very misleading headline. As the 2006 elections draw near look for even more anti-Bush Admin truthiness than usual from our ".4th estate" wankers.
Tony Locy
| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Home Front: Politix | ||
| Libby authorized to share NIE data on Iraq with reporters | ||
| 2006-02-10 | ||
| A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003. The NIE is a report prepared by the head of the nation's intelligence operations for high-level government officials, up to and including the president. Portions of NIEs are sometimes declassified and made public. It is unclear whether that happened in this instance. In a Jan. 23 letter to Libby's lawyers, Fitzgerald said Libby also testified before the grand jury that he caused at least one other government official to discuss an intelligence estimate with reporters in July 2003. "We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors," Fitzgerald wrote. White House spokesman Scott McClellan refused to comment. "Our policy is that we are not going to discuss this when it's an ongoing legal proceeding," he said. William Jeffress, Libby's lawyer, said, "There is no truth at all" to suggestions that Libby would try to shift blame to his superiors as a defense against the charges.
Libby, 55, was indicted late last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and the grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters. He is not charged with leaking classified information from an intelligence estimate report. Plame's identity was published in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports. Wilson's revelations cast doubt on President Bush's claim in his 2003 State of the Union address that Niger had sold uranium to Iraq to develop a nuclear weapon as one of the administration's key justifications for going to war in Iraq.
In the summer of 2003, White House officials — including Libby — were frustrated that the media were incorrectly reporting that Cheney had sent Wilson to Niger and had received a report of his findings in Africa before the war in Iraq had begun. In an effort to counter those reports, Libby and other White House officials sought information from the CIA regarding Wilson and how his trip to Niger came about, according to court records. Fitzgerald, in his letter to Libby's lawyers, said he plans to use Libby's grand jury testimony to support evidence pertaining to the White House aide's meeting with former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. | ||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Fitz is a total twat. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-10 21:18 |
| #5 No Nimble, It's a total con. Someone [Patrick Fitzgerald/staff/media or all three] is trying to get the WH and Libby to bite on a rumor. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-02-10 21:16 |
| #4 Tehre is a game of chicken going on between Libby and the WH. They have thrown him to the wolves in the sense that he isn't getting legal support from the WH. That makes it expensive for Libby. I am certain that he knows embarrassing things. I am also certain that he needs assistance with legal fees. Connect the dots. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-10 12:34 |
| #3 I posted the following on a liberal website and they went nuts: "Dick Cheney (as the Vice President) is one of the few people in the U.S. that has classification authority in the U.S. Because of that he can authorize the dissemination of any classified document or activity that he wants." Of course the statment I made is true but it was like knocking down a hornets nests. I still don't see what this has to do with the Valerie Plame case and why Fitzgerald choose to make this public. I suspect that Fitz is still fishing and realizes he case is on very shaky ground. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-02-10 12:14 |
| #2 From Powerhouse - "Unclear"? How is it "unclear"? The NIE has been declassified since the summer of 2003, and we have quoted from it many times since then. These proceedings from the House of Representatives show that the NIE had been declassified no later than July 21, 2003. So it's not exactly a mystery whether "that happened in this instance." There are only two alternatives here: either AP reporters are too lazy to spend 30 seconds on Google to educate themselves as to what happened during the ancient history of 2003, or they write articles that are deliberately misleading. By the way, the 2002 NIE was the document that indicated that the consensus of all American intelligence agencies was that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was a substantial threat to American security. No mention of that in the AP story, either. |
| Posted by: Elmains Spomomp5231 2006-02-10 07:17 |
| #1 AP, Yahoo, FOX, are running the headline: Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks very misleading headline. As the 2006 elections draw near look for even more anti-Bush Admin truthiness than usual from our ".4th estate" wankers. Tony Locy |
| Posted by: RD 2006-02-10 06:39 |