MURRY WAAS --- Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks

[kpete]

ADMINISTRATION
Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, April 6, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to disclose the contents of a highly classified intelligence assessment to the media to defend the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, according to papers filed in federal court on Tuesday by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case.

..........
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.

Bush and Cheney authorized the release of the information regarding the NIE in the summer of 2003, according to court documents, as part of a damage-control effort undertaken only days after former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV alleged in an op-ed in The New York Times that claims by Bush that Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger were most likely a hoax.

According to the court papers, "At some point after the publication of the July 6 Op Ed by Mr. Wilson, Vice President Cheney, immediate supervisor, expressed concerns to regarding whether Mr. Wilson's trip was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife."


lots more:
http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0406nj1.htm

[FormerRepublican]

1. Doesn't this mean that Bush lied to Fitzgerald, and thus might be guilty..

...of obstruction of justice?

[saltpoint]

3. It's no reach at all, is it, to imagine this president lying.

I'd like to know what else Fitzgerald knows that s not in the official court papers.

[0007]

21. NO! It means that Libby can walk out of the charges as a FREE man

if junior authorized the leak in the time of WAR he was just protecting the country and the American people. Just like with all the spy leaks that were against the law.

Libby can now go back to work with Cheney and the gang. :sarcasm:

[FormerRepublican]

22. He can't authorize Libby to lie to the feds investigating.

Libby is charged with obstruction, not the leak. I guess now we know why.

[0007]

32. I was being factious!

[Canuckistanian]

26. Not so fast

Libby's charges technically have nothing to do with the Plame outing.

He's charged with PERJURY and LYING to an investigator - it really doesn't matter what anyone else does at this point.

These are the same crimes Clinton was charged with. Sex with an intern is not a crime.

Lying about it in your court testimony is.

[0007]

31. I was being factious!

[Canuckistanian]

44. OH, Ok, then. Never mind.

I should have known better.

:D

[0007]

45. I was mocking the Senate for letter junior off the hook for

spy charges. I'm indeed sorry.

[Canuckistanian]

48. Oh, don't worry about it

I've been slammed many times for being a bit too obscure when using sarcasm.

[H2O Man]

27. Way wrong.

Not even close to true.

[0007]

33. Absolutely! I was being factious Sorry ya didn't catch it!

[H2O Man]

41. You fooled me.

Under normal circumstances, it is not nice to pick on old cripples. Today, it will be okay, though.

[0007]

42. I'm indeed sorry! But I'm still pissed at the Senator for letting

junior off the hook.

[0007]

43. I'm indeed sorry! But I'm still pissed at the Senator for letting

junior off the hook.

[saltpoint]

2. President Hastert, anyone?

I don't think the rest of us could get away with leaking the name of a CIA agent and exposing her to possible mortal harm.

The law we would be said to have violated ought to apply to Dubya and Uncle Dick, too. Last anybody checked, they were U.S. citizens beholden to the same laws the rest of us are.

[rpgamerd00d]

5. No, the Speaker Of The House will be a Dem by then. Pres. Conyers? :)

[saltpoint]

14. President Conyers sounds a LOT better than President Hastert.

I like the way you think, rpgamerd00d,

[stop the bleeding]

15. ditto n/t

[radio4progressives]

47. OMG - If Nancy Pelosi is made President, Conyers might be New Speaker?

this is pure fantasy land, but what the hell!

imagine it anyway!

[RobertSeattle]

4. Should the FIRST question in Bush's next Press Conference

...But I won't hold my breath.

[blm]

6. I've said since the beginning that Bush was part of the whole set-up

The media IGNORES the greater part of Bush's resume since the 70s - political strategist who worked closely with Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. Any political dirty trick would have his stamp of approval and input.

[glitch]

11. Me too. The whole op has his dirty vindictive personality written all

over it, up to and including getting caught.

[Me.]

7. So Armitage Is Finally Let Off The Hook As Woodward's Source

"Libby testified to a federal grand jury that he had received "approval from the President through the Vice President" to divulge portions of a National Intelligence Estimate", and then Addington told him it was legal. These are not friends Scooter!

[Pithy Cherub]

8. Bombshell!

Woodward has probably independently verified under duress now that his cover as Baghdad Bob has been blown. Libby is doing a limited hangout to show the bush barnburners he means business.

:wow:

[Late Slip]

9. How do those guys sleep at night?

When their heads hit the pillow, do you ever wonder that they are the least bit worried about being indicted?

[leveymg]

10. This implicates Bush in the conspiracy to out Plame.

While it seems the President could on his own authority order a CIA document declassified, Bush can not arbitrarily reveal the identity of a non-official cover CIA officer. By authorizing release of the NIE, he took an affirmative step toward advancing the conspiracy to out Plame. This gets us much closer toward nailing Bush as an unindicted co-conspiractor in the actual Plame outing.

The only question that remains, what did he know in advance about the plans of others to reveal Plame's identity? I think he'll have to be called back in to answer that question.

In the end, the Grand Jury will find Bush committed either conspiracy or OOJ. The President can no longer claim he knew nothing about the contours of the crime.

[stop the bleeding]

13. yep on all accounts, my mind is swirling right now at the implications

of these revelations.

[npincus]

12. Does this tie B*sh to the Plame leak?

can't read the whole article now.

[leveymg]

20. The Grand Jury could conclude that

It has to do with the law of conspiracy. If a Mafia Don says he wants a rival "taken care of", and a subordinate ends up killing the victim, the Don can be indicted and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a matter of convincing a jury that this was the intent of the Don and that he had a reasonable expectation that the hit man would actually kill the victim. The Don doesn't have to say, "Shoot him in the head." Similarly, Bush didn't have to order Rove and Scooter, "Out Plame."

There seems to be enough here for a Grand Jury to now indict Bush for conspiracy to violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. All the pieces seem to be in place now if Fitz wants to go down that road.

Indeed, Fitz probably won't have to seek indictments under IIPA. If Bush lied to Fitz earlier about knowing about the plan to discredit Wilson -- as he almost certainly did -- then Bush committed Obstruction of Justice.

[npincus]

24. thank you- even though Chimpy was not put under oath?

[leveymg]

37. OOJ if lie not under oath, perjury after being sworn

Effectively, no difference between the two. Both carry a penalty for conviction of five years in the federal pen.

[bleever]

34. There's the legal pay dirt, right there.

:thumbsup:

[RedEarth]

16. ....

[RedEarth]

17. ....

[kpete]

18. & this on Cheney Lies..

Cheney told investigators that he had learned of Plame's employment by the CIA and her potential role in her husband being sent to Niger by then-CIA director George Tenet, according to people familiar with Cheney's interviews with the special prosecutor. Tenet has told investigators that he had no specific recollection of discussing Plame or her role in her husband's trip with Cheney, according to people with familiar with his statement to investigators. Two senior government officials said that Tenet did recall, however, that he made inquiries regarding the veracity of the Niger intelligence information as a result of inquires from both Cheney and Libby. As a result of those inquiries, Tenet then had the CIA conduct a new review of its Niger intelligence, and concluded that there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had in fact attempted to purchase uranium from Niger or other African nations. Tenet and other CIA officials then informed Cheney, other administration officials, and the congressional intelligence committees of the new findings, the sources said.

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0406nj1.htm


And on the politicizing of our national security.

Six days after Libby's conversation with Cooper and Miller regarding Plame, on July 18, 2003, the Bush administration formally declassified portions of the NIE on Iraqi weapons programs in an effort to further blunt the damage of Wilson's allegations that the Bush administration misused the faulty Niger intelligence information to make the case to go to war. It is unclear whether the information that Bush and Cheney were said to authorize Libby to disclose was the same information that was formally declassified.

One former senior government official said that both the president and Cheney, in directing Libby to disclose classified information to defend the administration's case to go to war with Iraq and in formally declassifying portions of the NIE later, were misusing the classification process for political reasons.

The official said that while the administration declassified portions of the NIE that would appear exculpatory to the White House, it insisted that a one-page summary of the NIE which would have suggested that the President mischaracterized other intelligence information to go to war remain classified.

[RedEarth]

19. IMPEACH THE M....F....

[kpete]

23. Great link for Fitz PDF

http://www.thesmokinggun.com//archive/0406061libby1.html

[Nimrod2005]

25. OMFG ----- I say Indict, Impeach, then Imprison NOW.............

[Nimrod2005]

28. Is this breaking on all so called news channels?

[Pryderi]

30. http://www.cnn.com/ Nope.

[kpete]

38. CNN BREAKING NEWS - YES!!!!

CNN BREAKING NEWS - LIBBY SAYS BUSH AUTHORIZED LEAK
Edited on Thu Apr-06-06 04:07 PM by kpete
OMG Prosecutors: Former VVP Aide Says Bush Authorized Leak

At one period in time Bush said he would punish leaker...

MAJOR REPERCUSSIONS

According to associated press

Cheney told him to pass along info

And Bush Authorized


And OF COURSE it is against the law

No one has ever asserted that it was bush

Bombshell has dropped

(Kpete - Wow, I nearly had a stroke typing this...)

[leveymg]

39. Thank you, kpete!!!!!

You are Mercury, the bringer of Good News! Keep it up!

[leveymg]

40. Dupe self-deleted

[RobertSeattle]

29. Makes TheSmokingGun.com

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby1.html?link=rssfeed

[Canuckistanian]

36. Oops, didn't see your post

I saw it by chance and had to search for it....

[Canuckistanian]

35. Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak (Smoking Gun link)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby1.html

Indicted ex-Cheney aide told grand jury of White House approval

APRIL 6--A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that President George W. Bush authorized him to leak information from a classified intelligence report to a New York Times reporter. Details of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's testimony were included in a court filing made yesterday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is prosecuting Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in connection with the probe into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

[kpete]

46. NYT

April 6, 2006
Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:11 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 authorization 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 justifying the invasion of Iraq.

Libby's participation in a critical conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003 ''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.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CIA-Leak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[kpete]

49. Libby Pressured McClellan To Issue Statement

Libby Pressured McClellan To Issue Statement
'Exonerating Him’
Another piece of interesting information buried in yesterday’s filing by Patrick Fitzgerald: Scooter Libby “implored White House officials to have a public statement issued exonerating him” even though “had in fact played in disclosing Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment.”

He went so far as giving Press Secretary Scott McClellan a (somewhat poetic) hand-written note:



According to Fitzgerald, on October 4, 2003, “as a result of defendant’s request” McClellan told the press corps he had talked to Libby, Karl Rove and Elliot Abrams and “those individuals assured me that they were not involved in this.”

That statement continues to haunt McClellan to this day.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/06/libby-pressured-mcclellan/
http://www.nysun.com/30561.pdf

[robertpaulsen]

50. Great article! So *'s authorization ties in with the aluminum tube lies!

From the OP link:

As National Journal recently disclosed, the one-page summary of the NIE told Bush that although "most agencies judge" that an Iraqi procurement of aluminum tubes was "related to a uranium enrichment effort", the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."

Despite receiving that assessment, the president stated without qualification in his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."

The former senior official said in an interview that he believed that the attempt to conceal the contents of the one-page summary were intertwined with the efforts to declassify portions of the NIE and to leak information to the media regarding Plame: "It was part and parcel of the same effort, but people don't see it in that context yet."

Although the court papers filed Wednesday revealed that Libby had testified that Bush and Cheney had authorized him to disclose details of the NIE, two other senior government officials said in interviews that Libby had asserted that Cheney had more broadly authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq as part of an administration effort to make the case to go to war.



Wow! When it rains, it pours on these fascists!