Letter: Indictment could be tip of the iceberg

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

The indictment of the vice president's chief of staff on perjury and obstruction of justice charges regarding the "outing" of a CIA operative may be the first step in exposing the devious and underhanded mindset of the highest officials in the Bush administration. It is now obvious to all that they would have stopped at nothing to push ahead with their trumped-up Iraqi invasion plans.

The fact that they would expose a CIA agent's covert identity to get back at her husband for writing an article inconsistent with their misguided agenda shows a blatant disregard for the safety of the agent and the security of our country. Was any forethought given to how their actions might undermine the CIA's ability to recruit and guarantee the safety of future undercover agents?

Did the vice president spend his time at the CIA shaping the intelligence on Iraq to meet the administrations goals at the direction of the president? Was Dick Cheney acting on his own when he passed along the CIA agent's name to Scooter Libby for leaking to various news reporters?

If we are asked to believe that the president had no knowledge of the betrayal of the agent's identity, then we must assume that he has no control over a vice president who was engaging in conduct contrary to the secrecy oath he took that allowed him to possess classified information.

During the Nixon administration the Watergate burglary set off the discovery of many other episodes of misuse of power and corruption by government officials. Will the Libby indictment lead to more illegal activity within the Bush administration, or is it just a continuation of the ineptness of this president?

Either way, the world's view of the United States will continue to spiral downward for the next three years because of the poor performance of the current leadership.

Phil Ventura

Las Vegas