Legitimate questions have arisen about how remarks on alleged Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa made it into the President’s State of the Union speech. Let me be clear about several things right up front. First, CIA approved the President’s State of the Union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my Agency. And third, the President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound. These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.
CIA Director George Tenet
Press Statement
July 11, 2003
Consequently, I plead guilty to what directly follows from this, the sum total of crimes committed by this counter-revolutionary organization, irrespective of whether or not I knew of, whether or not I took direct part, in any particular act.
Soviet Official Nikolai Bukharin
Testifying at his show trial
August, 1936
I am fully and utterly guilty. I am guilty of having been the organizer, second only to Trotsky, of that bloc whose chosen task was the killing of Stalin . . . The party saw where we were going, and warned us; Stalin warned us scores of times; but we did not heed these warnings. We entered into an alliance with Trotsky.
Soviet official Gregory Zinoviev
Testifying at his show trial
August, 1936
The door opened. With a small gesture the officer indicated the skull-faced man."Room 101," he said.
There was a gasp and a flurry at Winston's side. The man had actually flung himself on his knees on the floor, with his hand clasped together.
"Comrade! Officer!" he cried. "You don't have to take me to that place! Haven't I told you everything already? What else is it you want to know? There's nothing I wouldn't confess, nothing! Just tell me what it is and I'll confess straight off. Write it down and I'll sign it -- anything! Not room 101!"
"Room 101," said the officer.
George Orwell
1984
He could not bring himself to hate No. 1 as he ought to. He had often looked at the color-print of No. 1 hanging over his bed and tried to hate it . . . The horror which No. 1 emanated, above all consisted in the possibility that he was in the right.
Arthur Koestler
Darkness at Noon
All malice has injustice at its end, an end achieved by violence or by fraud; while both are sins that earn the hate of heaven, since fraud belongs exclusively to man, God hates it more and, therefore, far below, the fraudulent are placed and suffer most.
Dante Alighieri
The Inferno, Canto XI
Sir,
That was beautiful, to add anything else would detract from its beauty :)
Welcome back, you've been missed. Congrats on anoyher beautiful series of quotes. It misses something from The Simpsons, I think,like "It's not me, I didn't do it, you can't prove I did it" (the Bart defense) but otherwise superb.
The Orwell quote is especially disturbing though nothing can beat a real life Stalinist mea culpa. If it were not for the stakes (Reuters is just reporting another U.S. death in Iraq) I might be able to enjoy the Bushies attempt to outdo the OGs of show trials . What is that about history unfolding first as tragedy and then as farce?
If you have not already listened to it go to NPR's website and download Sen. Rockefeller tear into Condi Rice for letting Tenet take the fall. Here's a highlight:
"It's just beyond me that she didn't know about this, and that she has decided to make George Tenet the fall person. I think it's dishonorable."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Love it.
Love your site.
Let me recommend yet another amazing anti-cult-of-personality classic that doesn't get enough attention:
Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We".
It puts Orwell to shame, really.
One thing that hasn't been touched on here is how Tenant's statement leaves Bush & Co. open to criminal proscecution.
Bush presenting dubious/fictious information to Congress in the SOTU was a felony. Go to: U.S. Code Search and look up 18 USC Sec. 1001. It says, in part and with emphasis added:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully -
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(deleted material)
(c) With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only to -
(1) administrative matters, including a claim for payment, a matter related to the procurement of property or services, personnel or employment practices, or support services, or a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch; . . .
The Constitution mandates the President deliver a State of the Union Address, "from time to time." The President may, at his choosing, deliver the information orally, but he must deliver it to Congress in writing as well. Ergo, the SOTU is "a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress."
Tenant's statement implies there was a conspiracy to violate 18 USC Sec. 1001, which is a violation of 18 USC Sec. 371 Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States. And the fact that Tenant knew this, or suspected it, concealed it, and did "not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States." leaves him liable for prosecution for misprision of felony, 18 USC Sec. 4.
Cheers!
...for prosecution for misprision of felony...
Who might bring such a charge? Could it be laid by a private citizen?
My avocation is music, and for my amusement over the years I've played in the orchestras for over 25 musicals, professional 'Equity' shows all the way down to the saddest community theater productions that you can imagine. That said, I know a drama queen when I see one. Comparing the Bush administration's pathetic rationionizations with epic deceit ala Orwell and Dante makes way too much of this bush-league (sorry) administration.
Granted, Tenent has, for some reason, wedged his sword hilt in the dirt and is leaning over the upright tip. Whether the pathetic cabinet dogpiles on his back remains to be seen.
Excellently done.
Amb. Wilson is the other edge of the sword.
In the Soviet context - the Andrei Sinyafsky-Yuri Daniel sixties' show trial of two writers accused of hiding anti-Soviet sentiments in their novels, a transcript of which was smuggled out and published in Encounter (before we learned that Encounter was receiving funding from the CIA)is the mirror opposite of the earlier show trials. Both authors were happy to point out that there was nothing hidden about their critique of Soviet society, and netiher was willing to apologize for anything. I can still remember the extraordinary way Sinyafsky (sp?) who had published under the name of Abraham Tertz, I believe, handled the opportunity he was given to make a statement - instead of defending himself he described the courtroom with great precision, as only a writer could, engraving on the reader's brain, a detailed picture of a place where human truth cannot exist. That description popped back into my mind through-out November/December of 2000, and it hasn't left since. BTW, both Daniel and Sinyafski went to prison and both survived.
Brilliant as always, Billmon.
Some things do not change... unfortunately. I am reminded of a wisdom offered by that most honourable of American souls, Henry David Thoreau, though its doubtful that many would take its heed.
"Our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end."
lupin,
How about:
"It takes two people to tell a lie; one to lie and one to listen"
-Homer
If the administration continues its "white is black and black is white" defense, next you'll be quoting Lewis Carroll.
You know what Billmon? You are awesome!
More to the point, is this meme getting out there in the media?... So far, I feel the traction is better than it was before, but not as good as we'd all like it to be... Am I right or wrong?
well done, billmon.
Lupin -
yes, the traction of the the Lies meme is better than before. It has legs for now, but its long-term survival is hard to predict. Fraud seemed to work rather painlessly for Enron...
Ari's replacement as WH spokesman starts the job tomorrow. I've read he is loyal above reproach, so we shall see how he spins the "news".
I, for one, believe nothing that comes out of the collective Georgian maw.
how sad.
Maybe we should ask the White House Press Minder to start each morning with a pledge to tell the truth.
Maybe we need to have Georgie sworn in before he tells us anything.
I would still have a hard time believing anything that any of these liars say.
Oh, so we are getting a new WH Press Minder? Did you say this guy was loyal... or truthful?
Rumsfeld gave a spectacular performance yesterday on "This Week". I've captured his meditation on the nature of truth and knowledge in a piece I call It's not known that it's inaccurate.
You're the best. That post was so good I had to call my husband over to read it - he's not into the blog thing but had to admit that this was wonderful. Well done! (as usual)
Kudos, Billmon! Very nicely done. And as someone else said, beautifully literary -- in the grandest tradition.
It's pretty hard to believe anything that comes from George or, well, anybody who works for him. The truth is buried under a big "W."
Just magnificent. And so damn literate, too.