Bush's Search for Leakers Leads to His Mirror

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Mon, 10 Apr 2006 06:45:40 -0700

[Zepps_News] Carlson: Putsch a bad parody of OJ Simpson

 

 

 

 

 

Bush's Search for Leakers Leads to His Mirror

Margaret Carlson

 

 

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, former chief of

staff and close confidante to the vice president, looked into the maw

of a grand jury and disgorged words that few thought could be squeezed

out of him.

 

Libby told the grand jury, according to court documents obtained by

the New York Sun, that he was authorized by President George W. Bush,

through Vice President Dick Cheney, to spill classified information to

New York Times reporter Judith Miller. This Libby did, on July 8,

2003, over drinks at the St. Regis Hotel, a few blocks north of the

White House.

 

At the time, the Bush administration was shaken by revelations

undermining its carefully constructed justification for going to war

with Iraq. The latest blow had come two days earlier from former

Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who wrote an op-ed piece disputing the White

House claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in

Niger. Wilson had been sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate the

intelligence reports on which the claim was based.

 

To strike back, the president wanted to reveal to the one reporter who

had proved her willingness to serve as an administration scribe the

section of the National Intelligence Estimate that said Saddam had

``probably'' tried to secure such fuel.

 

No Denials

 

By not denying Libby's bombshell, the White House last week more or

less confirmed that the person the president swore would be punished

for leaking classified information was himself, and that his

oft-stated wish to find the leaker, in a bad parody of O.J. Simpson,

had been achieved.

 

Confronted with this revelation at a press briefing Friday, Bush

spokesman Scott McClellan split hairs. The president didn't leak

classified information, he ``shared information;'' ipso facto,

information is no longer classified if the president leaks it.

 

Secondly, McClellan said, by sharing information aimed at batting down

``wild accusations'' about weapons of mass destruction,

( Note: Bush and his administration were the ones making those wild

accusations ) the president is acting in the public interest, even if

cynics might think he's really acting out of political interest.

 

Secret Fiat

 

Whether the president can leak anything classified at any moment by

secret fiat while repeatedly vowing to track down and fire such

leakers depends on what you mean by ``declassify'' and ``leak.'' The

president didn't publicly report this information. Through Cheney, he

sent a top aide off to ``share'' it with a reporter, demanding that

she cite a Capitol Hill staffer as the source.

 

There's a process for declassifying information outlined in the

Executive Order on the subject, which the president followed 10 days

later when he released the whole National Intelligence Estimate.

 

What he did on July 8 was something quite different, according to

Jeffrey H. Smith, a former CIA general counsel. ``Declassification is

a formal act and the courts are clear on how it's done,'' Smith says.

``Instead, here selective portions of the NIE were released to a

single reporter. That's not declassification, that's a leak.''

 

Prosecute Them

 

The president has lots of authority, but it's not unlimited or without

hoops to jump through. For instance, the president has the authority

to pardon anyone he wants for any reason. But imagine if he'd told the

veep to tell Scooter to tell the warden at the Alderson, West

Virginia, prison to spring Martha Stewart early. He could never get

away with such a thing.

 

The president wasn't unaware of the leaks; he was on top of them. And

he isn't just a leaker, but a hypocritical one. He calls leakers of

intelligence treasonous and vows to prosecute them. There's at least

one official investigation going on now to track down and punish

whoever leaked the existence of Bush's warrantless wiretaps.

 

McClellan repeatedly insisted that Bush's power to declassify on a

whim was absolute on Friday, without citing any authority or

expressing any need to.

 

Of a Piece

 

It's all of a piece. Since Sept. 11, Bush has acted as if he can do

anything he wants because we're at war. How extensive are his war

powers and when do they end? When Osama's captured? When the Iraqi

Army ``stands up''? Before his term ends? He doesn't say.

 

And what are those powers? As the president interprets them, he can

round up anyone, hold and torture them as enemy combatants without

benefit of counsel or trial. He can fudge the number of troops and

amount of money needed in Iraq.

 

He can wiretap anyone without a warrant, even though getting a warrant

is swift, is nearly automatic, and can be sought retroactively.

 

Domestically, he also has a free hand. He can ignore settled

scientific judgments (and disband his science board, as he did last

week) and make his own intuitive judgments about global warming,

stem-cell research and the success of abstinence versus vaccines in

reducing sexually transmitted diseases. He can get rid of any

government employee who tells Congress or the public the true cost of

the prescription-drug bill or his tax cuts.

 

If there's justice in the world, the clip of Bush's promise to hold

the leakers responsible will replace, or at least accompany, every

replay of the tape of Bill Clinton's ``I didn't have sexual relations

with that woman'' whopper. Bush joins Richard Nixon and O.J. Simpson

and all the other Hall of Fame hypocrites who made such a to-do over

searching far and wide for the miscreants they saw in the mirror each

morning.

 

--

 

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government

talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court

order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order

before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

 

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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