The third time can be a charm or an out. When it comes to the Bush Administration’s mishandling of security information the jury is in–throw the bums in jail. Today’s news detailed in Leslie’s post below describes how the Bush Administration’s eagerness to brief Faux News resulted in blowing a private sector operation to track Al Qaeda. But this ain’t the first time. And on what basis can any reasonable person believe that Bush and company actually give a rat’s ass about protecting classified info or punishing those who compromise secrets?
Valerie Plame Wilson anyone? The Bush Administration tossed around her name and the identity of her cover company–Brewster Jennings–as part of a deliberate strategy to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for having the audacity to tell the American people the truth about the lies George W. Bush told in ginning up a case for war in Iraq. Security be damned. They had some politicking to do.
But they did not stop to rest on their laurels. Hell no! The Presidential campaign beckoned. On the eve of the Republican presidential convention in 2004, the Bush Administration compromised a key Al Qaeda operative who was helping the Brits and us track Al Qaeda’s computer activities. As I wrote back in 2005:
I also seem to recall that the Bush White House used leaks in the midst of the 2004 Presidential campagin to burnish the President’s image and keep Americans on edge. Remember the name of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan? His name was leaked to the New York Times in August of 2004 while Khan was still cooperating with Pakistani, CIA, and British authorities as part of a sting operation against Osama bin Laden’s network. On the eve of the Republican convention, unnamed senior NSC officials told New York Times reporters that Mr Khan was being used to send e-mails to al-Qaida members as part of a coordinated effort to identify and dismantle terrorist networks. Just because this leak destroyed the secret program’s effectiveness was no big deal because he helped remind Americans that George Bush was the only one who could keep us safe.
And now the Bin Laden tape. At some point the American people must acknowledge that if this pack of buffoons in the White House cared half as much about tracking down and eliminating terrorists as they do about sharing secrets with the media there would be no war on terrorism. Bin Laden and his buddy, Dr. Zawahiri, would be dead or in jail.
But that is not the case. These clowns use classified and sensitive information to satisfy cheap political objectives and, in the process, are putting American lives at risk and undermining the ability of our intelligence officers to recruit spies and assure them we can keep secrets. Impeachment anyone?
