DNC: LEAK DOUBLE STANDARD?

For Immediate Release
December 19, 2005

Contact: Karen Finney - 202-863-8148

LEAK DOUBLE STANDARD?

Washington, DC - During a rare press conference today, President Bush
repeatedly condemned the leaking of classified information regarding a legally
questionable domestic spying program, calling the disclosure "shameful" on two
separate occasions. At the same time, he never used that language to denounce
the illegal outing of a covert CIA agent by senior members of his
Administration. It is equally disturbing that Karl Rove, who is still under
federal investigation regarding the CIA leak, and was at the press conference,
still has his top secret security clearance.

President Bush Never Used the Phrase a "Shameful Act" to Describe the Leak of
Valerie Plame, Which He Did Twice Today to Describe Leaking of the Spying
Program.

Ø "My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this
very important program in time of war."

Ø "But it is a shameful act by somebody who has got secrets of the United
States government and feels like they need to disclose them publicly."


Senator Hatch Told the Press, Shortly After the Attacks of 9/11, of the Fact
that the U.S. Was Listening to Bin Laden's Satellite Phone. "U.S. intelligence
intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks
on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, according to Utah Sen.
Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'They have
an intercept of some information that included people associated with bin Laden
who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit,' Hatch said in an interview with
The Associated Press. He declined to be more specific. Hatch also said law
enforcement has data possibly linking one person on one of the four ill-fated
flights to bin Laden's organization."

The President has Given Information Related to Classified Material, According
to Reporter Bob Woodward. Woodward: "I would not agree. My - I've done two
books, as you know, on Bush and his war decision, the war in Afghanistan and
the Iraq War, and The Washington Post gave me months, or really, years to look
into these matters, and I developed all kinds of sources, got notes and
documentation, classified information about how these decision were made, and
people were willing to talk and answer questions, including the president, who
answered questions for three and a half hours with no restrictions, or
limitations, on the questions about how and why he decided to go to war in
Iraq. Now you may not like answers or you may like them, but he did answer and
the questions included all kinds of top-secret information, all kinds of
confidential conversations and so forth to the point that he, a number of
times, asked me 'Who told you that? There were only two people in the room.'
Or
something to the effect of how sensitive something was, but he decided he
would answer the questions, and so it's in a way extraordinary to have this
record of how and why he did what he did in that critical war decision." Fresh Air, 7/7/05, emphasis added]

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Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.
org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's
committee.

did the press once once bring up valerie plame and no outrage from the president then?

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