April 7, 200620 yr MSNBC.com Libby: Bush himself authorized leak on Iraq Testimony shows president ‘can no longer be trusted,’ says Howard Dean NBC News and news services Updated: 8:43 p.m. ET April 6, 2006 WASHINGTON - 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. The filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald also describes Cheney’s involvement in I. Lewis Libby’s communications with the press. There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. But it points to Cheney as one of the originators of the idea that Plame could be used to discredit her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Before his indictment, 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 a July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller. 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. Bush foes see opportunity Bush’s political foes jumped on the revelation about Libby’s testimony. “The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put interests of his political party ahead of America’s security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “The more we hear, the more it is clear this goes way beyond Scooter Libby. At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role in allowing classified information to be leaked.” And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a press release Monday that Bush “said he’d fire whoever leaked classified information, and now we know the president himself authorized it. Now we know that the president’s search for the leaker needs to go no further than a mirror.” Dean, D-Vt., added, “Now we know President Bush authorized the leaking of classified information for political gain. His willingness to do so demonstrates once again that the president puts his party above the security of the American people.” Libby’s testimony also puts the president and the vice president in the awkward position of authorizing leaks — a practice both men have long said they abhor, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers. The most recent instance is the administration’s launching of a probe into who disclosed to The New York Times the existence of the warrantless domestic surveillance program authorized by Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. The authorization involving intelligence information came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism about its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason the president and his aides had given for going to war. Libby’s participation in the critical July 8, 2003. conversation with Miller , “occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate,” the papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated. The filing did not specify the “certain information.” “Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller — getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval — were unique in his recollection,” the papers added. ‘Fishing for evidence’ Libby is asking for voluminous amounts of classified information from the government in order to defend himself against five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame affair. In a response to Libby's requests for information, Fitzgerald argues that the effort amounts to 'a vast fishing expedition' in search of evidence to clear Libby's name. Libby is accused of making false statements about how he learned of Plame’s CIA employment and what he told reporters about it. Her CIA status was publicly disclosed eight days after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction. In 2002, Wilson had been dispatched to Africa by the CIA to check out intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger, and Wilson had concluded that there was no such arrangement. Libby says he needs extensive classified files from the government to demonstrate that Plame’s CIA connection was a peripheral matter that he never focused on, and that the role of Wilson’s wife was a small piece in a building public controversy over the failure to find WMD in Iraq. Fitzgerald said in the new court filing that Libby’s requests for information go too far and the prosecutor cited Libby’s own statements to investigators in an attempt to limit the amount of information the government must turn over to Cheney’s former chief of staff for his criminal defense. According to Miller’s grand jury testimony, Libby told her about Plame’s CIA status in the July 2003 conversation that took place shortly after the White House aide — according to the new court filing — was authorized by Bush through Cheney to disclose sensitive intelligence about Iraq and WMD contained in a National Intelligence Estimate. The court filing was first disclosed by The New York Sun. NBC's Joel Seidman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2006 MSNBC.com URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12187153/ --this from the man who said.. "Anyone who leaked information, should be punished... " haha!! so, was this another 'misinformed' notion.. or did the man finally get caught in is own flipflop of lies??
April 7, 200620 yr Author oh wait.. my bad.. he didn't say 'they should be punished..' he said they should be fired..... *ehem* *please see impeachment thread thank you!* :nice:
April 10, 200620 yr It's a crime. No kidding. But the media has it all wrong. As usual. 'Scooter' Libby finally outed 'Mr. Big,' the perpetrator of the heinous disclosure of the name of secret agent Valerie Plame. It was the President of United States himself -- in conspiracy with his Vice-President. Now the pundits are arguing over whether our war-a-holic President had the legal right to leak this national security information. But, that's a fake debate meant to distract you. OK, let's accept the White House alibi that releasing Plame's identity was no crime. But if that's true, they've committed a bigger crime: Bush and Cheney knowingly withheld vital information from a grand jury investigation, a multimillion dollar inquiry the perps themselves authorized. That's akin to calling in a false fire alarm or calling the cops for a burglary that never happened -- but far, far worse. Let's not forget that in the hunt for the perpetrator of this non-crime, reporter Judith Miller went to jail. Think about that. While Miller sat in a prison cell, Bush and Cheney were laughing their sick heads off, knowing the grand jury testimony, the special prosecutor's subpoenas and the FBI's terrorizing newsrooms were nothing but fake props in Bush's elaborate charade, Cheney's Big Con. http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=490
April 10, 200620 yr Author You my friend... are my hero! :kiss: this is exactly why the man should be impeached!!! Purjury!! Isn't this the same crime Martha Stewart was founf guilty on???? Poor Martha.... :cry:
April 10, 200620 yr Author 6 replies and 4 of them being mine..... whats wrong with this picture....? Can anyone explain to me why is it that??
April 10, 200620 yr Author I was hoping for some good discussion as to how this idiot goes on record saying anyone who de-classifies info and leaks it should be fired...... and he's the one who authorized it!! :lol:
April 11, 200620 yr Bush acknowledges declassifying Iraq intelligence, ducks questions on leak Raw Story | April 10 2006 REUTERS BREAKING: # President George W. Bush acknowledged on Monday he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics. But Bush said he could not comment on an assertion that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to release the information to reporters. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked the name of a CIA operative. "I will say this, that after we liberated Iraq, there was questions in peoples' minds about, you know, the basis upon which I made statements, in other words, going into Iraq," Bush said in his first words on the subject since it flared up last week. Answering questions after a speech, Bush said he declassified an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate in July 2003 for a reason. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. For someone who lies by proxy, he sure want's people to see the truth alot.
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