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  Monday 31st October 2005  World News   Powered by Yeast Logic
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Washington pundits rocked by 'Mushroom Card' rumpus

Scandal at the highest level of US government
by Regina Marracco

Washington, D.C. — Washington pundits are apparently "stunned" by the indictments handed down this week on I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the most inside "insider" of Vice President Dick Cheney's loyal posse and his Chief of Staff. The crimes alleged in the Federal Grand Jury probe include one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and two counts of giving false statements, but those are simply euphemisms for defending the war in Iraq at any cost. In a further startling development, Scooter resigned as the vice president's numero uno, in hope of forestalling any further investigation into the Vice President's part in the whole fiasco.

Lewis LibbyAt the center of the controversy is that Scooter disclosed the classified information that Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, worked for the CIA to various reporters, saying: "Don't say you heard this from me, but Dick wants you to know Valerie is a spook. Just say you heard it from 'a former Hill staffer'." The Special Prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, commented: "If you're asking me what his motives were, I can't tell you. But I think he may have been pissed off at Wilson."

As with most Washington fables, this one begins with a break-in; at the Nigerian embassy in Rome in 1991. The only thing taken was a quantity of official letterhead with "Republique du Niger" on the top and some postage stamps. Ten years later, an occasional informant brought documents to the Rome CIA Station Chief on official Nigerian letterhead, outlining a secret contract for the sale of uranium to Iraq. The Vice President received a briefing on the documents in February 2002, and requested authentication of the "transparently forged documents" from the State Department, who had previously said they had "serious doubts about their authenticity".

Wilson, a former ambassador who had good relations with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Mines, flew to Niamey, the Niger capital, on his wife's recommendation to the CIA's CounterProliferation Division. Wilson declared the reports bogus, and briefed the Vice President. However, the White House Iraq Group was preparing a "white paper" for release to the American public in the Summer of 2002, and used the information to claim that "Iraq sought uranium oxide from Africa" to bolster support for an invasion. Use of the Nigerian uranium sale became known to Cheney staffers as "invoking the mushroom card". Insiders who are still inside refuse to clarify if this phrase relates to "mushroom cloud" or "I must be a mushroom; I'm kept in the dark and fed bullshit", but all agree that it scared the hell out of the American public.

Both national security advisor Condoleeeezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell "invoked the mushroom card" on orders from the Oval Office. On orders from Vice President Cheney, President Bush also did in his State of the Union address on 28 January, 2003. Although the International Atomic Energy Agency declared the documents forgeries on 7 March, 2003, the Bush administration refused to admit that their primary evidence for invading Iraq was a fake.

An Op/Ed piece in the New York Times on 6 May, 2003 accused the Vice President of allowing the truth to go "missing in action" and "dressing really badly". The source of the leaks was Wilson. Scooter requested the classified account of Wilson's trip to Nigeria from the State Department, which led to the disclosure that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and had orchestrated his trip. According to a former Hill staffer: "For the Scootster, this really hit a nerve. Wilson was calling attention to a huge mistake the Vice President made. That had to be stopped."

On 6 July, Wilson fired the next salvo by giving an on the record interview with the New York Times, an interview with the Washington Post and an on-air appearance on "Meet the Press". Mr. Wilson debunked the uranium buy story, but refused to comment on the vice president's wardrobe.

The Vice President, again according to a former Hill staffer, but a really high one, launched an attack against Wilson's credibility, orchestrated by Ari Fleisher, the chief White House Press Officer, who said Wilson's trip was a "boondoggle" and that Wilson didn't dress that well either. These damning statements were followed by tips from Scooter and Karl Rove to Time Magazine, the New York Post, the Today Show and Soldier of Fortune magazine that Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, was a CIA operative. MSNBC's Chris Matthews admitted that he was told "Wilson's wife is fair game" by Scooter and Rove, despite the fact that it is a federal offense to disclose classified information or criticize the Vice President.

Investigations were launched by the Justice Department, the CIA, and Menswear Weekly. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a briefing that "Rowe, Libby and Elliot Abrams assured me they had nothing to do with the leak." The Vice President's second-in-command, President George Bush, gave an official statement, saying: " I'm not sure if we're gonna find the 'senior official' responsible. This is a really big administration, and there's a lot of 'senior officials who coulda done it'." He went on to reassure the public that the search for Nigerian uranium in Iraq, Iran and some other Arab countries continues and that Americans must continue to fear Muslims playing the "Mushroom card".

The demise of Scooter's political career still leaves open the question of why Vice President Cheney's staff used Wilson's wife to attempt to discredit him. Wilson himself called the outing "a punishment, a threat to his family's safety, and a deterrent to future whistle-blowers or critics of the vice president's wardrobe". Further indictments are expected.

Previously

 Go on then, hard man