Barbara Lee Reacts to Indictiment of Senior White House Official

Barbara Lee Reacts to Indictment of Senior White House Official
(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) issued the following statement today on the indictment of Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the grand jury investigation of the outing of covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame:

"This is not simply a question of the White House exposing an undercover CIA agent in an act of political retribution against a critic, it is about the White House deliberately manipulating intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq and then engaged in a ruthless campaign to cover it up.

"President Bush needs to ask himself whether he will follow the example of Ronald Reagan, who owned up to the massive deception committed by his White House during Iran-Contra and cleaned house, or the example of Richard Nixon, who refused to acknowledge the mistakes of his administration and paid the consequences.

"The outing of Valerie Plame and the deceptive case for war constitute an incredible abuse of the trust of the American people and directly question the credibility of this White House. The American people deserve honesty, and we deserve accountability.

"When President Bush ran for President, he promised to restore integrity to the White House. He promised not simply to do what was legal, but what was right. Whether little credibility the White House still has will depend on whether the President comes clean and cleans house."

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