WP: Bush Better Take This Leak Seriously

[jbfam4]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2003Oct10.html

By John Podesta
Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page B07


As the allegations of intimidation-by-leaking -- "Intimigate" as some call it -- continue to unfold, the president's problems are multiplying. First, if press reports are accurate, he has a grave national security problem. Someone in the White House has made public the identity of a woman who may have been a "nonofficial cover" operative of the CIA, potentially causing multiple sources of intelligence to go cold. Second, he has a legal problem, for not only is a leak of this kind a breach of national security, it is also a grave criminal offense. Third, he has a political problem, as this story was brought to light by a senior administration official who apparently was so offended by efforts to discredit former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that he or she exposed the White House's connection to the leak to The Post. Finally, given the failure of the White House so far to demonstrate any urgency in addressing this growing scandal, he faces a loss of public trust.


For example, his aides initially told The Post that the president had no plans to ask his staffers whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer married to Wilson. His national security adviser, on national television, treated the matter as unsubstantiated press speculation rather than the grave security breach it was. His chief of staff and White House counsel waited more than 11 hours after notice from the Justice Department and more than two days after the story broke in The Post to instruct the staff to preserve records and e-mails concerning the matter. And, perhaps most disturbing, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie, was dispatched to virtually every cable outlet in the country to further discredit Wilson, a strategy one Republican aide on Capitol Hill referred to as "slime and defend."

If the administration opts to handle the matter proactively, it should take three immediate steps. First, it would be wise for the president to require everyone in the White House to sign a certification that he or she was not the source of the original leak to columnist Robert Novak or involved in "pushing the story" once Novak published. The latter may itself be a criminal violation if the person "pushing" knew that the United States was taking measures to conceal Mrs. Wilson's identity. Falsifying such a certification would be subject to penalty under Title 18, Section 1001 of the U.S. Criminal Code.


President Bush this week told reporters that we may never find out the real story here because the press "does a very good job of protecting the leakers." The press has a challenging role to play in our society in uncovering the truth, and to do that it sometimes must protect sources. So the press may well protect the leakers. The president should not.

[realFedUp]

1. Maybe the leaker's in the den with the Cheney energy meeting notes...

Doesn't seem to be any justice available right now....

[ThomWV]

2. Screw The Justice Department

Absolutly nothing short of an independent council's investigation of this matter is acceptable.

Write your representatives and demand it, no matter what their party and maybe its even more important if your representatives happen to be Republican.

Thom