Lies, Damned Lies, And The Bushies

Remember back in the innocent days of the Clinton administration, when it wasn't about the sex, it was about the lying? Yeah, we remember those days too.

Also, it was about the children, and the drastic warping thereof upon exposure to the gory details of blowjobs and sperm-coated dresses. Not that we want to inflict such issues on young children, but we submit that more adults have learned rather warped attitudes about sex because everything was made out to be so terrible and naughty and secretive, than because they overheard a term and asked a supposedly responsible adult for some clarification, without the attendant snickers and gestures of the schoolyard.

Anyway, all that's so last millennium. Apparently there is no cognitive disconnect in explaining the chronic pants-on-fire dynamic of this entire miserable administration. The latest entry in the flaming-trousers sweepstakes is the disclosure of the fact that we lied to our Asian allies about North Korea's nuclear capabilities and ambitions, while simultaneously protecting the real culprit -- once again, our good buddies Pakistan.

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

Remember also after 9/11, the big outcry was over the supposed lack of coordination, communication, and ground-level data within our intelligence agency network (which comprises fifteen distinct intelligence agencies at this point. Paranoid much?). Again, as with Iraq, inconvenient or non-existent data are simply rearranged, memory-holed, or fabricated as needed.

Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states.

The Bush administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, instead left allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings omitted essential details about the transaction, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said in interviews. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbors and the United States.

In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks today in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea.

So let's get this all straight -- we want our allies to work with us, so we deliberately lie and fabricate intel data, and feed them that shit sandwich. Meanwhile, the country that actually did the dirty deed faces no consequences whatsoever. This has been going on for quite some time, and it's a very dangerous hypocrisy. A.Q. Khan has been responsible for who knows how much nuclear proliferation, not just to rogue states like Libya, but very possibly to terrorist cells and networks.

But we don't know for sure, because Pakistan won't let us interrogate him. Indeed, he's a hero in Pakistan, whose massive population seethes with resentment at the US, and teems with militant Islamist gangs who have tried to assassinate Pervez Musharraf several times.

This is not a little white lie, folks. This is compromising national security to dance with the devil, and further alienate valuable allies in a very stupid and needless fashion.

The new details follow a string of controversies concerning the Bush administration's use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. In the run-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003, the White House offered a public case against Iraq that concealed dissent on nearly every element of intelligence and included interpretations unsupported by the evidence.

A presidential commission studying U.S. intelligence is reviewing the case, as well as judgments on Iran and North Korea. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also is reviewing evidence on nuclear, chemical and biological programs suspected in Iran and North Korea.

Gee, are we starting to see a pattern here? This is the same team of geniuses that's currently trying to get you to exchange Social Security for a sack of magic beans.

Since Pakistan became a key U.S. ally in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, the administration has not held President Pervez Musharraf accountable for actions taken by Khan while he was a member of Musharraf's cabinet and in charge of nuclear cooperation for the government.

"The administration is giving Pakistan a free ride when they don't deserve it and hurting U.S. interests at the same time," said Charles L. Pritchard, who was the Bush administration's special envoy for the North Korea talks until August 2003.

"As our allies get the full picture, it doesn't help our credibility with them," he said.

Exactly. Guess Pritchard's gonna be looking for work soon.

The United States tried to persuade North Korea to return to the talks, but without success. The North Korean leadership responded with a list of conditions, including a demand that Rice apologize for calling it an "outpost of tyranny."

During the first stop on her Asian tour, Rice used noticeably softer language on North Korea, telling a Tokyo audience that the U.S. offer was open to negotiation, and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il should grab the opportunity.

We've already commented on the cult-like regime of Kim Jong Il, and have no illusions about the nature of that regime, nor about those of Libya or Pakistan (or the rest of the Middle East, for that matter). But the problem is that we're repeatedly insisting on help from our allies on this (and other matters, like, um, Iraq) and we keep bullshitting them about it. And we keep giving a truly dangerous regime that has already harmed us -- and continues to harbor the bastard that masterminded 9/11 -- a free pass.

Could there be a clearer indication that this administration has no concept or desire for anything remotely resembling true accountability?