”A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
:patriot:
http://www.conyersblog.us/Memo to Sunday Talkers:
Please Get the Answers the American People Cannot
My friend, radio talk show host Stephanie Miller, is fond of saying that I must be getting carpal tunnel syndrome from all of the letters I have been sending to the President. Unfortunately, when I go to my mailbox every day, it is empty. More than 130 Members of Congress and more than 500,000 of the American people are still waiting for a response to questions we asked the President about the Downing Street Minutes.
Now we learn that the President of the United States is the Leaker in Chief via disgraced former White House aide Scooter Libby. Mr. Libby testified that the President authorized him to leak classified information about Iraq's alleged nuclear ambitions. He testified before a grand jury that "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized
to disclose the relevant portions of the ." All of this was part of a concerted effort to destroy Administration critic Ambassador Joe Wilson. This means the distortions and cherry picking of intelligence came from the top. This means the smears were officially sanctioned at the highest levels of government. This means that a President who claimed to abhor the leaking of classified information really meant that leaking classified information is a horrible and treasonous act when it hurts his credibility and the case for war, but a patriotic act when it helps the case for war.
I have a choice. I can either stand by and lead my constituents to believe I do not care that the President apparently no longer believes he is bound by any law or code of decency. Or I can act. Today, I -- and several of my colleagues wrote a letter to the President. We know he is unlikely to write us back. So the Sunday talkers have a choice too. Mr. Russert, Mr. Schieffer, Mr. Stephanopolous and even Mr. Wallace: you have the power to get some answers this weekend. Will you? Will you find out why the President thinks leaks that hurt his case for war or reveal a massive domestic spying operation are treasonous, but leaks that appear to support his policy positions are appropriate? Excuse me for my impertinence, but isn't ALL classified information supposed to be classified because its disclosure would harm national security? Will you find out what other leaks were officially sanctioned? Did the President or Vice President authorize the leaking of information that Ambassador Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA operative?
President Nixon said "if the President does it, it can't be illegal." The President's Press Secretary says today "here is a difference between providing declassified information to the public when it's in the public interest and leaking classified information that involved sensitive national intelligence regarding our security." With national security secrets being misappropriated for political ends and partisan smears, aren't we in Nixonian territory again?
--UPDATE: I couldn't let this one pass. The White House Spokesman says because of some "wild accusations that were flying around at the time....we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified be declassified, and that's exactly what we did." Excuse me, Mr. McClellan, but weren't the "wild accusations" the notion that Iraq had WMD and wasn't this leaking an effort to prop up those "wild accusations"?--
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
