JUSTICE
: Crime & Scandal | October 18, 2005
IRAQ,
LNG, CREDIBILITY:
AS
PLAME
WAS
LOSING
HER
COVER,
CHENEY
WAS
LOSING
HIS
POWER
First
in a Four-Part Series
By
Douglas Drenkow, Editor of "Progressive
Thinking" As
Posted in "GordonTalk",
"Comments
From Left Field", &
"OpEdNews"
As the office of
the Vice President of the United States has become the
focus of Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's
investigation into the Valerie Plame Affair, the question
most asked by the pundits and populace at large is "Will
Cheney be indicted?"
However, the
questions that seem to be most on the mind of Fitzgerald are
"Why would the Vice President order his chief of staff, I.
Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, and Presidential hatchetman, Karl Rove,
to expose the identity of a covert CIA operative? Was this
simply an attempt to discredit an Administration critic? Or was
there more to it than that?"
While it is true
that Richard "Dick" Cheney has been called the
most vindictive man in Washington, he did not achieve the
reputation as "the
most powerful Vice President in history" -- even the
de facto Prime Minister of the Bush Administration (although
"C.E.O. of Geo. W. Inc." might be more appropriate) --
by being as reckless with his position of power as he has been
with statements of WMD "fact".
No, this
uncharacteristically ham-fisted action -- of exposing a CIA
operative, which would predictably, and did ultimately, provoke
a firestorm of criticism, including accusations of everything
from obstruction of justice to treason -- smacks of an act of
unmitigated desperation, by someone in power cracking under
enormous stress, like President Richard "Dick" Nixon,
three decades ago.
And in June and July of 2003, when Libby and Rove and perhaps
others in the Administration were leaking the CIA identity of
Valerie Plame to Judith Miller of The New York Times, Matthew
Cooper of Time magazine, columnist Robert Novak, and others in
the media, Dick Cheney was under incredible pressure from
various quarters, both foreign and domestic; and the drastic
action of outing Agent Valerie Plame -- and thus her CIA front
company, Brewster Jennings -- must have been seen as having the
effect of relieving a goodly amount of this pressure, at least
from the perspective of the beleagured Vice President.
Consider not only
the conventional wisdom for why Plame was outed -- to discredit
her husband, Joseph Wilson, and his criticism of the
intelligence that took us into the war that Cheney championed
more than anyone else -- but also two other motivations much
less reported but of at least equal importance to the Vice
President, former C.E.O. of energy-services company Halliburton
Inc., a man for whom power is his stock in trade.
In June and July
of 2003, such major
American energy companies as ExxonMobil were scrambling to
salvage historic, multi-billion-dollar deals that had just gone sour with the Saudi national
energy company, Aramco, for some of the world's largest reserves of
natural gas -- which, particularly as globally transportable
Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, is considered by energy insiders as
the most profitable energy resource for the 21st Century -- and
cutting Brewster Jennings, the eyes and ears of the CIA in
Aramco, out of the picture would do nothing but simplify
matters. But that wouldn't change the fact that these
once-in-a-lifetime deals had gone bad on the watch of, and despite the good
offices of, Vice President Dick Cheney, the American energy
industry's chief representative in the federal government.
Overall, Mr.
Cheney's credibility -- the coin of the realm for a person in
his position of power, both in business and in government -- was
effectively being called into serious question by the public at
large; by his corporate colleagues in his still barely secret
Energy Task Force; and even by his good friend, confidant, and
fellow de facto prime minister, then-Crown Prince Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia.
June
through July of 2003 was a
most desperate time indeed: As Valerie Plame was losing her
cover, Dick Cheney was losing his grip on power.
Next -- The
Conventional Wisdom: Trying in Vain to Salvage the Hostile Takeover of
Iraq
Then -- The Inside
Story: Trying in Vain to Salvage the Historic Saudi LNG Deals
Finally -- The Bottom
Line: Trying in Vain to Salvage Dick Cheney's Credibility
Return to
Archive of JUSTICE: Crime & Scandal
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