Is Civil War Coming?

Following up on the last post about Judith Miller, Wayne Madsen has some interesting speculations as to the significance:

It is clear that Miller was the missing link in Fitzgerald's criminal probe of the leak that a number of CIA insiders have told this editor was "devastating" to the agency. Miller's attorney claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a target of the leak probe, had released her from a confidentiality pledge. But that agreement had already been reported months ago. Something has changed. A former Justice Department prosecutor told this editor that Fitzgerald is the type of prosecutor who starts low in the food chain and works his way up to nab the big fish. Fitzgerald is said to have, very early on in the case, "flipped" John Hannah, Libby's deputy.

One possible explanation for the sudden turn of events regarding Miller and Libby is
that Fitzgerald may have also "flipped" Libby as a witness. A promise of limited immunity to Libby would have cleared the way for testimony from Miller on what she discussed with Cheney's chief of staff. That means the ultimate target of Fitzgerald could be Cheney.

There's an interesting footnote to the Cheney family's recent activities. Lynne Cheney was recently spotted at a Washington, DC Pottery Barn buying items for the Cheney's new $2.7 million house in St. Michael's on the eastern shore of Maryland. The Cheneys will be close neighbors of the Rumsfelds.

Dick Cheney recently had surgery on two aneurysms behind his knees, thus taking him out of the public spotlight more than is the usual case. The Soviet leadership, which the Bush administration has striven so much to emulate, used to exile their sacked leaders to dachas in the countryside. Might the same thing be in store for a Vice President named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the CIA leak case? A quick resignation prior to the 2006 elections and replacement by a Rudy Giuliani or George Pataki, or [shudders] Jeb Bush? And, of course, in traditional GOP fashion, a presidential pardon of unindicted co-conspirator Cheney (a la Gerald Ford and unindicted Watergate co-conspirator Richard Nixon).

Interesting also is the unintended juxtaposition of Madsen’s previous post about Blackwater USA:

Blackwater USA represents a return to "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." According to a knowledgeable political insider in Washington, the private military contractor Blackwater USA has close ties to the Christian Right. … Blackwater's CEO and co-founder is Michigan-based Erik D. Prince, an ex-US Navy SEAL, an heir to an automobile parts corporate fortune, a former intern for President George H. W. Bush, and a contributor to such right wing Republicans as recently indicted Tom DeLay. Prince also has strong political links to Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, one-time GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a political action committee called "Restoring the American Dream," (whose board of directors included Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Robert Bork, former Rep. Steve Largent, Domino's Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, North Carolina Rep. Sue Myrick [appointed to the Joint Congressional "Review" panel for Hurricane Katrina relief], and former Rep. J. C. Watts) and, more interestingly, current House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) chairman Peter Hoekstra, who has been pressuring the CIA to accept more intelligence from HPSCI sources. The close connection between Hoekstra and Blackwater, a company that advertises its own intelligence gathering services: "Our mission is to provide the client with veteran military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals with demonstrated field operations performance tempered with mature experience in both foreign and domestic requirements," should be of concern to non-politicized and career U.S. intelligence professionals.

Blackwater maintains the largest private military training facility in the United States. Located on an abandoned U.S. military base at Moyock, North Carolina on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp near the North Carolina-Virginia border, Blackwater's Security Consulting subsidiary attracts military and paramilitary trainees from around the country and the world. Former Chilean and Honduran military personnel have been trained at Moyock prior to deployment to Iraq. What is even more attractive for the Bush administration and Blackwater is the fact that, as a private company, Blackwater is far removed from oversight by government inspectors general, Freedom of Information Act requests, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and snooping reporters.

Let’s recap. The pieces on the chessboard are starting to surround Bush-Cheney, starting from the outside moving in. It now appears much more likely that Cheney will be indicted for the Plame scandal. As we mentioned in the previous post, there are even rumblings around the whole Diebold issue, which could be THE biggest scandal in American political history if it turns out that proof can be had that the last three elections were stolen. DeLay has already been indicted and Frist may be next.

Now, add this to the picture: Paul Craig Roberts today claims that Bush is planning to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran and maybe North Korea. One hopes that such plans will occasion horror in the uniformed Pentagon leadership. Add to that the overturning of Posse Comitatus occasioned by Katrina wherein the Pentagon will now take over control of internal policing, disaster control and state militias (the National Guard are supposed to be under the command of State Governors under the U.S. Constitution). That last fact points to a military coup. As the httpSigns of the Times speculated:

“Military officials told President Bush on Sunday that the U.S. needs a national plan to coordinate search and rescue efforts following natural disasters or terrorist attacks...” Now it isn't the Bush administration that wants federal coordination of relief efforts after major disasters, it's the military leaders who are requesting that power for their bosses in Washington.

Now the question becomes, who will control the military. Will the Bush Crime Family be the victims or the beneficiaries of the military coup? It is now seeming more likely that it will be the victim, since the Pentagon brass is furious about the Iraq War and the ineptitude and arrogance of the Neocons at the civilian leadership level, which makes the role of mercenary companies like Blackwater with their ties to the brainwashed religious right more scary. You can now see the Civil War scenario. The U.S. military, overthrowing Bush using the courts and the Congress if they can, and emergency powers if they can’t, with the hard-line religious right opposing them with private militia companies. Where will Israel come down?

Will Bush go quietly like Nixon did, or will he (they) resist? Remember Bush senior and Alexander Haig were very worried at the end of Watergate that some military units would remain loyal to Nixon and they instructed the military at the very end to ignore any commands from Nixon.