KARL ROVE: WORSE THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN

KARL ROVE: WORSE THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN

By Ted Rall
Mon Jul 4, 7:00 PM ET



NEW YORK--In war collaborators are more dangerous than enemy forces,
for they betray with intimate knowledge in painful detail and
demoralize by their cynical example. This explains why, at the end of
occupations, the newly liberated exact vengeance upon their treasonous
countrymen even they allow foreign troops to conduct an orderly
withdrawal.

If, as state-controlled media insists, there is such a creature as a
Global War on Terrorism, our enemies are underground Islamist
organizations allied with or ideologically similar to those that
attacked us on 9/11. But who are the collaborators?

The right points to critics like Michael Moore, yours truly, and Ward
Churchill, the Colorado professor who points out the gaping chasm
between America's high-falooting rhetoric and its historical record.
But these bête noires are guilty only of the all-American actions of
criticism and dissent, not to mention speaking uncomfortable truths to
liars and deniers. As far as we know, no one on what passes for the
"left" (which would be the center-right anywhere else) has betrayed
the United States in the GWOT. No anti-Bush progressive has made
common cause with Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
or any other officially designated "terrorist" group. No American
liberal has handed over classified information or worked to undermine
the CIA.

But it now appears that Karl Rove, GOP golden boy, has done exactly
that.

Last week Time magazine turned over its reporter's notes to a special
prosecutor assigned to learn who told Republican columnist Bob Novak
that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. The revelation, which effectively
ended Plame's CIA career and may have endangered her life, followed
her husband Joe Wilson's publication of a New York Times op-ed piece
that embarrassed the Bush Administration by debunking its claims that
Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger. Time's cowardly
decision to break its promise to a confidential source has had one
beneficial side effect: according to Newsweek, it indicates that Karl
Rove himself made the call to Novak.


One might have expected Rove, the master White House political
strategist who engineered Bush's 2000 coup d'état and post-9/11
permanent war public relations campaign, to have ordered a flunky
underling to carry out this act of high treason. But as the Arab
saying goes, arrogance diminishes wisdom.

Rove, whose gaping maw recently vomited forth that Democrats didn't
care about 9/11, is atypically silent. He did talk to the Time
reporter but "never knowingly disclosed classified information,"
claims his attorney. But there's circumstantial evidence to go along
with Time's leaked notes. Ari Fleischer abruptly resigned as Bush's
press secretary on May 16, 2003, about the same time the White House
became aware of Ambassador Wilson's plans to go public. (Wilson's
article appeared July 6.) Did Fleischer quit because he didn't want to
act as spokesman for Rove's plan to betray CIA agent Plame? Another
interesting coincidence: Novak published his Plame column on July 14,
Fleischer's last day on the job.

If Newsweek's report is accurate, Karl Rove is more morally repugnant
and more anti-American than Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, after all, has
no affiliation with, and therefore no presumed loyalty to, the United
States. Rove, on the other hand, is a U.S. citizen and, as deputy
White House chief of staff, a high-ranking official of the U.S.
government sworn to uphold and defend our nation, its laws and its
interests. Yet he sold out America just to get even with Joe Wilson.

Osama bin Laden, conversely, is loyal to his cause. He has never
exposed an Al Qaeda agent's identity to the media.

"[Knowingly revealing Plame's name and undercover status to the
media]...is a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act
and is punishable by as much as ten years in prison," notes the
Washington Post. Unmasking an intelligent agent during a time of war,
however, surely rises to giving aid and comfort to America's
enemies--treason. Treason is punishable by execution under the United
States Code.

How far up the White House food chain does the rot of treason go?
"Bush has always known how to keep Rove in his place," wrote Time in
2002 about a "symbiotic relationship" that dates to 1973. This isn't
some rogue "plumbers" operation. Rove would never go it alone on a
high-stakes action like Valerie Plame. It's a safe bet that other,
higher-ranking figures in the Bush cabal--almost certainly Dick Cheney
and possibly Bush himself--signed off before Rove called Novak. For
the sake of national security, those involved should be removed from
office at once.

Rove and his collaborators should quickly resign and face prosecution
for betraying their country, but given their sense of personal
entitlement impeachment is probably the best we can hope for.
Congress, and all Americans, should place patriotism ahead of party
loyalty.