Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak

Smoking Gun ^ | 04/06/06 | Smoking Gun

[Mr. Brightside]

If Libby is trying to stall, this is the way to do it.

This would seem to require testimony from a sitting president.

... meaning that it would be 2009 before that would ever get resolved.

[Just mythoughts]

"........as well as a cable authored by Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. "


Does anyone remember anything about Wilson sending a "cable"?

[tobyhill]

That sounds too much like the MSM's excuse for using the subjective term. Listen to the differences, "Authorized Disclosure","Leak".

[Laverne]

Here is one of the threads, it has links to LIbby's filings on request to dismiss:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1607222/posts

There are two other threads on the Potempkin Prosection from American Thinker, that have links to the filings as well. Unfortunately, LIbby is not posting them on his own site.

The best site I have found is this one: It has the most comoprehensive discussion on the Libby case. I copies cboldt, howlin and starwise...all who have been very interested in this topic and have posted links to the pleadings. Maybe one of them can get you a direct link to Libby's pleadings.

Or go to: http://justoneminute.typepad.com/

[Bubbatuck]

This would seem to require testimony from a sitting president. ... meaning that it would be 2009 before that would ever get resolved.

Really? Is there a law saying the President can't testify in court?

[popdonnelly]

"Does anyone remember anything about Wilson sending a "cable"?"

No, but I'd like to see it.

[blinachka]

Ha! Tell that to the Lamestream Press! On ABC radio today, with such dramatic flair that cow (whose name escapes me presently) announced that "Mr. Bush authorized the leaks" and naturally mentioned the Valerie Plame brouhaha. They spin it with glee knowing the kooky left will lap it up like pigs at the trough believning that the PResident authorized the "leak" of super-duper secret-agent-spy Valerie Plame Wilson, therefore putting ALL our lives in danger....blah, blah, blah...

Ugh, I'm reeeeeaaaaalllly, sick of all this BS.

[STARWISE]

Ping

[Laverne]

Thanks starwise.

[Mr. Brightside]

Request for presidential tesimony PLUS claim of executive privilege PLUS ruling in Federal Court PLUS Federal Appeals Court appeal PLUS Federal Appeal Court Ruling PLUS Supreme Court appeal PLUS Supreme Court ruling EQUALS a very, very long time.

[Doctor Raoul]

As the top guy in the Federal Branch of government, Bush has the right to declassify information. If he decides to release it, it's no longer classified.

Note that they haven't said squat about whether it was the result was goog or bad. Wait a bit, the morons will catch up with DNC distributed "talking points" fill the holes in their arguement.

Also, so far it's "hearsay". Libby says Cheney said Bush said. Another hole in the liberal arguement.

[jimfree]

Bogus headline. The Bush administration released some facts to counter the Joe Wilson-gate lies.

[boomop1]

Smoking Dope should be the web site.

[Blogger]

Does that mean that Clinton had the right to "declassify" information to the Chi-Coms?

[SirLinksalot]

From Powerline Blog, the same source that helped bring down Dan Rather's "fake but accurate" story :

---

The Bush-hating side of the blogosphere is buzzing about the latest Plame-related news -- that Scooter Libby is said to have told the grand jury that he was authorized by President Bush, via Vice President Cheney, to leak "certain information" that was contained in the National Intelligence Estimate. That information was not about Valerie Plame. Nonetheless, Andrew Sullivan thinks that President Bush is "nailed." Tom Maguire thinks that Sullivan "can't read."

Andy McCarthy points out that there's no reason to believe that the "certain information" in question was even classified. According to McCarthy, "Almost certainly, what Libby was permitted to do was preview for certain reporters some of the highlights of what was shortly going to be made public in the NIE. That is, NOT disclose the classified information, but talk about what was going to be in the public domain."

JOHN adds; I'll repeat what I wrote this morning, for the sake of those lame liberals who keep emailing us to ask why we aren't talking about this "blockbuster" story.

This is the same "scandal" the press tried to sell a few months ago. I wrote about it here. The Sun article (unlike some other press accounts) explains clearly what was going on. Intelligence insiders like Joe Wilson were leaking a combination of falsehoods and minority views to the press in order to challenge the administration's decision to go to war with Iraq. This was deeply unfair. In October 2002, the intelligence agencies presented to the administration their "consensus estimate" with regard to Iraq's WMD programs. The consensus of all of the agencies (CIA, DIA, etc.) was, with a "high level of confidence":

Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding its chemical, biological, nuclear and missile programs contrary to UN resolutions.

We are not detecting portions of these weapons programs.

Iraq possesses proscribed chemical and biological weapons and missiles.

Iraq could make a nuclear weapon in months to a year once it acquires sufficient weapons grade fissile material.

The Bush administration naturally relied on the consensus of the intelligence agencies in making decisions about Iraq and in describing the dangers of Saddam's regime to the American people. This is why the "Bush lied" theme is so foolish.

In the summer of 2003, as noted above, the administration was besieged with leaks from liberals in the CIA and elsewhere, as well as op-eds by the likes of Joe Wilson, that misrepresented the state of the intelligence prior to the Iraq war. In order to deal with these false claims, the administration declassified the 2002 intelligence estimate. (It didn't help; the estimate remains a closely guarded secret among most MSM types.) The "leak" that you're reading about in headlines today was simply the permission given to Scooter Libby to describe the contents of the consensus intelligence estimate a few days before it was officially declassified [I think it would be more accurate to say, before it was made public]. So in the MSM, the liberals' false leaks are noble, while the administration's declassification of the report that shows them to be false, in response, is a scandal!

[gov_bean_ counter]

All leaks are not created equal. This is a feeble attempt at moral equivalents by the MSM trying to say that which the President released is no different than what "we" released.

[Delta 21]

BUSH was RIGHT.

Saddam Regime Document: SADDAM MET WITH HIS NUCLEAR GROUP IN 2002 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608944/posts

[lucysmom]

If the President authorizes disclosure then that negates the term "Leak". The MSM can't have it all ways.

Neither can the President.

[tarzantheapeman]

Can you be a little more specific?

[lucysmom]

Can you be a little more specific?

If Bush authorized the disclosure, then there was no leak and he knew it at the time he said:

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.

"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things." Bush said he has told his administration to cooperate fully with the investigation and asked anyone with knowledge of the case to come forward. Feb 11, 2004

He doesn't say there was a leak, but he doesn't say that there was no leak either. Nor does he say he disclosed the information as was his legal right. He apparently knew the truth at the time, and was in a position to clear up the case, sparing the country an investigation that has now gone on for two years and cost taxpayers - who knows how much.