This week, the Justice Department is beginning a criminal investigation focused on senior White House officials who may have blown the cover of a CIA operative. While the Justice Department probe is necessary, it is time for either an independent counsel to investigate or for the White House to come clean.
In July, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he contradicted some of the intelligence from the White House regarding Iraq's alleged nuclear potential. Wilson claimed a deal for nuclear material between Iraq and Niger did not exist, as members of George Bush's administration had stated, and that he had personally informed the office of Vice President Dick Cheney months before the allegation appeared in Bush's State of the Union address. After his article was printed, columnist Robert Novak wrote that Wilson's wife was responsible for sending her husband on the trip, and named her as a CIA operative. He claimed that two senior White House officials contacted him with the information, but has since changed his story to suggest that he was not called specifically with the information.
The CIA conducted a probe and found that other administration officials accused two White House officials of breaking the law. This week, the CIA turned over the information to the Justice Department and requested an investigation. The story has snowballed over the past few days and has since dominated White House press sessions. Press Secretary Scott McClellan was unable to provide answers about the alleged leak, however, and the ones he did give were more troubling than he intended.
Aside from the issue that the alleged information leak about Wilson's wife is serious breach of national security, the repeated stonewalling efforts by the White House are also disturbing. The law clearly states that "whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact." The White House needs to be concerned with this sort of breach and take appropriate actions.
Several reporters and prominent Democrats have pointed out a potential conflict of interest in the fact that an investigation is being conducted only by the Justice Department, since Bush directly appointed Attorney General John Ashcroft. There have been calls for an independent counsel investigation, and The Spectrum views this as a clear necessity for an impartial and thorough investigation. If an independent counsel was used to investigate Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances and real estate deals completed before he entered office, surely one is needed now.
The bottom line is that two senior White House officials appear to have gone out of their way to discredit a clandestine officer for no reason other than revenge and to attempt to prevent other officials from speaking out against the administration's evidence for a war with Iraq.
It is time for President Bush to take responsibility for the actions of his staff. An independent counsel must be appointed, and the White House needs to be as forthcoming as possible. Those that place revenge over national security and use their power for petty political gain deserve no place in our government.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
