Libby: Bush Outed Valerie Plame (from John Conyers)

[ProSense]

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

Libby: Bush Outed Valerie Plame

According to documents submitted in his defense, Scooter Libby alleges that President Bush provided the authorization to leak Valerie Plame's identity and destroy her career as an intelligence agent. So why is everyone reporting this story by explaining that the President declassified the National Intelligence Estimate? This is true, but the real story here is not the President leaking, or declassifying, the NIE. If what Libby alleges is true, the story is about the President telling the world that he would fire anyone who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame when he knew it was himself. In fact, the President said:

Q Given -- given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?

THE PRESIDENT: That's up to --

Q And, and, do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.

Q My final point would be -- or question would be, has Vice President Cheney assured you --

THE PRESIDENT: It's up to the --

Q -- subsequent to his conversations with them, that nobody --

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't talked to the Vice President about this matter, and I suggest -- recently -- and I suggest you talk to the U.S. Attorney about that.

Well, not only had he spoken to the VP about this, according to Libby, but he expressly directed Cheney to use this sensitive information against Plame.

Very clearly, the story here is did the President tell the truth to the American people about the leak and who is going to get fired?

MediaMatters.org has extensive coverage of the reporting on Libby's statement.

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000420.htm

[savemefromdumbya]

1. and there we have it!

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. thank you conyers!

This president lied, pure and simple, for political purposes -- for vindictive political purposes. People have died and continue to die because of this president's lies.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1097640

[billybob537]

3. Okay now CHIMPY Mc Slurrrr

FIRE YOURSELF!

[Emillereid]

4. Wasn't there a law during Bush Sr.'s time specifically making it a crime

to divulge the name of an undercover intelligence person??

[reichstag911]

5. See...

... http://foi.missouri.edu/bushinfopolicies/protection.html (from 1982).

[Emillereid]

6. If I'm reading that right -- Bush did break the law big time!

[reichstag911]

8. There's a difference between "classified" documents...

...and a "covert" agent. Agents aren't classified documents; they can't be unilaterally declassified by presidential fiat. The question here, though, is whether and to what extent Bush's declassification of the NIE information included information on the name/employment of Plame. What is not in dispute -- except by those deluded souls in FReeperland -- is that the leak of the NIE was part of a concerted effort to discredit Joe Wilson after his NYTimes editorial accusing the Bush admin of manipulating/fabricating intel.

[Emillereid]

10. What I am picking up is that in the declassification of documents Bush

'outed' an undercover CIA operative (which is against a law his father enacted- http://foi.missouri.edu/bushinfopolicies/protection.html

[formernaderite]

7. weirdly this pres is starting to resemble the bumbling fool on 24

except they're really not fools....theyre obviously evil.

[worldgonekrazy]

9. Unfortunately, Conyers is wrong

According to documents submitted in his defense, Scooter Libby alleges that President Bush provided the authorization to leak Valerie Plame's identity and destroy her career as an intelligence agent. So why is everyone reporting this story by explaining that the President declassified the National Intelligence Estimate? This is true, but the real story here is not the President leaking, or declassifying, the NIE. If what Libby alleges is true, the story is about the President telling the world that he would fire anyone who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame when he knew it was himself.

Conyers is wrong.

Libby said that Cheney told him that Bush authorized the leak of portions of the National Intelligence Estimate to Judith Miller.

This is not the same as Bush authorizing the leak of Valerie Plame's identity.

The two are intertwined as part of a broader conspiracy to:
a) discredit Joe Wilson
b) try to bolster the claim, weakened by Wilson's opposition, that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger.

But Conyers is not helping here by saying that Libby said that Bush authorized the leaking of Plame's identity, because as far as we know that is not true.

[Emillereid]

11. Read this:

http://foi.missouri.edu/bushinfopolicies/protection.html

[worldgonekrazy]

13. That is certainly an interesting read

Thanks for posting it.

However, as far as we know, Bush did not authorize the Plame leak. Unless Plame was identified in the portion of the NIE document that Bush DID authorize Libby to leak, you can't claim that Bush broke the law preventing people from outing covert agents.

(But clearly, SOMEBODY did. My bet is Cheney.)

[ProSense]

12. "Scooter Libby alleges that President Bush" not wrong! NYT and AP

Libby Says Bush OK'd Leaks, Filing Alleges
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_26

Cheney's Aide Says President Approved Leak
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/washington/07leak.html?ex=1144555200&en=0dfffc43c8bd4eda&ei=5087


Treasongate: Libby and the NIE "key judgements"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2555767&mesg_id=2555767


Your Credibility Is Leaking
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2555026&mesg_id=2555026