The president finally addressed the controversy surrounding his decision to authorize the [tag]leak[/tag] of [tag]classified[/tag] information in the summer of 2003. Unfortunately, Bush’s explanation ranged from odd to incoherent.
Responding to a student’s question about the [tag]Fitzgerald[/tag] investigation, [tag]Bush[/tag] suddenly became tongue-tied. The president explained, “Yes. No, I — this is — there’s an ongoing legal proceeding which precludes me from talking a lot about the case.” For the record, Bush not only has addressed ongoing legal proceedings in the past, he also faces no legal restrictions from doing so now.
But here was the key part of Bush’s response about the leak:
“I wanted to see — people to see what some of those statements were based on. So I wanted to see — I wanted people to see the truth and thought it made sense for people to see the truth.”
It’s the kind of painful response that makes me wonder if the president even understands what’s going on around him.
The fact of the matter is, the White House Iraq leaks were wrong. Scooter Libby, acting on leaks approved by Bush and Cheney, told reporters information that were supposed to refute Joseph Wilson and point to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. But Wilson was right, Iraq didn’t have the weapons, and the White House cherry-picked intelligence to suit their agenda. As the New York Times reported over the weekend, Libby was authorized to tell reporters that “a key judgment of the N.I.E. held that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium” — except it was not one of the “key judgments” of the document, as the White House was well aware.
Bush now believes it “made sense for people to see the truth”? Does he even know what the truth is?