Elliott Abrams: Bush made ‘a serious mistake’ in failing to pardon Libby.»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/15/elliott-abrams-pardon-libby/

Elliott Abrams: Bush made ‘a serious mistake’ in failing to pardon Libby.»


Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Ruthie Liebowitz reports on an interview she did with her brother-in-law, Elliott Abrams — Bush’s former Deputy National Security Adviser. Abrams, a leading neoconservative, pled guilty for illegally withholding information from Congress regarding the Iran-Contra affair, but was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. In the interview, Abrams said President George W. Bush made a serious mistake in failing to pardon Scooter Libby:

As for Scooter, I really don’t know. I think it was a serious mistake on the president’s part not to have pardoned him.

Abrams is the second figure from Bush’s inner circle to criticize him over Libby. Vice President Cheney disclosed last month that he “strong believe{d}” Libby deserved a pardon, and “obviously disagree{d}” with Bush’s decision. (HT: Steve Clemons)


Update: Some other highlights from the interview:

-- On Middle East peace process: "I was the resident skeptic."

-- On whether Bush would bomb Iran: "It's hard to remember what I believed about that in, say, at some date in 2002 or 2003. But I did not really believe it in the second term."

-- On Iraq withdrawal: "The war in Iraq is being won, and we will be able to leave - though I would have us leave a lot more slowly than the new administration would."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Eliot Abrams has all the credibility of Richard Nixon.

[shraby]

2. Eliot Abrams, Yer out of line!!!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Yeah, well,

he would know all about pardons, wouldn't he?

Don't these scum ever go away and shut up?

[CoffeeCat]

4. Another neocon jerk...

flapping his jowls.

Do these people actually believe that they have any credibility?

I wouldn't swap cookie recipes with this kook--let alone ask him for advice on politics and international affairs.

Why do they speak when no one cares?

[Solly Mack]

5. A piece of shit says what?

[Zen Democrat]

6. The Cheney team is terrified that Libby will eventually talk.

[bridgit]

7. Elliott Abrams seems to have little understanding of just how cut throat the Bush family is...

when they feel they have been played to the detriment of their family name & legacy

[Peace Patriot]

8. Reading the entrails here, I would guess that Cheney-Rumsfeld made a VERY

serious mistake in fucking with the CIA. (--outing Plame and network; demanding 'cherry-picked' intel; setting up a separate shop--Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans"; and then trying to blame the CIA for "bad intel"). This set off a bloody war within our government. It came to a head circa Katrina ('05), behind the scenes. Daddy Bush intervened, with his "Iraq Study Group," etc. (--of which Leon Panetta was a member; and anybody who thinks Panetta is a civilian needs to re-think that notion). Rumsfeld was ousted. Nuking Iran (that insanity) got taken "off the table" (along with impeachment of the principles). And the multiple disasters that Bush Jr was facing (including jail) got mitigated (a "dignified" exit). The people running our secret government are not happy with Cheney, Rumsfeld and their gang of armageddonists and mind-boggling thieves (though they appear to have immunized the principles from prosecution in this country). Thus, no pardon for Libby. And you gotta wonder if this statement by Elliot Abrams--about Jr making a "mistake" in not pardoning Libby--is in the nature of a threat.

The following statement is also worth examining:

"It's hard to remember what I believed about that in, say, at some date in 2002 or 2003. But I did not really believe it in the second term."

Hard to remember what he believed about nuking Iran in 2002/2003?! What a whopper! This lie is compounded by his framing the statement as if he were a passive onlooker. I think we can gather from this that he was an active, hardline, advocate of nuking Iran, and was therefore one of the targets of Daddy Bush and the ISG. And, of course, during Bush-Cheney's second junta, the mad faction was curtailed. ("I did not really believe it in the second term.")

We might want to give some thought to what a threat by Elliot Abrams might involve. Don't pardon Libby and...what? (One possibility that springs to mind is Israel nuking Iran, in a rogue action--of the kind Rumsfeld loves--to upset the card table completely, don radiation suits and profit from the carnage.)

[Shakespeare]

9. Elliott Abrams is a fucking piece of shit who should still be in prison.

Fucking asshole.

[Dr.Phool]

10. He might still be.

That's why, in his mind, Scooter should have been pardoned. Now they have leverage in a new investigation.

Elliot, meet Bubba.

[Crabby Appleton]

11. K&R