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Audacity of Truth
"Change" You Can Believe In:
"Nixon didn’t try to do that. They couldn't control (the media). They didn’t try. [...] What the hell do they think we are, puppets?"
- Liberal opinion writer Helen Thomas, describing the Obama admin's penchant for heavily scripting public appearances & press conferences - 7/1/09
Media continue to obfuscate the facts on “Bush authorized leak” story
The mediots far and wide yesterday reported with barely restrained glee the news that Scooter Libby testified that President Bush authorized the disclosure of key parts of information from a once ‘classified’ NIE. The NYTimes, of course, was amongst the many declaring this breathlessly with the headline “In Court Filings, Cheney Aide Said Bush Approved Leak“. The headline is, of course, incredibly (and that was probably done on purpose) misleading.Â
I don’t have anything to add to Tom Maguire’s brilliant fisking of this ’story’ (see also here for more) except to say that once again, the media are manufacturing something out of nothing in an effort to squeeze whatever juice they can out of a ’scandal’ that becomes less and less of a scandal everytime something new and “revealing” is reported.
Just a couple of links to pass on to you for your perusal regarding this latest ‘revelation’:
Fitz Court Filing Page 23 (emphasis added):
As to the meeting on July 8, defendant testified that he was specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified NIE to Miller on that occasion because it was thought that the NIE was “pretty definitive” against what Ambassador Wilson had said and that the Vice President thought that it was “very important” for the key judgments of the NIE to come out. Defendant further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE. Defendant testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE. Defendant testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then Counsel to the Vice President, whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.
Defendant testified that he thought he brought a brief abstract of the NIE’s key judgments to the meeting with Miller on July 8. Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was “vigorously trying to procure” uranium. Defendant testified that this July 8th meeting was the only time he recalled in his government experience when he disclosed a document to a reporter that was effectively declassified by virtue of the President’s authorization that it be disclosed. Defendant testified that one of the reasons why he met with Miller at a hotel was the fact that he was sharing this information with Miller exclusively.
Legal experts say that President Bush had the unquestionable authority to approve the disclosure of secret CIA information to reporters, but they add that the leak was highly unusual and amounted to using sensitive intelligence data for political gain.
“It is a question of whether the classified National Intelligence Estimate was used for domestic political purposes,” said Jeffrey H. Smith, a Washington lawyer who formerly served as general counsel for the CIA.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald said I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, has testified that Cheney told him that Bush had authorized the leak of secret information from the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in the summer of 2003. Fitzgerald’s court filing portrays the leak as part of an effort to discredit former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who contended in a newspaper column that intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was distorted in the run-up to the U.S. invasion.
The court filing says that Libby, who is fighting perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges in connection with the leak investigation, was concerned about the legality of sharing classified information with reporters. But he was assured by David S. Addington, who then served as counsel to Cheney, that presidential authorization to disclose the information amounted to declassification.
Experts said the power to classify and declassify documents in the federal government flows from the president and is often delegated down the chain of command. In March 2003, Bush signed an executive order delegating declassification authority to Cheney.
Sidenote: I started composing my thoughts last night on this issue and at the time I was doing that, the headline to the above article read exactly what I’ve got it as reading. This morning, the headline has been changed to “Experts: Tactic Would Be Legal but Unusual”. From “disclosure” to “tactic.” Gotta love it.
Read more commentary via Austin Bay (must-read!), The Jawa Report, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit, Macsmind, GayPatriotWest, Rick MoranÂ
See also: Seixon’s righteous debunking of Murray Waas (of National Journal fame) claims that the reason that Cheney, etc, were trying to shut Joe Wilson up was because Bush “lied” about the aluminum tubes.
Related Toldjah So posts:
- Plamegate: Woodward testifies
- Valerie Plame’s status was ‘covert’?
- Did Joe Wilson out his own wife?
- Fired up!
- Joe Wilson is a liar
- More from the “Joe Wilson is a liar” file
- Plamegate: Has perception become reality?
- Rove and Novak: Pieces falling into place
- Plamegate: a retrospective
- MSM on Nadagate: A miserable failure
- Indictments coming this week in Plamegate scandal?
- Press fawns over Fitzgerald, but Starr was part of the VRWC
- Plamegate predictions
- Libby to Be Charged in CIA Leak Probe
- Scooter Libby and Plamegate: My thoughts
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17 Responses to “Media continue to obfuscate the facts on “Bush authorized leak” story”
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Clearly, there is a large segment of America that no longer believes that it is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. Cheney told Libby to feed Miller an NEI report that 10 days later bush declassified. Somebody once said that we’d know you by your deeds. bush, Delay, Cheney, Abramhoff, Rumsfeld, we will also know you by the company you keep. Peace
steve you lips are moving but no FACTS and PROOF are coming out.
steve says, Cheney told Libby to feed Miller an NEI report that 10 days later bush declassified.
Proof, you can sit there and say this all you want, or get your talking points from kos or du, I really don’t care where you get them, but I would like to have PROOF, links I can follow to the actual story, the actual timeline proving what you say…because until then, all you are doing is spinning things to make it look good for you or your sides agenda.
Then steve says,Somebody once said that we’d know you by your deeds. bush, Delay, Cheney, Abramhoff, Rumsfeld, we will also know you by the company you keep.
Glass Houses steve.
We could say the same.
Kerry, Durbin, McKinney, Ted Kennedy, Byrd, and the list easily goes on. So don’t sit there and act like the Democrat Party is all perfect and high and mighty, it is far from it.
No one said either party is made up of saints, but to rail against one when it is quite obvious the Left has problems of their own, well seems kinda foolish.
Being a religious anarchist, our motto is, “a clean sweep for a clean slate in 2006″. We think that anyone who is in office on November 6 should be out of office on November 8. Peace
- I would bet theres a pretty sizable segment of the population that would like to see all the Anarchists out of the country by 2006 too.
- Bang
That means exactly what Bang? Why not speak to the point rather than throw invective? Peace
“That means exactly what Bang?”
Gee, I understood exactly what Bang meant. There’s not much gray area there!!!
This post raises the question that ST (and others) have raised in the past: Just what is the difference between a “leaker” and a “whistleblower”?
The Bush Administration did the country a service by exposing the malfeasance and deceit of the Democrats and the MSM. For that they are facing impeachment.
“Bush lied. There was no intelligence supporting the war. Bush lied.”
“Well, actually, Bush had intelligence.”
“No way. Bush lied.”
“Really. He leaked it through Scooter Libby.”
“Bush lied. He said he didn’t know about any leaks…”
If you release information with the intent to damage the administration and/or Bush, you’re a noble whistleblower.
If you release information to support the decisions of the admin/Bush, and to point out the lies of the Left/Dems, you’re an evil leaker.
Honestly, Mwalimu, didn’t you get the memo?
Yes, we spied on Americans, without warrants, so what? We are just protecting you from the evil doers….so sayth Nero. Yes, we lied about yellow cake and WMD’s, so what? Saddam was an evil doer…so sayth Nero. Yes, we leaked classified intelligence to try and destroy citizen Wilson, so what? I am the President…so sayth Nero. 70% of Americans are ready for a change, how about you? Peace
PROOF – so says Sanity
Spew and Spew – so says steve
Show PROOF of your statements steve – so says Sensible and Sane People.
No Proof (links) given by steve equates to him having no credibility – so says the masses
By the way did you know steve was a christian anarchist? I figured I would say it today before steve did.
Oh and Kerry has 3 purple nurbles…errr…hearts.
>Yes, we spied on Americans, without warrants
Oh, steve. You disappoint me, you really do. We’ve been through this so many times. How many times do we have to remind you that the President has the Constitutional authority to order surveillance on terrorists without a warrant, even when they chat with Americans? Not, of course, that you’ve provided a shred of proof that any American citizens were wiretapped.
>we lied about yellow cake and WMD’s
Really? Not according to Joe Wilson hinmself, who actually named the official Saddam sent to negotiate with Niger about trade. Remember Baghdad Bob? It was him. Sorry, steve, but the sixteen words in the SOTU address were perfectly correct and accurate.
>we leaked classified intelligence to try and destroy
>citizen Wilson
Bush declassified parts of the National Intelligence Estimate, which has nothing at all to do with either Wilson or Plame.
Please, just stop all the lying, steve. Please. It truly disgusts me. I can’t imagine how can you even face yourself in the mirror, with all the BS and lies you spew every day.
Nero can spy on terrorists not American citizens like the Quakers in Florida. If there was yellow cake, why did Nero explain to us all that he “should not have put those 16 words in the State of the Union address”? The NIE, was not declassified until 10 days after Cheney, told Libby to feed Miller only the parts that supported Nero’s positions on his war in Iraq and not the parts that did not. That is selective leaking. But, this is the kind of thing that happens when you illegally and pre-emptively invaded another country. Peace