WASHINGTON — Vice President **** Cheney's former top aide told a federal grand jury that he believed President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.
Before his indictment for allegedly lying to that grand jury and to prosecutors, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby testified that Cheney told him to pass on the information and that it was Bush who authorized the leak, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to a July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and reporter Judith Miller of The New York Times.

ON DEADLINE BLOG: Libby links Bush to NYT leak

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer and the wife of administration critic and former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson.

It is not illegal for the president to "declassify" previously secret information. But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means — according to Libby's testimony — that the president and the vice president authorized him to act as a secret provider of information to reporters about pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

And it was during those conversations with reporters, prosecutors have alleged, that Libby spoke about Plame.

The alleged 2003 authorization came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism — including a Times opinion piece by Wilson in which he charged that the administration had misled the nation about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain uranium from Niger — regarding the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a main reason the president and his aides had given for justifying the invasion of that country.

Libby's participation in a critical conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003 "occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate," the papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated. The filing did not specify the "certain information."

"Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller — getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval — were unique in his recollection," the papers added.

Bush's political foes jumped on the release of Libby's testimony.

"The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put interests of his political party ahead of Americas security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said.

The president and the vice president have long said they abhor leaks, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers. The most recent instance is the administration's launching of a probe into who disclosed to The New York Times the existence of the warrantless domestic surveillance program authorized by Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Libby's testimony about intelligence information came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism about its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason the president and his aides had given for going to war.

Lawyers for Libby have asked for voluminous amounts of classified information from the government to help them prepare for his defense on five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame affair.

He is accused of making false statements about how he learned of Plame's CIA employment and what he told reporters about it.

Her CIA status was publicly disclosed eight days after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.

In 2002, Wilson had been dispatched to Africa by the CIA to check out intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger, and Wilson had concluded that there was no such arrangement.

Libby says he needs extensive classified files from the government to demonstrate that Plame's CIA connection was a peripheral matter that he never focused on, and that the role of Wilson's wife was a small piece in a building public controversy over the failure to find WMD in Iraq.

Fitzgerald said in the new court filing that Libby's requests for information go too far and the prosecutor cited Libby's own statements to investigators in an attempt to limit the amount of information the government must turn over to Cheney's former chief of staff for his criminal defense.

According to Miller's grand jury testimony, Libby told her about Plame's CIA status in the July 8, 2003 conversation that took place shortly after the White House aide — according to the new court filing — was authorized by Bush through Cheney to disclose sensitive intelligence about Iraq and WMD contained in a National Intelligence Estimate.

YAY!!!!!!!!! What a freakin' moron!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by LISAJUNKIEE:
"The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put interests of his political party ahead of Americas security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe,"

^scumbag
he is trying to destroy this country.

you know, it's things like this....and the patriot act......ever read the book 1984, by George Orwell? in an eerie way, it reminds me of that........

I agree sweetpea!

Delirium, I haven't read it but I can imagine what it's about. This stuff is so surreal, like something out of a Hollywood movie!! The evil dictator trying to take over the world by lying and playing on peoples feelings, slowly but surely robbing people of their rights, until, he makes all virtual slaves.

P.S. Read THE MATRIX (not the movie,lol) it reads like crazy sci fi ****, but it's all happening, just like it says.

Oh, it was written in 19forty-something [I don't recall] but it was a totalitarian society with secret police, thought police [very scary]

and I will check out that book!

yea, that's what these people want, total domination of the WORLD!!!!!!!!!

Nothing surprises me anymore! Impeach the S.O.B already!!!!

GGGAAWDDD, how many chances does this a.shole get already huh??

its almost over. lol