"the same administration that went ballistic at the leak of its spying pro

[rodeodance]

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/thedebate/?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

Posted at 08:16 AM ET, 02/13/2006
The Administration and the Law

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, has found himself back in the news over the last few days, thanks to reports like the National Journal's indicating that his defense against criminal charges will claim that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had encouraged and authorized him to share classified information.

If that turns out to be the case, it suggests a tidy little double standard: the same administration that went ballistic at the leak of its spying program has a history of encouraging leaks of classified information.

Such a contradiction wouldn't surprise those who have followed the warrantless surveillance controversy. Consider Bush's statement in 2004 that "a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." Of course, it turned out that as early as 2002 he had authorized wiretapping of Americans without said court order.

The administration's defense is a constitutional one: The president is constitutionally obligated to do whatever it takes to keep the country safe. As we've discussed here before, however, the Constitution delegates that particular power to Congress, while the president is required to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.".....

[Arkansas Granny]

1. I enjoyed Senator Jane Harmon's take on leaks yesterday on

Meet The Press.

MR. RUSSERT: The vice president said Congress would leak like a sieve. You couldn’t possibly brief that many people.

REP. HARMAN: I—I find that ironic, Tim, since one, these leaks came from the administration, nobody in Congress knew. Two, the White House declassifies the information it chooses to declassify, and there’s material in the newspapers that the vice president may have authorized his then-chief of staff Scooter Libby to talk about classified portions of the national intelligence program.

[leveymg]

2. Thanks for that heads up! I got the first post in, and invite others to

join the fun. Let's DU the Washington Post.

Here's my post, an excerpt from something I put up here first last Friday.

See, U.S. v. CHENEY: The Indictment
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/10/105540/799

Allegations made public that the Vice President "authorized" his aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to disclose classified CIA documents to the media may form the basis for indictments under several distinct federal statutes.

Those charges may include:

COUNT 1: Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 93 > Sec. 1924.

COUNT 2: Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 37 > § 793

COUNT 3. "Conversion" of Public Records
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 31 > § 641

COUNT 4. Conspiracy United States Code TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 19 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States


Given that these facts were presented to a federal Grand Jury, we should expect that Dick Cheney will, in fact, be indicted.

These are the crimes with which the Vice President will most likely be charged, based on what is publicly known about evidence held by Patrick Fitzgerald and testimony given to the Grand Jury.

The essence of the crime which Cheney stands accused is involvement in a conspiracy to unlawfully disclose classified documents. Specifically, we learned from a letter filed yesterday by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Cheney had told Libby to leak a classified CIA National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) related to Iraq's WMD programs. Murray Waas, The National Journal, "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Disclose Classified Information." http://nationaljournal.com/...

Following alleged instructions from Cheney, Libby testified that beginning with NYT reporter Judith Miller on July 8 2003, he released secret information contained in that document to members of the news media in order to bolster the case for going to war and in order to cast doubt on the accuracy and character of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame. The identity of Plame as an undercover CIA Officer was first published by columnist Robert Novak six days later.

According to a short inside pages New York Times report published last Friday, Mr. Libby revealed the classified details of the NIE to Ms. Miller ten days before that document was declassified. See, "Ex-Cheney Aide Testified Leak Was Ordered, Prosecutor Says"
http://www.nytimes.com/...

By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: February 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 -- I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, told a grand jury that he was authorized by his "superiors" to disclose classified information to reporters about Iraq's weapons capability in June and July 2003, according to a document filed by a federal prosecutor.

The document shows that Mr. Libby, known as Scooter, was actively engaged in the Bush administration's public relations effort to rebut complaints that there was little evidence to support the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed or sought weapons of mass destruction, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The document is part of the prosecutors' case against Mr. Libby, who has been indicted on charges that he lied about his role in exposing the identity of a C.I.A. operative to journalists.

The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said in a letter to Mr. Libby's lawyers last month that Mr. Libby had testified before the grand jury that "he had contacts with reporters in which he disclosed the content of the National Intelligence Estimate ('NIE')," that discussed Iraq's nuclear weapons capability. "We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors."

It should be noted about that Times story that neither the headline nor the lead paragraphs mention Cheney as anything other than Libby's former boss. One must read down to the bottom of the story to learn:

"Mr. Fitzgerald said in his letter that Mr. Libby discussed the contents of the classified report in a July 8 meeting -- 10 days before it was declassified -- with Judith Miller, then a reporter at The Times. Ms. Miller, who spent 85 days in jail before agreeing to testify in the leak case, has told the grand jury that Mr. Libby told her about Ms. Wilson at the same meeting."

The Washington Post reports that Libby met with Miller on that date in a downtown Washington, DC hotel, not in his office. According to the Washington Post, "On July 8, Libby met Miller, the reporter, for breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel at 16th and K streets. Asking that she attribute the information to a "former Hill staffer" -- he had once been legal adviser to a House select committee -- Libby criticized CIA reporting of Wilson's trip and "advised reporter Judith Miller of his belief that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA," the indictment states."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901478_pf.html

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Posted by: leveymg | Feb 13, 2006 10:10:03 AM