For Immediate Release:Waxman: New Questions Raised About White House Role

[cal04]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 6, 2006
3:24 PM

CONTACT: Henry A. Waxman
Karen Lightfoot [phone]

New Questions Raised About White House Role In Leaking Classified Iraq Intelligence
Today in a letter to President Bush, Rep. Waxman asks for a full accounting of the President's and Vice President's actions in authorizing leaks of classified intelligence about Iraq, while at the same time concealing the President's knowledge of serious doubts about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The text of the letter follows:
Dear Mr. President:

Two recent revelations raise grave new questions about whether you, the Vice President, and your top advisors have engaged in a systematic abuse of the national security classification process for political purposes. News accounts suggest that the White House both (1) leaked classified intelligence information to further its faulty case for war and (2) improperly concealed information regarding your personal knowledge of serious doubts about this intelligence. These actions appear to violate your own executive order on handling classified information and - according to a new memorandum by the Congressional Research Service - represent an unprecedented expansion of the Vice President's role in this process. I request a full accounting of White House actions and full declassification and disclosure of all documents bearing on these critical questions.

Selective Declassification of NIE and Other Iraq Intelligence

According to an article published today in the National Journal, the Vice President's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, claims that you - through Vice President Cheney - authorized him to leak to the press classified information from an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate in order to blunt criticism from former Ambassador Joe Wilson about your improper use of intelligence in the run-up to war.<1> In testimony before the grand jury investigating the White House's leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA operative, Mr. Libby reportedly testified that "the Vice President had advised that the President had authorized to disclose relevant portions of the NIE."<2> Mr. Libby also reportedly testified that Vice President Cheney himself "authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq."<3> Both claims raise serious questions.

First, Mr. Libby's explanation that you authorized the leaks seems to contradict other facts. Mr. Libby claimed that he consulted David Addington, then counsel to the Vice President and now his chief of staff, who advised that your leak authorization "amounted to a declassification of the document."<4> Yet according to the National Journal, "only three people - the President, the Vice President and - knew that the key judgments of the NIE had been declassified." It is unclear why your leak authorization would have been concealed in this way if it was truly a declassification. In addition, on July 18, 2003, some time after Mr. Libby leaked this classified information to reporters, your Administration formally declassified portions of the NIE for public release, suggesting that the information had not been declassified until that time.


the rest of the letter
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0406-13.htm

[marmar]

1. I'm glad to see Dems putting on the full-court press on this...

Sorry about the sports metaphor. They're oozing out of me today.

[WhiteTara]

2. Thank you Henry Waxman

another American Hero. He has been on * like a cheap suit since he stole the election and hasn't wavered or given up.:patriot: