NYT Analysis: First a leak, now a jam

[Tiggeroshii]

For President, First a Leak; Now, a Jam By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 7 — That President Bush authorized an aide to disclose classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons, as asserted in court papers, comes as no shock to official Washington. The leaking of secrets has long been a favored tool of policy debate, political combat and diplomatic one-upmanship.

"We've had leaking of this kind since the administration of George Washington," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.

But the accusation that Mr. Bush, through Vice President Dick Cheney, authorized the aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., to fight back against critics of the war by discussing a classified prewar intelligence estimate comes at a particularly awkward time for the administration.

And Mr. Libby's account, describing Mr. Bush's approving Mr. Cheney's request in 2003 that Mr. Libby, then the vice president's chief of staff, share reports on Iraqi weapons with a reporter for The New York Times, bares behind-the-scenes details that usually do not emerge until long after an administration has left office.

For months, Mr. Bush and his top aides have campaigned against leaks of classified information as a danger to the nation and as criminal acts. A Washington Post report on secret overseas jails run by the C.I.A. and a New York Times report on domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency have led to criminal investigations, and scores of intelligence officers have been ordered to take polygraph tests.




http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/washington/08assess.html?hp&ex=1144468800&en=351fd0db81455552&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Ready4Change]

1. Leak, or exposure of classified security information.

Nearly blew my top this evening. A news show made this statement, and used Clinton telling Begallia (who worked for Clinton at the time) that if a bill passed congress he was going to veto it.

Like that is somehow on anywhere NEAR the same level as the exposure of an entire chain of covert WMD intelligence gathering operatives, during a time of war in which WMD information is CRUCIAL!

:mad: :grr: :nuke:

Arghghghg. Can't even type about this.

[snowbear]

2. And it wasn't even the TOP story on the NBC Evening News

Really blew me away when Brian Williams rambled on and on about the Senate going on their Easter break without settling the Immigration deal first.

Bush and his latest LIE should have been the lead story!! :mad:

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Go back to school Rick.

"We've had leaking of this kind since the administration of George Washington," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.

Well Rick, we haven't, as there wasn't the set of classification laws and executive orders in place today back in George's time. The current rules date to approx. 1947, and more specifically to Executive Order 12958, issued by one W.J. Clinton and amended by one G. W. Bush. That relatively recent regulation requires that a classified document can only be declassified through a series of procedures that include first and foremost a document called a 'declassification guide'. It is the lack of a declassification guide that predates the deliberate spewing of portions of an NIE to certain friendly journalists that is a serious legal problem for the administration.