A Good Leak
President Bush declassified some of the intelligence he used to decide on war in Iraq. Is that a scandal?

Sunday, April 9, 2006; B06



PRESIDENT BUSH was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling.

Rather than follow the usual declassification procedures and then invite reporters to a briefing -- as the White House eventually did -- Vice President Cheney initially chose to be secretive, ordering his chief of staff at the time, I. Lewis Libby, to leak the information to a favorite New York Times reporter. The full public disclosure followed 10 days later. There was nothing illegal or even particularly unusual about that; nor is this presidentially authorized leak necessarily comparable to other, unauthorized disclosures that the president believes, rightly or wrongly, compromise national security. Nevertheless, Mr. Cheney's tactics make Mr. Bush look foolish for having subsequently denounced a different leak in the same controversy and vowing to "get to the bottom" of it.

The affair concerns, once again, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his absurdly over-examined visit to the African country of Niger in 2002. Each time the case surfaces, opponents of the war in Iraq use it to raise a different set of charges, so it's worth recalling the previous iterations. Mr. Wilson originally claimed in a 2003 New York Times op-ed and in conversations with numerous reporters that he had debunked a report that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger and that Mr. Bush's subsequent inclusion of that allegation in his State of the Union address showed that he had deliberately "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraq threat." The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.

Mr. Wilson subsequently claimed that the White House set out to punish him for his supposed whistle-blowing by deliberately blowing the cover of his wife, Valerie Plame, who he said was an undercover CIA operative. This prompted the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. After more than 2 1/2 years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has reported no evidence to support Mr. Wilson's charge. In last week's court filings, he stated that Mr. Bush did not authorize the leak of Ms. Plame's identity. Mr. Libby's motive in allegedly disclosing her name to reporters, Mr. Fitzgerald said, was to disprove yet another false assertion, that Mr. Wilson had been dispatched to Niger by Mr. Cheney. In fact Mr. Wilson was recommended for the trip by his wife. Mr. Libby is charged with perjury, for having lied about his discussions with two reporters. Yet neither the columnist who published Ms. Plame's name, Robert D. Novak, nor Mr. Novak's two sources have been charged with any wrongdoing.

As Mr. Fitzgerald pointed out at the time of Mr. Libby's indictment last fall, none of this is particularly relevant to the question of whether the grounds for war in Iraq were sound or bogus. It's unfortunate that those who seek to prove the latter would now claim that Mr. Bush did something wrong by releasing for public review some of the intelligence he used in making his most momentous decision.

HAS ANYONE SEEN THE PIC OF A PROTESTOR THAT READS...


"wILL SOMEBODY PLEASE GIVE bUSH A BLOWJOB SO WE CAN IMPEACH HIM"


:lol: :lol:

Hmm... our neighborhood Republicans are interestingly silent on this one.....

Bad form, Georgie Boy. Tsk, tsk.

Happy, now. :wink:

I'll be happy when we have a real president.

I don't believe Bush specifically authorized the leak. I think Cheney did and Bush consented after the fact.

DMT

I think GW will skate on the leaks. The damage he has done to the Republican Party is major. The three major gaffs besides Iraq are Katrina, Dubai Ports, and this. 2006 will tell us exactly how fed up we are with this Administration. 2008 should replace the Republicans....but you never know.

MAd as HeLl

I doubt it... much as I despise the current administration and its policies, the Democrats are far too gutless and have no real leadership to really take advantage of all that has happened and is happening... as a result we'll see more of the same old, same old come this. and likely the next, election. Confused

I'm inclined to agree, if he consented at all. I'd bet money that Bush just found out he authorized it.

Do you really believe that Bush is that unaware of such things going on around him? No offense, but that is pretty naive.

I doubt it... much as I despise the current administration and its policies, the Democrats are far too gutless and have no real leadership to really take advantage of all that has happened and is happening... as a result we'll see more of the same old, same old come this. and likely the next, election.

Just 36 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling.

"These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said. "The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one."

Do you really believe that Bush is that unaware of such things going on around him? No offense, but that is pretty naive.

rufusandcompany wrote:
j_ung wrote:
dingus wrote:
I don't believe Bush specifically authorized the leak. I think Cheney did and Bush consented after the fact.

DMT


I'm inclined to agree, if he consented at all. I'd bet money that Bush just found out he authorized it.


Do you really believe that Bush is that unaware of such things going on around him? No offense, but that is pretty naive.


"You're doing a helluva job Brownie."

I rest my case.

DMT

I rest my case.