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A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks

By Jeralyn, Section Valerie Plame Leak Case
Posted on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 06:09:41 PM EST
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Knights Ridder reporters say that Bush/Cheney's authorization to Scooter Libby to declassify and divulge classified information about Iraq "fits a pattern of selective leaks of secret intelligence to further the administration's political agenda."

Scott McClellan today tried to justify the Adminstration's actions:

Without specifically acknowledging Bush's actions in the Libby case, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters: "There were irresponsible and unfounded accusations being made against the administration suggesting that we had manipulated or misused that intelligence. We felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified be declassified."

McClellan didn't address why administration officials often declassified information that supported their allegations about Iraq but not intelligence that undercut their claims.

Here's a question I'm not seeing answered. If Libby was authorized to disclose newly declassified information to Judith Miller, and if it was all on the up and up, why did Libby, Cheney and Bush let her do 85 days in jail for refusing to say she got the information from Libby?

And, as Digby says, if they wanted to declassify and disclose information favorable to their case for war in Iraq, why didn't they call a press conference? Why did they give it to selected reporters? That's not disclosure to the public, that's a selective leak for partisan purposes.

There's two issues with Fitzgerald's filing. One is the Administration's failure to come clean about dissenting opinions on whether Saddam had WMD's. As Murray Waas reported, there's a one page piece of paper floating around that was given to the President in which doubts were expressed. Greg Sargent explains.

Let's state this as clearly as we can: Wass says there is a piece of paper out there which constitutes hard evidence that Bush withheld critical info from the American public as he made the most critical decision a president can make -- the decision whether to go to war. Jaded DC hands will say, "Old news -- everyone knew there was dissent within the bureaucracy." Fine. But Wass's story says more than that -- he says there's proof of the extent to which Bush knew of that dissent, that he deliberately concealed it from the public, and that Rove thought this fact could "severely damage" Bush's reelection prospects if it surfaced.

The other is whether Bush ordered the declassification of a document specifically for the purpose of discrediting Joseph Wilson (and by extension, his wife, Valerie Plame) to bolster his case for war.

If he declassified information to trash Wilson, that's a big problem.

< Cheney, Bush and the Missing Plame E-mails | Why Reid Was Right to Doom Immigration Compromise >

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    A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks | 16 comments (16 topical)
    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#1)
    by Darryl Pearce on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 06:46:11 PM EST
    ...a very cogent question. Sometimes even muddied waters can't hide the big rocks. Can I use your question when I write my letter to the editor?

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 07:08:42 PM EST
    as the facts unravel, it increasingly appears that administration officials did indeed attack Mr. Wilson for his speaking out; the leak of his wife's identity does indeed seem to have been done in harsh retribution. Such a violation of civil rights is a crime. Finally, even if Bush and Cheney both get away clean of criminal charges, or even the suggestion of criminal conduct, this is still devastating for the Administration. Illegal or not, the President and Vice-President's actions, as recounted by Libby, are ugly in the extreme. ...Fitzgerald's filings indicate that, at a bare minimum, these highest of officials played fast and loose with declassification rules as part of a scheme to take an uncalled-for revenge against a critic who dared to question an Iraqi war justification. Even more damning, is that the critic turned out to be right: Weapons of mass destruction have never surfaced, no uranium was sold by Niger to Iraq, and the Administration's call to arms was bogus. ... The Commander-in-Chief-can-do-no-wrong veneer is wearing off, thankfully. For a nation that cannot hold its commander-in-chief responsible is something other than a democracy.
    John Dean, April 07,2006

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#3)
    by Patriot Daily on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 07:18:25 PM EST
    Another question is when was the NIE declassified? Why were 2 declassifications sought for the same material that was leaked to Miller on the 8th? Either Bush's permission to leak did not constitute a declassification and so a 2nd declassification on the 18th by Hadley was needed to cover-up what would then have been an initial leak of classified material. Or, if Bush's permission to leak to Miller was a declassification, then it may be that the 2nd declassification process by Hadley was not lawfully required but politically required to hide Bush's personal involvement in the leak. Why else would they keep the 2nd declassification process secret from the CIA, etc except maybe to avoid questions that may uncover that Bush authorized the material to Miller, which just gives Fitzgerald another link of Bush to Plame case. The White House answer today to defend themselves gives credence to our theory because they stated Bush deemed the need to inform the public. Leaking to Miller is not the appropriate way to inform the public, particularly given Bush's statements on leaking. The way to inform the public is by declassification that was done only 10 days after the Miller leak.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 07:47:52 PM EST
    Yes, why let Miller do time? And, if this was such vital info for the American people to be aware of, and if there were no classification issues, why leak it to only a handful of reporters? Why not the usual sending Cheney, Rummy, & Condi out in front of the cameras with the info?

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 07:53:53 PM EST
    Hi Jeralyn -- thanks for your great mind / comments /insights /etc: Maybe while we're confirming all the long-suspected Shrub & Cheney leak/war/lies/shenanigans, you should re-subtitle your blog The Crime of Politics....just a thought. :-) Meanwhile, could you hurry and replace Chris 'bug-killer-loving, narcissitic sycophant' SpitBall Matthews on MSNBC? How do we get rid of that creep? We need to see you more on the telly! .:Another Highly Recommended Blog:.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#6)
    by squeaky on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 08:10:10 PM EST
    A clever marketing scheme......buy the NYT= find out first. A WHIG idea no doubt. The 'cone of silence' was in use when the NIE was declassified for Miller..........so it didn't count. McMellon knew the WH was buying very expensive DARPA gadgets based on 60's TV shows and cartoons. He was way too embarrassed to admit during todays press conference. No one would take him seriously anymore,

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#7)
    by oldtree on Fri Apr 07, 2006 at 10:01:10 PM EST
    you get the impression that judy has a nice blackmail scheme after this revelation about timing and supposed authorization of the leak she supposedly went to the pokey for? for a while there they had us thinking that only a few people knew about this leak. now it appears everyone knew. there is no one that has been surprised about this except the public, and many of us were only surprised at how they could hide it. wonder if she got a nice payoff for doing days in the slammer?. she knows something real damaging it appears, hmm? and so does fitzgerald. maybe he has her testimony and it isn't quite the same as what the administration thinks it is.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#8)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 08:53:48 AM EST
    Dan writes:
    Yes, why let Miller do time?
    Do you forget that Miller had a written release to tell all she knew? Well, she did.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#9)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 09:12:23 AM EST
    Miller and the NYT cooperated with Bush's re-election big time. Money has flowed far and wide because he won. Mata Hari Mattress Miller took the biggest fall to save Bush's presidency. She delayed the case for over a year. I m sure her payback is/was incalculable. If we live long enough to see the Miller memoir or a dem congress, we may find something out about the bounty she collected for her service.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 09:14:19 AM EST
    "fits a pattern of selective leaks of secret intelligence to further the administration's political agenda."
    Fri Apr 7, 9:58 AM ET President Bush's approval ratings hit a series of new lows in an AP-Ipsos poll that also shows Republicans surrendering their advantage on national security
    Sat Apr 8, 2:24 AM ET George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue.
    Coincidental?

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 10:06:57 AM EST
    Excellent observations! Basically their story is "If W says it's not a leak, then it's not a leak". Aah, more proclamations from King George and his merry henchmen.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 10:13:21 AM EST
    Do you forget that Miller had a written release to tell all she knew? Well, she did.
    She didn't think so her lawyers didn't think so and the NYT didn't think so. nice attempt at distraction tho. Next we'll hear 'but clinton did it' Besides, this post isn't about an isolated incident, it's about a pattern of corruption, about a party willing to sacrifice security for political gain. try to focus willya? Doing a 'gotcha' on one minor cherrypicked piece of distorted info might work on rush, but it fails to counter cogent facts.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#13)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 10:24:26 AM EST
    So the wingnut defense is that Bush gave Judy a permission slip for treason. Please, keep flogging that one 'til November.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#14)
    by Dadler on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 10:37:40 AM EST
    Even better, y'all, the White House is now claming the leaks were in the public interest.

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#15)
    by kdog on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 10:51:59 AM EST
    Crooked as a scoliosis stricken spine...isn't it obvious to all at this point? Jesus....

    Re: A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks (none / 0) (#16)
    by Andreas on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 01:06:41 PM EST
    Certainly in any halfway democratic country, the exposure of official misconduct and lying on the scale of the Wilson affair would bring down the government, especially one as unpopular and isolated as the Bush administration, whose approval rating in the latest AP-Ipsos poll fell to a low of 36 percent. But in the United States of 2006, the administration stands virtually unchallenged, because the ruling elite has essentially abandoned democratic methods of rule and the official bourgeois opposition, the Democratic Party, functions as an opposition only in a purely nominal sense.
    Bush approved security leak to smear Iraq war critic By Patrick Martin, 8 April 2006

    A Pattern of Partisan Intelligence Leaks | 16 comments (16 topical)