ROBERT PARRY
Parry, a former reporter for The Associated Press and Newsweek, has written a number of books about Washington politics including, most recently, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq. He said today: “President Bush’s decision to spare Scooter Libby from jail time represents the final step in a cover-up that began four years ago when Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top officials launched a campaign to discredit an American citizen for daring to question Bush’s case for war in Iraq. That campaign involved the leaking of classified information, the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, destroying her career and putting the lives of her agents at risk. That criminal act was followed by lies to the public and an organized cover-up. By commuting Libby’s sentence, Bush now has made sure that Libby will keep his mouth shut and that the full story will never be told.” Parry is the founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com.
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ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN
Holtzman is a former Congresswoman and was the district attorney of Brooklyn; she was a member of the House panel that voted to impeach Richard Nixon. She is co-author of the book The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens. She said today: “The commutation undoes the simple application of justice. It’s just one more example of how this administration believes that the president and his team can violate the law with impunity.”
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LARRY JOHNSON
Johnson has worked as a CIA intelligence analyst and State Department counter-terrorism official. He has known Valerie Wilson since they trained together in 1985. He is now a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He said today: “The commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence represents a tacit endorsement of the obstruction of justice perpetrated by the Bush administration as a whole. Despite promising to remove any official implicated in the leak of the name of a covert CIA officer, George Bush walked away from his pledge and allows Karl Rove to continue to hold security clearances. The Libby get-out-of-jail card is another sign that George Bush cares nothing about the law or the security of this nation.”
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For more information, contact the Institute for Public Accuracy at (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan at (541) 484-9167.