the Cabal that seized power in ’00? It’s the xDems. who demanded & finally got the “dept. of ‘Homeland’ Security”. Further, when Bu$h tried to put a a vain strutting buffoon in to head it so it would remain essentially harmless, it was xDems. who objected that he was “incompetent, etc.” & insisted on a true monster, Negroponte, who’s run Torture States in Central America & from the looks of things was sent to Iraq long enough to get the death squads up & operating there.
However, I’d be delighted if you’d refute my supposition that Pirates want architecture of police state installed @home for when they pull the plug, as it were. By which I mean, it looks like there won’t be much democratic planning for a transition to a more resource scarce future, or open discussion of resource wars, so they want to be prepared.
Isn’t it more a tactical question of who will run it?…More on this later, I need to develop my thinking…have some dinner..relax..
Anyone have any knowledge on what Bimbo-in-Chief would be guilty of for knowing about/assenting to this operation to get Joe? He didn’t hire outside counsel for nothing.
Appointing Bolton to UN Ambass. is payback for his willingness to get Joe Wilson’s file @State w/the necessary info. Be interesting to see if they change their mind about giving him a recess appointment.
And in 10 days the Operation Expose 911 Brigades arrive at the National Press Club. That begins the complementary operation by the Wall Street side of this pincer to withdraw the popular acquisence & undermine the legitimacy from the regime, while Fitzgerald, representing the aggrieved parties in the apparatus of the National Security State, prepares formal charges, thereby showing the masses that it’s not hopeless – this admin. is not an immoveable object. Good co-ordination.
I hope barflies are moving closer to my position that a new Admin. is dawning…whether McCain will be VP, or Pres. seems the Major issue…assuming McCain can carry out his assignments correctly. Until I see radically shift in policy & personnel, the probabilities to me still favor Pres. McCain.
(Incidentally, it’s plausible Limbaugh might disappear from the airwaves around the same time to cool down the ideological environment a bit – whether thru jail time/halfway house inaccessibility, or sufficiently serious charges that his employer decides to take him off the air for awhile at least.)
Finally, don’t forget that Ted Olsen got the Clinton impeachment ball rolling – early meetings were at his house, etc., but he apparently really loved his wife & she was on one of Those Planes, so his loyalties could be uh…divided.

Posted by: jj | Jul 16 2005 3:05 utc | 63

Lastly, governments grow out of the germ plasm of the society. You can’t really impose a dictatorship. It has to come naturally from within as the people’s need dictates.

Posted by: jm | Jul 16 2005 4:07 utc | 65

John- I think the Straw (man) moment is where Chalabi and his aide come in, since, as noted above, they were feeding “Iraqi defectors” to make claims about weapons. That’s my guess, at least.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 16 2005 14:28 utc | 67

John- I see the Plame issue as one part of a bigger concern: the way that the administration knowingly lied to Congress (probably with their unspoken consent) and the American people (only half of them with consent) to invade another nation on false pretenses.
I think the DSMs play a part in this, as do Chalabi and Miller, Chalabi’s aide, Ghorbanifar, Ledeen, and these players lead to Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wurmser, Libby, Feith, Wolfowitz, and the rest of Team B at the Pentagon.
Not that they care, but their actions rise to the level of international war crime, imo.
As far as putting words in their mouths, I believe that you can go back and hear and read (Billmon did a great compilation on this a while back, in fact) about their “knowledge” of WMD, nuclear capacity, connections b/t Osama and Hussein and more…
If you think that Bush, etc. are going to raise the issue of their own attempts to build a false case for the invasion…uh, okay, I’ll look for a flying pig at the same time.
I certainly hope that Fitzgerald’s investigation has led him to Miller’s use of lies planted by Chalabi and used by Cheney…because to simply focus on Plame, while this may offer entry to a docile US public into a greater scandal, it does not deal with the real issue.
I’m not saying anything that has not already been said in one place or another. The US has a verbal “Reichstag Fire” moment right here, and if they are allowed to get away with all of this, then we can expect Iran will be next, and, frankly, I expect that nuclear weapons will be exchanged as an outcome of further aggression.
Who knows what sort of pact Iran and China have now, in the event of an attack by the US?
So, whatever your rationale…I still don’t get it.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 16 2005 19:55 utc | 69