Friday, October 28, 2005

The Cabal's First Casualty: Scooter Libby Indicted, Resigns; Cheney in Trouble

The indictment of Scooter Libby on five felony charges marks the fall of one of the founding members of the cabal that has hijacked U.S. foreign policy.

In 1992, Libby, along with Paul Wolfowitz, while both were working for then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, came up with a draft Defense Policy Guidance document.

This draft was so hawkish that then-President George H.W. Bush demanded that it be withdrawn. But it basically sketched the outlines of the current Bush policy.

The document said it was imperative that the United States deter "potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role,” and it endorsed a policy of “preemptive military intervention." It scorned the U.N., and it said the U.S. should use military power to protect "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil."

Libby was also one of the original signatories to the statement of principles of the Project for the New American Century.

He also signed on to the September 2000 report of the Project for the New American Century, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” That’s the notorious one that mentions how difficult it would be to drastically increase Pentagon spending and to act unilaterally “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.”

Libby, Wolfowitz, and Cheney were among the chief proponents of the war against Iraq.