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Arash

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Nov 6, 2005, 9:46:19 PM11/6/05

Toronto Star
November 6, 2005

Beneath spy 'outing' lies story of lies about Iraq

By Linda McQuaig

If George W. Bush had announced, prior to invading Iraq, that his motive was to seize
Iraq's oil, to enhance Israel's power or to ensure U.S. military dominance of the
Middle East, none of these justifications would have satisfied the public.

Hence the need for a cover story, something sufficiently alarming to convince
Americans there was an urgent need to go to war. Claims that Iraqi dictator Saddam
harboured weapons of mass destruction seemed the best bet.

Concocting a cover story of this magnitude is not easy. But then the U.S. government
is not without resources.

Inside the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, a group of war-hawks, under the
direction of top Cheney aide Irv Lewis "Scooter" Libby
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Libby), operated as a secret war-planning
department, furnishing "evidence" of Saddam's non-existent arsenal.

The administration largely got away with this. Even after the invasion, the media and
the Democrats shied away from making a fuss over the fact that no weapons of mass
destruction were found. The blame, if any, was pinned on the CIA for its "faulty
intelligence".

Lewis Libby's team remained in the shadows, its fraud and deception largely unknown.

Ambassador Joseph Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C._Wilson) alone
threatened to blow its cover. He knew too much.

Specifically, he knew about a key piece of "evidence" touted by the Lewis Libby
team — a forged document purporting to show Saddam had tried to buy nuclear weapons
material from Niger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_forgery). Ambassador
Wilson had been sent to Niger by the CIA in 2002 to investigate the story. He quickly
concluded it was a crock, and reported that back to the administration.

So he was surprised to hear George W. Bush repeat the bogus Niger story in his 2003
State of the Union address, as a key justification for the imminent U.S. invasion of
Iraq.

Months later, Ambassador Wilson went public with the truth.

Suddenly, the spotlight seemed dangerously close to highlighting the war
disinformation spun by Lewis Libby's team.

The indictment brought down last month doesn't deal with any of this.

It simply charges Libby with lying to a grand jury about his apparent attempts to
discredit Wilson, by outing his CIA agent wife
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair).

But lurking beneath the outing-the-agent story lies the much bigger story — easily a
match for Watergate — of how a small cabal in the vice-president's office falsified
the case for a war that has already killed tens of thousands.

Whether that bigger story, and the role played by Cheney, emerges depends partly on
the media and the Democrats, which is not encouraging.

In a TV interview (October 28, 2005), top Democrat lawyer David Boies told CNN's Lou
Dobbs (http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/dobbs.lou.html) that he'd like to see
a deal worked out because if the Libby case goes to trial "a lot comes out" and "it
damages America".

Responded Lou Dobbs: "I'm like you. I would like to see this resolved so that it is
less injurious to the nation". http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0510/28/ldt.01.html

Richard Nixon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal) would have dreamed of
such an opposition.

* Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for
challenging the establishment. Winner of a National Newspaper Award for uncovering
the Patti Starr affair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Starr) in 1989
(http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_05.19.94/NEWS/prk0519.htm), she has written for
The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Maclean's magazine and Conrad Black's National
Post. For the past five years, her bi-weekly commentary on politics and economics has
aired on CBC Radio morning shows in most Canadian cities.

In 1991, McQuaig was awarded an Atkinson Fellowship for Journalism in Public Policy
to study the social-welfare systems in Europe and North America. That research became
the foundation for her 1993 bestseller, "The Wealthy Banker's Wife: The Assault on
Equality in Canada" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140230653).

Linda McQuaig's latest books are "It's the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight
for the Planet" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385660111), and "All
You Can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670872792).

Linda has also written "Behind Closed Doors: How the Rich Won Control of Canada's Tax
System" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670816787), and "The Quick
and the Dead: Brian Mulroney, Big Business and the Seduction of Canada"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670833053). In her 1995 bestseller,
"Shooting the Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670847674), she traced the real story
behind the deficit, and showed how social spending has been falsely blamed. "The Cult
of Impotence: Selling the myth of powerlessness in the global economy"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006FCARU), refutes the popular
notion that governments are powerless in the global economy to deliver full
employment and well-funded social programs.

Conrad Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black), her former employer, has
suggested on national radio that Linda McQuaig should be "horsewhipped".

Linda writes a weekly column for The Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com