All of a sudden, it’s a scandal again

April 6, 2006

As I understand it, reporters and political observers who were watching Watergate unfold in the early ’70s would frequently grow frustrated by the ebb and flow of the scandal. There would be a few weeks in which the story was front-page news every day, followed by a few more weeks of nothing. It would then come roaring back, without notice.

It reminds me a bit of today. [tag]Patrick Fitzgerald[/tag]’s name had all but vanished from the news lately, until a blockbuster story brought our favorite cast of characters — [tag]Libby[/tag], [tag]Bush[/tag], [tag]Cheney[/tag], et al — back. And they’re better than ever.

To follow up on my earlier post, the New York Sun broke word this morning that Scooter Libby leaked parts of the [tag]National Intelligence Estimate[/tag] on Iraq to [tag]Judith Miller[/tag] in 2003 based on “the specific permission of President Bush.”

I’ve been frustrated by the diligence of the major news outlets on stories like this, but the story seems to be making the rounds this afternoon. The national AP story, for example, is pretty solid.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means that the president and the vice president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

The White House’s claim is, not surprisingly, that if the president leaks something, it’s no longer [tag]classified[/tag]. Bush, in other words, is one-man declassification machine.

The argument is odd, but even if it’s taken at face value, it’s worth noting the way in which the new revelations conflict with the president’s own previous comments on leaks.

As Faiz noted, the president has repeatedly suggested that he disapproves of leaking classified information and didn’t have any knowledge on the leaks coming from his administration.

There’s just too many [tag]leaks[/tag], and if there is a [tag]leak[/tag] out of my administration, I want to know who it is.” [Bush, 9/30/03]

“I want to know the truth…. I have no idea whether we’ll find out who the [tag]leaker[/tag] is, partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers.” [Fox News, 10/8/03]

“I’d like to know if somebody in my [tag]White House[/tag] did leak sensitive information.” [Bush, 10/28/03]

In addition, this was also a memorable exchange, from October 2003:

Q: Mr. [tag]President[/tag], how confident are you the investigation will find the leaker in the CIA case?

Bush: …Randy, you tell me, how many sources have you had that’s leaked information that you’ve exposed or have been exposed? Probably none. I mean this town is a — is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don’t know if we’re going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there’s a lot of senior officials. I don’t have any idea. I’d like to. I want to know the truth.

Well, as it turns out, the truth may be that the president was far more involved, directly, with some of these leaks than he ever let on. It caused Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) to conclude, quite correctly, “It’s time for the President to come clean with the American people and explain his role in this affair.”

Now, so far, the White House press corps hasn’t jumped on this. They had a gaggle with Scott McClellan pretty early this morning, before the Sun article started making the rounds, and the issue didn’t come up at all. I suspect that won’t be the case tomorrow.

For more on this, I’d also recommend [tag]Murray Waas[/tag]’ new piece in the National Journal, which went beyond the court filings upon which the Sun piece was based.

Although not reflected in the court papers, two senior government officials said in interviews with National Journal in recent days that Libby has also asserted that Cheney authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq. In some instances, the information leaked was directly discussed with the Vice President, while in other instances Libby believed he had broad authority to release information that would make the case to go to war.

In yet another instance, Libby had claimed that President Bush authorized Libby to speak to and provide classified information to Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward for “Plan of Attack,” a book written by Woodward about the run-up to the Iraqi war.

And just like that, “leaks” are all the rage again….

And a missing piece of the puzzle is also laying there. Maybe.

I always wondered why the argument that Plame sent Wilson would convince anyone that Wilson was wrong about the uranium story. It had no bearing.

But apparently Libby was also showing the reporters parts of the NIE, which had been cooked to say that Saddam was seeking uranium. If that same cooked NIE was shown to the Congress, then we’re talking impeachment time.

  • We don’t have a republic. We have a monarchy.

    Lex est, quod rex vult is the constitution now.

  • Stolen from ND-cent on MetaFilter:

    This is Bush’s executive order that governs the president’s power to declassify information.

    What this order does not give the president the authority to do is declassify specific items that are outlawed by Congress, say for example, the identities of covert agents. While Bush (though not Cheney) had the power to declassify the NIE, he did not have the power to declassify the fact that Plame was a CIA operative. Therefore, the story becomes interesting when we find out that Bush or Cheney authorized the Plame leak, not the leak of the NIE.

  • The bottom line– if Bush has to resort to a hairsplitting, legalistic defense– that he secretly declassified classified documents before he authorized Libby to leak them to selective members of the press, which technically isn’t leaking– he’s totally screwed.

    Bush *pretended* for the past 2 years that he knew nothing about anyone in his administration leaking anything during the lead up to Iraq to reporters, he promised to fire and/or punish anyone caught leaking, and in general the Bush Administration has admonished leaking info– classified or not.

  • The bottom line– if Bush has to resort to a hairsplitting, legalistic defense– that he secretly declassified classified documents before he authorized Libby to leak them to selective members of the press, which technically isn’t leaking– he’s totally screwed.

    I hope you’re right. Under this Congress and Supreme Court, I no longer believe Bush would be screwed if he were “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.”

  • As exemplified again and again (as in those signing statements that I’m still surprised no one has challenged legally), Dubya has demonstrated his opinion that laws do not apply to him. The media can’t concentrate on anything for that long at a time, especially if it’s complex. (Hence CNN bungling the original report on this this morning). It’s too bad in a way that Valerie Plame didn’t go missing — she’s a blonde and we know how cable news worships at the altar of missing blondes.

  • Believe it or not, Chris Matthews was actually all over this today.

    His point is that before the election Bush choose select portions of the NIE to release to bolster his claim that Saddam had a nuclear program. This kind of cherry picking, using only part of the intelligence to make his case, is just what the lame-a$$ Pat Roberts is supposed to be investigating.

    And I repeat, Libby’s testimony is hearsay. He did not get his marching orders from Bush, and he talked to members of Cheney’s staff about his concerns, not the President’s. If Cheney does not confirm that Bush told him to release only parts of the NIE to fool the American Public, then Libby is hung out to dry.

    Matt Cooper’s lawyer as much as said that Libby made up the story right in front of the Grand Jury when he realized he had just told them he leaked classified information to Judith Miller.

  • Goodness, light and scandal shall follow the all the days of thy life if thou chooseth the path of the lie. According to high religious authority, the curator at Turin where the famous hoax shroud draws mega crouds, lying is acceptable if it causes people to have faith. He didn’t mention what people are to have faith in but of course his post suggests the hoax. The notion that faith moves mountains is challenged at http://www.hoax-buster.org with the simple noticing that the moving of mountains by faith is yet to be verified.

    The greatest lie ever told is the Bible. It is a proved hoax. I have faith in that. I don’t need to lie about it. I do notice that Bush promotes the Bible and those who become billionairs promoting it support him. They are the ones who subscribe to the notion that if the lie causes people to have faith then it’s moral. Again, I can’t seem to find exactly what I’m supposed to have faith in that isn’t a hoax coming form Bush. Take Saddam’s WMDs for example.

  • Where are all the boot-licking toadies for bush and his scowling band of criminals?

    Where are the traitors, the justice-fighters, the freedom-haters who bitched about Clinton and the ‘rule of law’?

    Where are they? Why don’t they defend their fucking lawless heroes?

    Every stooge who voted for the current cabal shares in the guilt, the shame and the sin of enabling and unleashing this gang of criminals onto the civilized world.

    Fuck them all….

  • Now, so far, the White House press corps hasn’t jumped on this. They had a gaggle with Scott McClellan pretty early this morning, before the Sun article started making the rounds, and the issue didn’t come up at all. I suspect that won’t be the case tomorrow.

    Friday afternoon – it’s a perfect time to reveal some more embarassing information.

  • I hope this signals the beginng of the end of the Bush regime.But ,please,please Democrats if you do win in ’08 don’t follow the corporate line, the United States DOES NOT need two fascist parties.A Good way to start is for the good citizens in Ct. to dump Leiberman in the primary.

  • OK so Bush via Cheney likely OKed the leaking of Plame for political purposes. Not something we didn’t not expect. Then he goes through this faux outrage with all of the “we will find the perpatrators” posturing, all the while knowing it was him and his own. At that point it must still have been classified so they knew it was wrong, because he then gets up and covers it up all over the media. If it has been declassified because he is president, and by virtue of being president can declassify any damn thing he wanted, he could have said things differently. But instead, he went though the fiction of pretending not to know, with a dash of outrage, and continued along this with this narrative. However, when Libby says he leaked with permission – they now have a new weapon to use – the “because I am president” weapon – that was developed with the express purpose for use in the War on the Consitution.

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