The Spin Cycle: Countering The Bush Disinformation Machine With The Truth
OpEdNews.com by Anthony Wade The GOP-bought disinformation spin machine is in hyperdrive
right now over the Valerie Plame Treasongate so it is crucial that we all keep
focused and remember the salient points, lest we get confused with the smoke
and mirrors being brought out to distract and confound. These are the facts.
1) Under section 421 of the Intelligence Identities
Protection Act, the disclosure of “ANY INFORMATION identifying a covert agent”
is illegal.
2) In the released Cooper email, it is quite clear that Karl
Rove stated that Joseph Wilson’s wife was an agent working for the CIA on WMD.
The rest of [what] you are hearing is nothing but
window dressing to distract you from these two facts.
Now to the spin:
Spin-Cycle # 1 – Valerie Plame was not covert.
This is rapidly becoming a favorite of the noise machine.
They have trotted out such proof that Joe Wilson actually went out in public
with his wife. Their evidence also now includes that Valerie Plame commuted to
work. Wow. Let us clarify for the truly dense. The accusation is not that Karl
Rove let a reporter know that Joe Wilson had a wife, but that his wife was an
UNDERCOVER AGENT! The fact of the matter is Valerie Plame most definitely WAS a
covert operative, as detailed here by someone who went to spy school with her.
As Mr. Johnson points out, Ms. Plame was a non-official
cover agent, or a NOC. Anyone who saw the Mission Impossible movie with Tom
Cruise will remember that the “NOC List” was the subject of the plot, where
Cruise was trying to keep this secret information out of the hands of the bad
guys. Too bad Karl Rove apparently missed the movie.
Spin-Cycle # 2 – Karl Rove never leaked her name.
This one is designed to sound so simplistic that people
might walk away in disbelief, not realizing they just got snookered. Referring
back to the law that was violated, her name does not have to be leaked, only
“ANY INFORMATION identifying a covert agent”. I think it is reasonable to say
that Rove certainly identified Ms. Plame, specifically as an agent for the CIA.
The fact is that this should not be a surprise. In 1992, Karl
Rove was dismissed from the re-election campaign of George H. W. Bush because
he was caught leaking information intended to smear a political opponent to a
national columnist. That national columnist was Robert Novak.
(click here to read about spin cycles #3 – #10).
There will be a meeting with Congressman Jim Leach and members of Iowans for Better Local TV (IBLTV) on Monday, July 18 from 9:00 am to 10:00 am at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room B.
There will be presentations by IBLTV members followed by some remarks by Congresman Leach, and then a brief Q & A period.
Click here to
join Iowans for Better Local
TV (IBLTV)
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