The Bush 'leak' - Are we missing something?

I watched Snotty this morning and kept waiting for one of the reporters to ask this question:

If Bush authorized 'leaking" the information that was given to Judith Miller why didn't he just come clean with it when the story broke? Why act so damn concerned? Why tell the press he would fire anyone in his administration who leaked?

It would have been the end of the story if Bush had just said that he had authorized the release of this information. No biggie. Happens all the time.

Instead we have an investigation that has cost taxpayers millions, has resulted in a reporter being sent to jail and a senior staffer indicted for lying. For what? Why all the smoke and mirrors for something that apparently wasn't illegal in the first place.

If this is really no big deal, like Snotty implies, then why have we spent all this time and money getting to this? Wouldn't it have been easier and more straight forward to just say, "This information in the article was recently declassified."

I think there is something else going on here. Don't know what, though. Perhaps someone can shed some light on it.

Mz Pip
:dem:

and wanted to find out who it was?


of course all this "inherent power of the president" crap is just yet another argument of convenience for the do-what-i-want-first, rationalize-it-later banana republicans.

We need to turn up the heat on this scumbag GONZALES!!

Declassifying information and releasing it to the public isn't really that uncommon. Why all the layers? Why all the lying?

Mz Pip
:dem:

Pretty obvious to me.

But if Bush did not break the law and legally declassified the NIE, then we should be able to request our own copies of it.

process. It's a pretty well-defined legal process. Show us the paper.

I think the difference is Libby stated he was authorized to leak material from the NIE ( not Plame's identity) by Prezeldent and Darth Vader...I havent read he actually said Plame's identity was authorized leak. He did imply that he was authorized to leak "more broadly" (not just the NIE , and not just once) - but if he truely makes that claim in court ie " George Bush told me I could leak whatever/whenever" there will be hell to pay.

It wasn't declassified until ten days later, in a damage control ejaculation.
This skein of lies and confabulation will not hold up. They should not have let the congress go on break at this time: it leaves them too much time to be blasted by their constituents and to do some investigation and consulting. The ship is sinking but I'm still depressed.

There should be a Declassification Guide that predates the release of the NIE information.

My guess is that of course there is no Declassification Guide that predates the release of the NIE information, there might be one that postdates the release of the NIE information.

....more to this whole thing than we are being told. I still think Plame and her husband were on to something much bigger - and were about to get the goods on Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld - and outing Plame and attacking her husband was the only way to stop them.

Until I get evidence to the contrary that's what I believe.

It certainly seems that there is a pretty staighforward way to declassify information. Bush could have done that in the first place. Now, after the fact he said the info was declassified at the time. Why not just say so back then?

Something else is happening here.

Mz Pip
:dem:

Bush, himself, is obviously at the center of the Plame leak. That is the only explanation for what he said back in September and October 2003 about wanting to find out who was the leaker --- since we now know he ordered/authorized the leak.

That's the big story -- Bush lied three years ago.

Furthermore, the argument "if the President leaks it, then it is no longer classified" is probably illegal, too. I cannot imagine that even a president could pass any secret he wants to to a reporter and suffer no consequences. Could President Reagan, for instance, have called in a Pravda reporter and told him all of the names of U.S. agents in the Soviet Union and NOT be in violation of some national security law?

But, really, it is the lies, lies, lies.

For what?

As far as we know, Bush did not actually authorize the Plame leak.

Yeah, it smacks of incredible hypocrisy to decry one leak while directly supporting another, but I don't think Bush ever referred specifically to the NIE leak. (I could be wrong though)

If the info she received was from declassified info why would any source need to be protected? Bush could have prevented that easily by saying this info was declassified, no reason to protect a source.

Mz Pip
:dem: