Dean and Pelosi respond to Post article on Bush's leak

[ProSense]

Snip...

Governor Dean made some remarks this morning on the topic:

"Given that the President has been willing to de-classify information for political purposes, he should de-classify this report so that the American people can know if they were misled. We'll call today for de-classifying the report. I certainly hope the President or his Administration don't de-classify something else to try and discredit this report or this story before we can get to the real facts.

The onus is clearly on the President to clarify the situation surrounding this report. Was this incompetence, meaning that he did not know something that he clearly should have known, or is this instance of dishonesty where information was misused or withheld to support a political agenda."

Snip...

The American Propsect has more on Governor Dean's remarks.


http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/04/selective_decla.php

For The Post to characterize President Bush's leaking of portions of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq as "good" was astonishing. The president's selective leaking of highly sensitive intelligence for political purposes should be condemned, not praised.

The leak was not intended to inform, clarify or aid public debate. It was, instead, straight out of Karl Rove's politics-of-fear playbook. The motivation was to discredit a critic of Mr. Bush's Iraq policy.

The president has been caught red-handed doing what he publicly claims to abhor. Presidents should lead by example, including adherence to national security protocols for the proper declassification of sensitive intelligence. From the beginning the Bush administration has manipulated intelligence about Iraq to try to strengthen the president's political position.

The Post should stop condoning Mr. Bush's behavior and should join the call for an investigation of the administration's manipulation of intelligence for political purposes. Congressional oversight is long overdue.

NANCY PELOSI

U.S. Representative (D-Calif.)

Washington

The writer is the House minority leader.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101689.html

Link to "seven cases" offers a great summary.

By Kevin Drum
April 12, 2006
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE....Captain Ed defends the honor of the Bush adminstration in re The Case of the Dubious Mobile Bioweapons Labs:

Snip...

Nice try, but cutesy advertising jingles to the contrary, this episode fits the usual MO of the Bush administration perfectly: a flat statement of fact from the administration about intelligence matters that's made with great fanfare even though they know there's significant dissent within the intelligence community. I haven't been keeping my list of examples up to date, but here are seven cases of the exact same thing, and what they demonstrate beyond question is that you simply can't trust the Bush administration's public statements about intelligence issues. The bioweapons story is #8.

So: Intent to deceive? Check. Unreasonable decision? Check. Deliberate lie? Check.

more...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_04/008609.php

[Supersedeas]

1. FINALLY!!!

[sui generis]

2. infuriating thing to me is that Bush was willing to endanger

the lives of Plame's associates and other operatives with this disclosure. The very reason that we have laws to the effect of protecting intelligence identities is to protect our intel resources, both the intel and the lives of the Americans who provide it.

I don't like Dean's lateral snideness here. I wish he had given a direct frontal assault in his old Dean style.

The president did not declassify this information to the public by saying the information was now declassified at the time he did it. If his intention was to declassify information with that outcome, then he should have said so.

Once again, the president has been caught red faced in a lie, and a lie that immediately endangered the lives of our diplomats and intelligence officers at the time, and a lie that ultimately resulted in the deaths of thousands of loyal, dutiful American soldiers overseas.

Spit it out Dean.

[ProSense]

3. I'm glad to see these statement on Bush's leak. n/t