Antiwar.com Blog

Lew Rockwell writes:

I know that Scooter Libby, like any high-ranking apparatchik, has blood on his hands. Still, I find it hard to celebrate his conviction. First, punishing anyone for the crime of naming a CIA spy violates the first amendment. Second, he was not accused of this offense, but of lying to the FBI, etc. about it. […]

If the Bush administration had wanted to repeal the Intelligence Identities Protection Act at any time before the Plame incident, thereby making us all a little bit freer in a way we’d probably never notice (and themselves much freer to lie us into war), they could have. Hell, the GOP controlled Congress at the time! It would’ve been a breeze. But they did not wish to decriminalize that behavior, or any other. Moreover, they would have thrown me or Lew under the goddamn prison had one of us done the revealing.

Second, the fact that Libby was convicted of perjury and such instead of mass murder, which he is certainly an accomplice to, should be filed under “Some Guys Have All the Luck.” It’s as if Charles Manson had simply been convicted of hate speech for carving that wacky swastika on his forehead: I’d be against the law, but I wouldn’t be out holding a candlelight vigil for the defendant. And since Scooter has the best lawyers money can buy and a sure pardon coming his way, now ain’t the time for anyone’s tears (except maybe Cheney’s).

John Mueller, professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats and Why We Believe Them and this great Foreign Affairs article, discusses the bogus “War on Terror,” the Fear Industry (public and private) and the waste and violations of rights that go along with them.

MP3 here. (59:24)

John Mueller holds the Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center, and is professor of Political Science, at Ohio State University where he teaches courses in international relations and is the author of a book analyzing public opinion during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, War, Presidents and Public Opinion and of Retreat from Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War which deals with changing attitudes toward war.

Mueller has also published Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War and Quiet Cataclysm: Reflections on the Recent Transformation of World Politics. His Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery was published in 1999.

Mueller has published scores of articles in such journals as International Security, American Political Science Review, Security Studies, Orbis, American Journal of Political Science, National Interest, Foreign Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Foreign Policy, as well as many editorial page columns and articles in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New Republic, Reason, Washington Post, and New York Times. He has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Nobel Institute in Olso, Norway.

Mueller is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also received several teaching prizes.

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As I was watching the Libby verdict come in on CNN, a legal analyst was explaining how Libby’s defense team will try to stall their client’s incarceration until the president issues a pardon, probably in January 2009. Incredulous laughter began bubbling up from some offscreen presence. The camera switched back to the young, African-American anchor, who,with genuine surprise in his voice, asked something to the effect of, “You mean Libby may never serve a day?”

I don’t know what was running through the anchor’s mind, but I wonder if it had anything to do with the number of people, disproportionately young and African-American, sitting in prison at this very moment for the heinous crime of possessing a dime bag. I wonder if he was marveling at the possibility of this rich, politically connected prick – who made his fortune getting other rich, politically connected pricks off the hook – never serving a day despite lying us into a war that has killed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people. I wonder…

Lest you get too distressed or indignant about Scooter Libby’s plight – i.e., being convicted by a jury of his peers for multiple violations of uncontroversial laws – take a minute to visualize the fenced-in golf course where Libby will likely do time (if he does any at all). Things could be worse.

It is encouraging that the jury found Scooter Libby guilty on most charges.

It will be amusing to watch the conservative elite howl that the verdict is a violation of their sacred right to rule by deceit.

If Libby turns state’s evidence to reduce his prison sentence, the White House could need roof repair real quick. Libby was nothing more than a tool of Dick Cheney.   Thus far, Cheney appears confident that all his falsehoods since 2001 are legally immune.

The Libby verdict highlights the role of institutional lying in DC.  Ironically, the front page of today’s Washington Post carries a story showing how the Democrats have chosen to protect themselves by gutting their resolution to withdraw troops from Iraq. The Post states, “The idea is to force Bush to abide by his own promises [on Iraq] but to make sure he remains responsible for conducting and ending the war.”

The Democrats have not yet formally announced that people who voted against the war last November can go screw themselves.

The Libby indictment is a reminder that Americans should be far more cynical about Washington.

Comments & counterpoints welcome at my blog here.

Craig Unger, contributing editor of Vanity Fair and author of House of Bush, House of Saud, explains the details of America’s march to war with Iran.

MP3 here. (52:15)