Bush authorized leak of sensitive intelligence

[bevin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_o...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

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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.

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No comment needed.

/Bevin

[Nicodema]

Comes as no surprise, either.

[Dr. Shane]

It has already been established the "leak" wasn't illegal. Lewis Libby was indited for purgery - the same thing they got Bill Clinton for. Just like Clinton, the cover-up is worse than the "crime".

[bevin]

That's right - and Bush was going order a big investigation it to discover who did it.

And, what do you know, HE DID IT.

He knew that all along, of course. Or maybe not - maybe his left brain doesn't know what his right brain is doing.

What a riot.

/Bevin

[Nicodema]

Fuller treatment of the debacle by the local paper:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040600333.html

My boyfriend commented with the following:

"And still no impeachment. That must've been one super-satanic, world-threatening b***j** Clinton got if they impeached him."

(Unchallenged.)

[Pockey]

It was toe curling.

[Dr. Shane]

Actually, the anti-Bush crowd is jumping to conclusions. What Lewis "Scooter" Libby said was "Dick told me that George said..." No documentation has been entered into evidence. The White House is not making any comment on that issue specifically although they are confirming that Bush did declassify documents in order to defend the action taken in Iraq.

W.House does not dispute Bush leak allegation

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Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, told a federal grand jury that Cheney had told him Bush authorized him to disclose information from a secret National Intelligence Estimate to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

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The court documents did not say that Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Plame's identity.

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McClellan said the release of the declassified information was very different from what he called the potentially damaging leak of information about Bush's domestic eavesdropping program which aims to track phone calls and e-mails in the United States to suspected al Qaeda contacts abroad.

"Democrats who refuse to acknowledge that distinction are simply engaging in crass politics," he said.

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[CyberGuy]

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"And still no impeachment. That must've been one super-satanic, world-threatening b***j** Clinton got if they impeached him."

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Right now the democrats do not control the house. If they gain control of the house in 2006 then an impeachment is very likely to be tried. But even if they do impeach it takes 67 votes in the senate to remove Bush and that will not happen. I think it will be tried just to get even for the impeachment of Clinton.

[Dr. Shane]

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I think it will be tried just to get even for the impeachment of Clinton.

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I think most Americans will see that.

[CyberGuy]

Yeah I know americans will see that but there is a love/hate relationship between the american people and President Bush. Some hate his guts and others think he is sent of God to save our country. Shrug. I am more of a moderate on that subject but my cousin is rabidly anti Bush to the point it is a joke at family get to gathers. My brothers and I do like to yank his chain at Christmas dinners over his political views on Bush.

[Bravus]

If Bush is impeached, it will be because of something he has done, not tit-for-tat over Clinton. It's not as though there are no grounds: he has openly admitted breaking the law by not going to the FISA board for warrants, and said that he intends to continue doing so. That is a crime under US law.

[Dr. Shane]

Actually he has not admitted to breaking the law. He has admitted to doing what he has been accused of doing but has stated that he doesn't believe he was breaking the law. If Bush is impeached Chenney becomes President.

Democrats tend to follow the polls much more than Republicans do. Unless the American public wants to impreach the President, it is not likely to happen.

[Nicodema]

I think that's the main hindrance to impeachment, really: the possibility of Cheney becoming prez.

[Dr. Shane]

That is what a lot of Democrat supporters didn't grasp during the Clinton impeachment. I can't say how many times I heard that the Republicans were trying to undo an election. If they could have undid the '96 election that would have made Bob Dole president. If Clinton had been convicted of impeachment that would have made Gore president. He would have then been re-elected and GW Bush would have never become President.

The solution for the phone-tapping senario isn't impeachment anyway. It is to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

[Bravus]

Yes, he *has* admitted to breaking the law. The law, as it stands now, requires warrants from FISA before wiretapping begin, or within 72 hours. Bush has admitted publicly to ordering such wiretapping without obtaining warrants. You can argue all you like about his justifations for it, but as the law stands, he broke it, admitted breaking it and said he intends to go on breaking it.

[Neil D]

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Shane said:

It has already been established the "leak" wasn't illegal. Lewis Libby was indited for purgery ....

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[:"green"]Some of this info is NOT true and designed to mislead.

Consider the following article for the Duluth News Tribune- [/]

White House offers no leak denial

POLITICS:Administration spokesman Scott McClellan says information was declassified to inform public debate about the war in Iraq.

BY TOM HAMBURGER AND PETER WALLSTEN

LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday appeared to confirm that President Bush had authorized a leak of classified information about pre-Iraq war intelligence, describing the release of such information as beneficial for the "public interest."

The statement came the day after disclosures in court documents that the White House, despite Bush's frequent criticisms of leaks, secretly provided material to a reporter in early July 2003. The government did not announce declassification and publicly release the material for another10 days.

"There were irresponsible and unfounded accusations being made against the administration, suggesting that we had manipulated or misused that intelligence (to justify going to war)," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around ... we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified, be declassified. And that's exactly what we did."

McClellan on Friday repeatedly said the release of the material was intended to inform public debate about the war. But the controversy has reignited long-standing complaints that the Bush White House uses intelligence data for political advantage -- particularly in making the case for invading Iraq and then defending the war in the midst of the 2004 re-election campaign.

[:"green"] You can find the rest of the article here,,,, [/]

Discussion: It is my understanding any classified document that is leaked to the public is usually a misdimeanor offense and can be considered treasonous depending upon the severity of the leak. It is considered treasonous if a leak endangers the lives of operatives outside the country. Valery Plame was NOT outside the country, but she is a CIA operative and can no longer be used as such outside the ountry. Nor can any of her cover information be used, and it threatens any other CIA operative in cross referencing the same cover information on other CIA operatives.

At the time of the leak, this information was classified. It was only 10 days later that the President 'unclassified " this information..... Sounds treasoous to me...

[Dr. Shane]

The FISA law has not been accepted by any President since it was created and has not been tested by the Supreme Court. I agree with it and disagree with the Bush Administration about this issue. However every President elected since the FISA law was passed has ordered wire taps without warrents including President Carter and President Clinton. If it is an impreachable offense they should have been impeached too. Well, Clinton was impreached but not for that.

Abolish FISA - Wallstreet Journal Op Ed Page

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What FISA boils down to is an attempt to further put the executive under the thumb of the judiciary, and in unconstitutional fashion. The way FISA works is that it gives a single judge the ability to overrule the considered judgment of the entire executive branch. In the case of the NSA wiretaps, the Justice Department, NSA and White House are all involved in establishing and reviewing these wiretaps. Yet if a warrant were required, one judge would have the discretion to deny any request.

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Passed in the wake of the infamous Church hearings on the CIA, FISA is an artifact of post-Vietnam and post-Watergate hostility to executive power. But even as Jimmy Carter signed it for political reasons, his own Attorney General declared that it didn't supercede executive powers under Article II of the Constitution. Every President since has agreed with that view, and no court has contradicted it.

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[Bravus]

Majority: Bush acted illegally or unethically in leak case

Finally, there's some good polling news for the White House: According to a Gallup poll out this morning, only 25 percent of the public is "closely" following the news about the president's involvement in leaking classified information to the press.

The bad news: Sixty-three percent of the public thinks Bush acted either illegally (21 percent) or unethically (42 percent) in the leak case. Only 28 percent of the public believes the president did nothing "seriously wrong." As Gallup notes, interviewing for the poll began just one day after news of Bush's role hit the press -- meaning that Bush's numbers on the leak case could well get worse before it's over.

Gallup reports that Bush's overall approval rating is holding steady at 37 percent.

[Ron Lambert]

It has not been proven yet that Bush authorized the leak of Vallerie Plame's CIA roll. If he did, then that is certainly an impeachable offense. But we have to be sure we are separating Democrat wishful thinking from fact. The Democrats lost the House, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court. Obviously, they are really desperate. But the first thing they should do is recognize that they have only themselves to blame for alienating voters. If they would get rid of the left wingnuts like Dean, Kerry, Kennedy, and Gore, and restore moderate centrist control of the party, they might have a chance. Nothing else will ever work, no matter what they try, or how hard.

[Bravus]

Agreed that the leak Bush has admitted to and in fact defended was not that of Plame's identity. It's not yet clear whether that was Libby's own work or Cheney's. But I think it's more than the Democrats who are getting desperate to get rid of Bush - the majority of the people also seem to think the same way. (But polls don't predict elections because seats are not randomly/evenly distributed by population like polls are.)

I also agree that the Democrats seriously need to get their act together, find a leader, find a message and put their shoulders to the wheel... the lack of a credible alternative government weakens democracy.