Wilson: Bush Not Party to Leak

The Clintonites are still in place because Clinton made most of them career as he was going out the door.

As for this:

Even if Bush WERE doing all he could do, it would take at least a generation of good conservative appointments and house cleanings to undo the damage.

I agree with that.

More specifically, they used to do this sort of thing for the military and other agencies, and now they do similar things in private practice for corporate security reasons.

I also work in an industry where there is an ethical distinction between corporate espionage and competitive intelligence. In that area, it is posible to pose as someone you are not in order to get information that you otherwise would not be able to either legally or ethically obtain. People misrepresent themselves to get information, working 'undercover' in a real sense of the word to get a competitors trade secrets, confidential information, or proprietary information.

Being 'undercover' and using your legal name is sort of stupid. I'm sure some people do it, but its a dumb idea. In my business, if you get caught with another company's secrets illegally, you can be charged under the Economic Espionage Act and if found guilty, pay $10K and 10 years for every disclosure of confidential information.

"Who is Walter Pincus?"

The Washington Post reporter who authored this particular report.

Several of us who have been following the Wilson story closely are also convinced that Pincus personally met with the Wilsons prior to the balloon going up and has been assisting Wilson on stage-managing his "leaks".

Let's see, first of all Wilson said it was Karl Rove who outed his wife. And then the quote comes out that he wanted to frog march Karl Rove out of the White House. And then Wilson said it wasn't Rove. But it was the White House. And oh oops, it wasn't the White House or President Bush, but someone outside the White House. And then he makes the quote. Sorry, this guy is all over the place with his story, in other words, he LIES. Like I said at the beginning of this thread, there is no there there.

I'm the first to admit I'm wrong. If the President thinks a crime has been committed, then I guess there has been a crime committed. Personally, I think he's wrong, but I'm not President either.

Here's the evidence: A quote by GWB today

"This is a serious charge, by the way. We're talking about a criminal action. But also hopefully we'll help send a clear signal we expect other leaks to stop as well," he said.

At issue is a US Department of Justice (news - web sites) investigation into whether Bush aides leaked Valerie Plame's name to journalists in July to punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, for publicly challenging the case for war in Iraq (news - web sites).

White House officials and the president himself have rejected calls from opposition Democrats to name an independent investigator into the mushrooming controversy.

"I've got all the confidence in the world the Justice Department (news - web sites) will be do a good, thorough job," Bush said during a joint press conference with visiting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. "I'd like to know who leaked."

The president has come under fire in some quarters for not launching an internal probe when the information came to light in July and for rejecting opposition Democrats' calls for an independent investigator.

"I take those leaks very seriously. And therefore, we will cooperate fully with the Justice Department," he told reporters Monday. "I want there to be full participation, because I am most interested in finding out the truth."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.