Lawyer: Bush Left Leak Details to Cheney

[kpete]

Lawyer: Bush Left Leak Details to Cheney By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 8, 6:52 PM ET

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.

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fs%2Fap%2F20060408%2Fap_on_go_pr_wh%2Fcia_leak_38%26printer%3D1%3B_ylt%3DAgtqUJJM_SLuUKUN30DFOP0Gw_IE%3B_ylu%3DX3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[linazelle]

1. Hmmmm. It took two days to come up with this lame excuse?

BushCo is in trouble.

[rodeodance]

2. well, folks, now we get the WH version (vs Libby's)--gonna be interesting.

On Friday, the White House argued there is an important different between disclosing sensitive information to further a public debate and leaking classified information that compromises national security. But the attorney said Saturday the president's instructions were not as specific as it might seem from both Fitzgerald's description of Libby's testimony and news accounts of it.