As most of you are aware President Bush commuted ‘Scooter’ Libby’s prison sentence of 2.5 years. The media has focused on not only this order by the President but over the past few months on the entire CIA Leak and grand jury investigation in which Scooter Libby has been involved. Libby was convicted of obstructing justice in a federal probe of the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity.
This all started when Valerie Plame Wilson’s husband published an Op-Ed in the New York Times, ‘What I Didn’t Find in Africa.’ Mr. Wilson makes the claim that after visiting Africa some of the intelligence used to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Michael Novak then wrote a response to Mr. Wilson’s Op-Ed, ‘Mission to Niger,’ where he rebutted Wilson’s findings and exposed the identity of his wife. So all this resulted in grand jury investigations, in which Libby was found guilty of obstructing justice by lying to the grand jury about how he acquired and subsequently released information concerning the employment of Valerie Plame Wilson.
So why would President Bush commute Libby’s sentence. To help out a friend, to pay back a favor. That’s not my conclusion, I don’t believe elected officials would blatantly put themselves in such a situation unless it was in their complete self-interest. So what self-interested motivation would President Bush have to commute Libby’s sentence. One possibility is the executive branch now is asked questions about Bush’s Libby Order, as opposed to questions about the justification of the War in Iraq. This is the simple application of a Red Herring, taking the focus away from an important question to one that is less important. Do we as citizens really care more about Bush’s Libby Order which affects one mans life for 2.5 years or the justification of a the War in Iraq that we all have to pay for and has killed over 3,600 and wounded over 26,000 members of our military.(Iraq Casualties) Which one should we care about?
Technorati Tags: CIA Leak, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame Wilson, What I Didn’t Find in Africa, Mission to Niger, President Bush, Red Herring, War in Iraq, Iraq Casualties