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.
I don't know quite what to make of this. But it'll be fun to read what others think of it.
UPDATE: Some more details-including responses to the revelation-are available in the NY Times story here. Also, via Froomkin we give credit where credit is due to the NY Sun for breaking the story first (the link appears down right now so keep trying.)
UPDATE II: It's important to note that even if Bush did authorize this disclosure, he still didn't do anything illegal. But that doesn't mean it's not a problem. This note from the above Post story sums it up nicely:
That's the problem, and charges of hypocrisy are now flowing forth.Under a March 2003 executive order issued by Bush, the president has the authority to declassify -- and thus disclose -- intelligence information, and Cheney has also asserted that authority. But both men have repeatedly criticized the leaking of sensitive intelligence to the news media, and the administration has ordered investigations of leaks concerning a National Security Agency eavesdropping program and the existence of secret overseas CIA prisons for terrorist suspects.
UPDATE III (Final update?): Kevin Drum points out that despite the claim that Bush could summarily declassify a document by his say-so (which so far nobody in the media or the blogosphere has really disputed) the administration still went through the normal de-classification process anyway. Maybe they were just covering their bases, but it's an interesting note.
2 comments:
I'm hopeful that this is not a lie on Libby's part to get his ass out of the fire, because it really sounds like a desperate strategy to blame the President. That's not the kind of enemy you want to make (nor Cheney, for that matter).
If it is the truth, it's so disgusting that I'm shocked that Bush could sink even further than he already has. And also if it's true: Forget censure, impeach him already.
You know I should say that it's entirely possible that Cheney is lying. But really, I just don't think anybody's lying here. I think Libby's telling the truth.
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