Murray Waas: Bush Administration, CIA Leak and Bob Woodard

[RedEarth]

......

Did the leaks to Woodward damage national security? Michael Scheuer, the CIA’s former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit, wrote in his book Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror:

“After reading Mr. Woodward’s Bush at War, it seems to me that the U.S. officials who either approved or participated in passing the information—in documents and via interviews—that is the heart of Mr. Woodward’s book gave an untold measure of aid and comfort to the enemy.”

What was not known by Scheuer at the time was that officials on the “seventh floor” of the CIA were literally ordered by then-CIA director George Tenet to co-operate with Woodward’s project because President Bush personally asked that it be done. More than one CIA official co-operated with Woodward against their best judgment, and only because they thought it was something the President had wanted done or ordered.

One former senior administration official explained to me: “This was something that the White House wanted done because they considered it good public relations. If there was real damage to national security—if there were leaks that possibly exposed sources and methods, it was not done in this instance for the public good or to expose Watergate type wrongdoing. This was done for presidential image-making and a commercial enterprise—Woodward’s book.”

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Without any irony, Woodward didn’t seem to understand how far he had come from meeting Mark Felt in the dead of night in a parking garage. (For a blogger who does not link much, or like to, in that great blogger tradition, I highly recommend that last link.)

Did Woodward disappoint Bush with his next book? This blog likes to speak no opinions. Our saying is: We blog, you decide. One can skip a read of the book, and go simply to the index, in making their own judgments:

Here are some entries:

http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2006/02/did-bush-administration-authorize-leak.html

[tularetom]

1. Has anyone besides me noticed

the virtual disappearance of Woodward from cable and network news and pundit shows since the news of his involvement in the Plame affair came out?

[Me.]

2. He's Been Around

He's pushing Cheney as the pug candidate for '08.

[gizmo1979]

3. He was on with Bernstein

larry King live last week shilling for the white house tsk tsking Bernsteins doom and gloom about New Orleans debacle.