Lawyer: " Bush Left Leak Details to Cheney"

[npincus]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060408/D8GS3V5G0.html

drip... drip... drip.... so B*sh is throwing Cheney under the bus? Like the Don of a Mafia Family requesting a hit, not wanting to dictate or know the manner of execution: strangulation, gunshot or decapitation. Not important. Instead of a bloody ear or limb returned to prove the deed was done, B*sholini waited for the NIE secrets to appear under Judith Miller's by line, and the public character assassination of Joe Wilson.




WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.

Bush merely instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.

It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified document that detailed the intelligence community's conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The new information about Bush and Cheney's roles came as the president's aides have scrambled to defuse the political fallout from a court filing Wednesday by the prosecutors in the complex, ongoing investigation into whether the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic.

[darkmaestro019]

1. Hot potato, Georgie.

Throw it! Throw it! Quick! Before you burn your wittle soft hands!

[Karmakaze]

2. Of course we know why they wont say when it was declassified...

They don't want to set a date in case someone else comes forward and says they were told BEFORE that date.

[ClintonTyree]

4. And this is the ONLY reason I can't believe MIHOP....

or LIHOP in regards to 9/11/01. In a successful web of deceit everyone must be on the same page and have an iron-clad story with absolutely no deviation whatsoever. This bunch of clowns can't keep anything straight. They're not all that bright and can't keep their stories straight from one moment to the next. Everything else regarding 9/11 points to some sort of conspiracy in my opinion, but one look at these guys dispels any such notion.

[H2O Man]

3. I saw this.

Bush isn't going to take the blame for this. Keep in mind the sentence from page 444 of Wilson's book:

"Apparently, according to two journalist sources of mine, when Rove learned that he might have violated the law, he turned on Cheney and Libby and made it clear that he held them responsible for the problem they had created for the administration."

That sentence takes on new meaning when one adds the new information about George's role, does it not?

[gademocrat7]

5. I agree

shrub has never taken the blame for any of his failures throughout his life.

[opihimoimoi]

6. They have LOST their Credibility and Respect...No one believes

Bush and Cheney....we have Deciet Fatigue as a Nation...hence those horrible low numbers for Bush.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Smoke gets in your eyes...

while DarkVadar is burning Fubar

[originalpckelly]

8. Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra Defense

This will stick, however, because Ronald Reagan never authorized torture.