by Larry C. Johnson (bio below)


Help me save the rightwing in America. As they struggle with the aftermath of Scooter Libby’s indictment, they are exhibiting denial and delusional thought patterns. Perhaps their behavior is a consequence of physical disabilities such as hearing loss or attention deficit disorder. How else to account for a rash of bizarre charges offered up to explain away Scooter’s legal troubles?


For starters, why can’t conservative talkers and bloggers accept the fact that Valerie Plame was undercover until exposed in Bob Novak’s column? Patrick Fitzgerald spoke in English and did not stutter when he said very clearly at the start of his press conference last Friday, “Valerie Wilson’s cover was blown”. You can only blow a cover if a cover exists. I can understand why Rush Limbaugh had trouble hearing this (he became deaf because he abused oxycontin). But what excuse does Sean Hannity and Max Boot have? Could it be that the whole right wing also is abusing oxycontin?


Then there is the claim that the law to protect intelligence identities could not have been violated because Valerie Wilson had not lived overseas for six years. Too bad this is not what the law stipulates. The law actually requires that a covered person “served” overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until exposed by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.


How about the charge that Joe Wilson lied because he denied that it was his wife who got him sent to Niger in February 2002 to check out claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium?

Ladies and gentlemen, pay close attention—CIA officials in July 2003 and in July 2005 have said on the record that Valerie Wilson played no role in the decision to send Joe Wilson to Niger. Although the Senate Intelligence Committee report from July of 2004 tried to insinuate otherwise, Valerie’s bosses asked her to write a memo outlining her husband’s qualifications for a mission to Niger and she introduced her husband at a meeting (and then left). She was an undercover case officer, not a manager with the authority to make such a decision.


Then there is the claim that Joe Wilson’s op-ed from July of 2003 was a pack of lies and misrepresented the truth. … continued below:
The right wing points to the Senate Intelligence Committee report of July 2004 to prove their point. I don’t dispute that the Senate report makes those claims, but the average reader does not know is that report is filled with critical mistakes and deceptions. For example, the report asserts that Wilson actually provided fresh details about a 1999 meeting between Niger’s prime minister and an Iraqi delegation that bolstered the case for a uranium buy. Not only does Wilson deny this, but the Senate report corroborates his denial by including testimony from the US Ambassador to Niger who states that she and Joe Wilson had reached the same conclusion—the allegation that Iraq was trying to buy uranium was not credible.


What is so bizarre is that the White House did admit that it was wrong to put the infamous 16 words into the State of the Union Address. Moreover, the much ballyhooed Senate Intelligence report cites repeated efforts by the intelligence community to warn the President’s advisors not to rely on the various intel reports, including those of the British, because they were not credible.


The right wing—including the Limbaughs, the Boots, and the Hannitys—are having trouble accepting these facts. Some right wing websites, for example, are circulating the claim that the United States actually has discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. These sites list biological agents and chemical weapons supposedly discovered in some squirrel hole in the Iraqi desert. Too bad the Bush Administration did not get the news bulletin. Given the bad news hitting George Bush during the last couple of weeks he could sure use some good news.


Meanwhile, Bush supporters have taken refuge in an Alice in Wonderland World where liars are truth tellers and truth tellers are liars. Unfortunately their venom is directed at Joseph Wilson and his wife, two Americans whose only “crime” is that they have served their country and tried to protect it from harm. If that makes one a criminal, count me in.

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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.