In his Veteran's Day Speech today, Bush ratcheting up the treason talk, accusing his Iraq war critics of undermining the war effort and endangering our troops.
It doesn't wash. A far better case can be made that Bush's own lieutenants in the Defense Department are the ones who have committed treason by passing secret information to Iran:
The head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), Ahmed Chalab, is largely known to the public as a con-man, who America paid more than $100 million to "mislead" our government into war with Iraq, or more simply, to help convince us - the people - that Iraq was a threat, with cooperation from certain members of our government.
Chalabi, however, is more than a poor little rich con-man and his organization, the INC, is more interested in the dealing of intelligence and arms than in championing purple fingers.
In June of last year, The White House gave the order for Chalabi's house to be raided, as well as the offices of the INC and homes of other INC members because Chalabi and pals were passing US secrets to Iran.
[snip]
If Chalabi is an enemy of the United States and the Constitution defines TREASON as giving aid and comfort to the enemy, then would it not be clear also that anyone giving aid and comfort to Chalabi is committing an act of TREASON against the United States?
Again, I will venture a yes
Mental Running:
If the Feith-Rummy-Cheney trifecta is paying Chalabi stipends (that American citizens can only dream of) and hosting him, meeting with him, and giving him cover from authorities while he is in the United States and while abroad, then are they committing TREASON?
Last summer, the FBI began investigating exactly how state secrets were passed to Iran through Chalabi:
The FBI has begun interviews to determine who might have told Chalabi that U.S. intelligence officials had intercepted and cracked secret Iranian codes for transmitting classified information, according to one of the officials.
The investigation is deemed especially sensitive because it is likely to involve questioning officials from other government agencies, including the Pentagon, who might have had access to the information. In such cases, it is common for officials to comment to reporters only if they are not identified.
That investigation, for reasons unknown, has gone nowhere:
As Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi arrives this week in Washington for talks, there is little sign of progress in a federal investigation of allegations that he once leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran.
More than 17 months after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice publicly promised a full criminal inquiry, the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn't interviewed Mr. Chalabi himself or many current and former U.S. government officials thought likely to have information related to the matter, according to lawyers for several of these individuals and others close to the case.
The investigation of Mr. Chalabi, who had been a confidant of senior Defense Department officials before the war in Iraq, remains in the hands of the FBI, with little active interest from local federal prosecutors or the Justice Department, these people said. There also has been no grand-jury involvement in the case.
A fair surmise: Bush is accusing his critics of treason in order to deflect legitimate accusations of treason against his own top officials.
