Truthdig: Elizabeth de la Vega and the Case for Impeachment: Transcript and audio

[marmar]

Full Transcript:

Intro: You are listening to original audio by truthdig.com. For more information resources, visit us on the Web at www.truthdig.com.

James Harris: In the worst display of media coverage I’ve seen in a long while, news stations and papers buried us this week with ridiculous, inconsequential headlines. Let’s take a look at this week’s news: Remember the diaper-wearing astronaut set out to kill her lover’s lover? Ted Haggard is now cured of homosexuality. Nancy Pelosi wants a bigger airplane for her staff. Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy bunny—she’s now deceased. Meanwhile, under the things that matter: The 2008 budget. Bush proposed that more than 25 percent of that be spent on the war on terror. Military officials are calling for increased civilian involvement. The Pentagon is investigating again the botched attempts to draw links between Saddam and al-Qaida. Not to mention 70 percent of Americans want out of Iraq and the Iranian leader has said to us, point blank, if you come in here you’re gonna get hurt. So there will be no discussion today of Anna Nicole or Ted Haggard’s magical conversion. Today we’re drilling beneath the headlines. This is Truthdig. Let’s meet our panel. Here with Mr. Josh Scheer, the surefire Truthdig contributor. If you haven’t had a chance, be sure to listen to his Stanley Sheinbaum interview, which has received rave reviews. Mr. Robert Scheer is also here, author of “Playing President” and has written a scathing criticism of the Bush budget proposal currently on Truthdig. Be sure to read all of those articles. We have the distinct pleasure of welcoming former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, who is the author of the new title the “United States v. George Bush et al.” Let’s start with your book, Ms. de la Vega.

Elizabeth de la Vega: Yes.

Harris: Can you give us a bit of back story on your text? Why did you decide to write this book?

De la Vega: Sure. I was a prosecutor for over 20 years and I took early retirement in the fall of 2004. And at that point I really had time to look more carefully at how it was that the president and his senior advisers were able to deceive the public about the war. And, I was in-, particular interested in comparing what information was available to the administration behind the scenes versus what they said publicly and how it was that none of this is really covered in the press. So what I set about to do was lay it all out as if it were an actual criminal case, and I analyzed it the same way I would analyze any criminal case. And what I found was something we, many of us, already know intuitively and on varying levels with varying degrees of specificity, but it was clear to me after comparing in detail all the behind-the-scenes evidence to what was said publicly that this was a more massive fraud than the fraud committed by the Enron folks, about which everybody was completely outraged and rightly so. And so I laid it out as if it were an actual criminal case. The only thing that’s fictional about the book is the fact that there is not as yet any such proceeding. But beyond that all of it is absolutely true. And I think it’s critical for us to not look away from this fraud, because in large part it continues. And I don’t think we’re ever going to get out of Iraq without, at least, first determining what the truth is about how we ended up there and the fraud that keeps us there. ....(more)

To read the complete transcript of the interview or hear the audio, go to: http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070209_podcast_elizabeth_de_la_vega_and_the_case_for_impeachment/

[L. Coyote]

1. OHIO 2004: 6.15% Kerry-Bush vote-switch found in probability study

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=259620&mesg_id=259620

[Tellurian]

2. Good Stuff, marmar!

I hope De la Vega follows through..