Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak

Associated Press ^ | 4/6/06 | Pete Yost

[rwfromkansas]

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.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak that Cheney told him to pass on the information and that it was Bush who authorized the leak, 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 Plame's CIA identity.

[rwfromkansas]

Oh man. This is just lovely.

[weegee]

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Plame's CIA identity.

Someone needs to inform the Bush haters at The Smoking Gun...

Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak

[rwfromkansas]

Interesting.

[nutmeg]

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.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak that Cheney told him to pass on the information and that it was Bush who authorized the leak, 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 Plame's CIA identity.

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Always Right]

Someone needs to inform the Bush haters at The Smoking Gun...

Damn, I know the MSM headlines are misleading, but you would think the Smoking Gun would at least read the story before making a completely false headline.

[RockinRight]

Will this non-story never end?

[Always Right]

This was not even a 'leak', it was a legal release of information. The President is authorized to do that.

[weegee]

The left lies. Always.

I hadn't seen such an act from The Smoking Gun before but that doesn't mean they haven't been guilty of it in the past.

And yet thousands of Rats will now forward the headline to *thousands of people (left and right).

The DNC's job has been done.

[ruschpa]

Did anyone see CNN? The anchor on the show just said that Bush gave out Plame's name as the CIA agent, which is wrong!

[weegee]

Yes. When the Rats have assumed power and thought control once again.

[areafiftyone]

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.

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.

[weegee]

Get Rush to play that audio clip. Nail the lying liars to the wall.

[mrsmith]

.

Pete Yost is used by Dem sources to release "secret" information in a way to make it sound like something else.

[Wristpin]

That's why it's good to be Prez... I think this is a preemptive strike about the NSA leak case. When the Dems are implicated they can claim "everybody does it!".

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Too bad the papers don't say what it is that President Bush authorized to be leaked.

What if it was just a routine press release?

[angkor]

Depending as usual on the naivete of the American Public and the MSM, AP fails to mention that all classification and declassification authority derives solely and absolutely from the President Of The United States, not from some nitwit cabal of Beltway reporters, bureaucratic leakers, and K Street lawyers.

By definition, when the President authorizes any change in classification, his order trumps any other person, position, or institution. The President cannot "leak" or delegate "leaking" to his subordinates.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 12958: CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION

Sec. 1.4. Classification Authority. (a) The authority to classify information originally may be exercised only by:

(1) the President;

(2) agency heads and officials designated by the President in the Federal Register; or

(3) United States Government officials delegated this authority pursuant to paragraph (c), below.

[trubluolyguy]

Stick a fork in somebody cause something smells done.

[stuartcr]

As if we will ever know the truth...

[visualops]

Bush hates leaks.
This has got to be totally twisted.
You can bet the general MSM-watching public will never learn the truth, though.

[Blackirish]

This will leave a mark.