Colonel who called Bush 'a joke' suspended

An American Air Force colonel has been suspended and could be court-martialled because he wrote to a newspaper describing George Bush as "sleazy and contemptible" and accusing the administration of ignoring advance warnings on the 11 September attacks for political gain.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Butler was suspended from his job at a military language academy in Monterey, California, under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Article 88, which dates back to the War of Independence, prohibits disparaging remarks about the President or senior figures in the White House or Congress. It stipulates a maximum punishment of dismissal and one year in military detention. Colonel Butler, who has been in the air force for 24 years and served in the Gulf War, called the President a joke who had taken advantage of the war on terrorism to deflect attention from his questionable election and the poor state of the economy.

"Of course Bush knew about the impending attacks on America," he wrote in The Monterey County Herald. "He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. His daddy had Saddam and he needed Osama ... His presidency was going nowhere."

The letter did not appear to be the result of any inside knowledge, merely the officer's forthright opinions.

Colonel Butler was suspended three days after it was published. The guidelines state it does not matter whether the accusations against a President are just. The issue is whether an officer spoke inappropriately, and publicly.

Nobody has been prosecuted under Article 88 since the Vietnam War, when a junior officer was court-martialled for holding up a sign describing President Lyndon Johnson as an ignorant fascist at an anti-war rally in Texas. He was discharged and sentenced to two years of hard labour.

Officers are periodically disciplined, including two who were forced into early retirement during the Clinton era for describing the President as a gay-loving, womanising, lying, pot-smoking draft dodger.