Isn’t there any justice left in this country? Why is Martha Stewart going to go to jail for lying to federal officials, while Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), who repeatedly lied the nation into an immoral, illegal and costly Iraqi war, is treated liked an elder statesman? This isn’t fair.

On March 5, 2004, a federal jury in NYC found Stewart, a TV personality and business woman, guilty on dubious conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statements charges dealing with a stock sale that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Supposedly, she lied to investigators. Nevertheless, the totally bogus charge of security fraud against her was dismissed by the judge prior to the jury getting the case.

Stewart’s over-the-top indictment was conjured up by an aggressive prosecutor. She had no chance for a fair trial and was regularly demonized in the media as a “mogul.” Nothing could have been further from the truth. Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warren Buffet and Mortimer B. Zuckerman are “moguls.” Martha Stewart, on the other hand, is a classic American rags to riches’ success story. She pulled herself up with energy, guts and vision from humble, working class, Nutley, NJ-based roots. Okay, maybe, she’s a little abrasive. So what? Is that a jailable offense?

Stewart, of Polish ancestry, was used as a scapegoat to take the heat off of the egregious wrongdoings of the corporate bigwigs, who had run companies, like: Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and Adelphia, into the ground by cooking their books, reaping huge profits for themselves, wrecking employees’ pension systems and destroying stockholders’ investments. Stewart’s media show trial also served another larger purpose. It diverted the public’s attention away from that bloodstained and costly mess created by the Bush-Cheney Gang - the Iraqi War. On the same day as Stewart’s fate was being unfairly sealed by a jury (she faces a possible maximum 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine), Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) was raving about the need for the U.S. to stay the course with respect to the “current crisis in Iraq.”

The ultra hawkish Lieberman, ranting in the “NY Post” tabloid, said, “During this campaign, our presidential candidates must find ways to differ without being destructive, to debate without demonizing, to rise above partisan politics and put America first.” What a hypocrite! Lieberman himself demonized and assassinated the character of Howard Dean, helping to derail his candidacy for president. And why did he do this? Could it be because Dean had dared to suggest the U.S. should have an “even handed policy” in the Middle East? Also, the idea that Lieberman, a leading shill in the U.S. Senate for Israel, is looking to “put America first,” is also preposterous. This guy has no shame!

Before the start of the Iraq War, on March 20, 2003, Lieberman misled the U.S. Senate into adopting a resolution that unconstitutionally delegated to President George W. Bush, Jr., the power to declare war on Iraq on his own initiative. Lieberman also deceived the voters in his home state of Connecticut, and others around the country, by saying that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had WMD, posed an imminent threat to the security of the U.S. and had ties to El Qaeda. All three of these claims have turned out to be false.

So what will happen to Lieberman as a result of his serial lies regarding the Iraqi War? Will he go to jail, with a cell next to Stewart? Heck, no. He will just continue brazenly spinning out his original canards.

Now, Lieberman is claiming, “Iraq has become a major battleground in our larger war against terrorism...If we fail to stop these insurgents...we will give the forces of worldwide terrorism new confidence...to attack us.” LIeberman’s warmongering led to the U.S. into destabilizing Iraq, killing tens of thousands of Iraqis, totally ruining their country, and making it ripe for rival factions to fight over. Rather than retract his lies, Lieberman wants us to send more troops over to Iraq to get shot at and seriously wounded and/or to be delivered back home in body bags to the Dover Air Force base.

Meanwhile, Stewart never sent any of our sons or daughters to die in Iraq. She didn’t repeatedly lie to Congress, or toss hundreds of billions of taxpayers dollars away on this Middle East military fiasco, yet she is going to spend considerable time in a federal prison. Lieberman has done all of the above. And, he ready to spill even more innocent American blood in Iraq. Lieberman has no soul and no conscience either.

Since March 20, 2003, 551 Americans have have paid the supreme penalty in the Iraqi War. This is the conflict pushed on the Bush-Cheney Gang by the Neocon-inspired “A Clean Break” doctrine, which was drafted by Richard Perle, and other war hawks for the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Of the 551 Americans, who have died as of March 7, 2004, six have been from Connecticut. Their names are: Captain Eric Thomas Paliwoda; Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton, Jr.; Specialist Wilfredo Perez, Jr.; Private 1st Class Jeffrey F. Braun; Private 1st Class Anthony D. Dagostino and Corporal Kemaphoom A. Chanwoongse (lunaville.org).

Lieberman is clever, too. He has made sure that all of his pro-Iraqi War spiels have first appeared, prior their publication in the media, in his speeches to the Senate. Using that device, the Constitution, Art. I, Section VI (I), grants him immunity, in any other arena, for any of his statements made to the Senate. Stewart had no such Constitutional protection.

Stewart will surely be imprisoned. But, it is the deceitful Lieberman who really deserves to feel the righteous wrath of the people for misleading them. He is a disgrace to the Senate, to the good people of Connecticut and to our Republic. Lieberman belongs in jail and behind bars, along with those other sick warmongers in the Congress of the U.S.

© William Hughes 2004

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘No’ to the War Party” (Iuniverse, Inc.), which is available at Amazon.com. He can be reached at: liamhughes-AT-mindspring.com.