Rep Conyers: " ... the President is ... Leaker in Chief"

My friend, radio talk show host Stephanie Miller, is fond of saying that I must be getting carpal tunnel syndrome from all of the letters I have been sending to the President. Unfortunately, when I go to my mailbox every day, it is empty. More than 130 Members of Congress and more than 500,000 of the American people are still waiting for a response to questions we asked the President about the Downing Street Minutes.

Now we learn that the President of the United States is the Leaker in Chief via disgraced former White House aide Scooter Libby. Mr. Libby testified that the President authorized him to leak classified information about Iraq's alleged nuclear ambitions. He testified before a grand jury that "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized to disclose the relevant portions of the ." All of this was part of a concerted effort to destroy Administration critic Ambassador Joe Wilson.

This means the distortions and cherry picking of intelligence came from the top. This means the smears were officially sanctioned at the highest levels of government. This means that a President who claimed to abhor the leaking of classified information really meant that leaking classified information is a horrible and treasonous act when it hurts his credibility and the case for war, but a patriotic act when it helps the case for war.

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More at the Link including a copy of Congressman Conyers' latest letter to Bu$h:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-conyers/memo-to-sunday-talkers-p_b_18685.html

Dear Mr. President:

We write with respect to the troubling revelation that you authorized I. Lewis Libby, the Vice President's former Chief of Staff, to attempt to discredit a critic of your Administration through the selective leaking of classified information. The information pertained to Iraq's alleged, and now soundly disproved, efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. This leak is similar in pattern to the leak of the identity of a CIA officer whose husband discredited your assertions about Iraq's nuclear ambitions. We ask that, once and for all, you publicly admit the extent of your role in authorizing the selective leaking of information to discredit your critics and detail what other leaks you have authorized that are relevant to the war in Iraq.

As you are aware, at least two senior Administration officials disclosed the fact that Valerie Plame Wilson was an undercover CIA officer. The Justice Department, through Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, began investigating the source of the leak of this highly-classified information. In October 2005, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Libby for obstruction of justice, perjury, and false statements pertaining to his involvement in the leak.

In the course of this investigation, according to the Justice Department, Mr. Libby testified that you authorized him to leak classified information about Iraq's alleged nuclear ambitions. He testified before a grand jury that "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized to disclose the relevant portions of the ."1 What makes Mr. Libby's testimony especially troubling is that you have repeatedly implied that you have not had any role in the leaking of classified information.

In fact, you have stated several times that leaking classified information is a serious crime and that perpetrators should be brought to justice. These statements were in connection with the Valerie Plame Wilson leak2 and the disclosure of the NSA spying program3. Mr. Libby's sworn testimony, however, indicates that you have been personally involved in trying to undermine the credibility of those who question your claims about Iraq; as part of that effort, you have permitted the leak of classified information on at least one occasion.

Moreover, even Presidents are not outside of the law in this area. It is apparent that, at a minimum, you are bound by your own executive orders and the executive orders of your predecessors governing the declassification of certain information. It is not clear what those procedures are and whether you have followed them.

For these reasons, we ask that you immediately disclose not only the extent of your role in authorizing the disclosure of information to discredit critics of your Administration but also any other information related to the war that you have leaked and the rationale for each such leak.

Sincerely,

John Conyers Jr., Jerrold Nadler, Sherrod Brown, Jim McDermott, Tom Udall, Tammy Baldwin, Gary Ackerman, Steven Rothman, Betty McCollum, Ellen Tauscher, Robert Wexler, Maurice Hinchey, David Scott, Michael Honda, Anthony Weiner



1. Government's Response to Defendant's Third Motion to Compel Discovery at 23, United States v. Libby (D.D.C. 2006) (Cr. No. 05-394).

2. "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. And so I welcome the investigation. I -- I'm absolutely confident that the Justice Department will do a very good job. There's a special division of career Justice Department officials who are tasked with doing this kind of work; they have done this kind of work before in Washington this year. I have told our administration, people in my administration to be fully cooperative. I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business." The President, President Discusses Job Creation With Business Leaders (Sept. 30, 2003) (press briefing). You reiterated the point just one month later:

"I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information. As you know, I've been outspoken on leaks. And whether they happened in the White House, or happened in the administration, or happened on Capitol Hill, it is a -- they can be very damaging." The President, President Holds Press Conference (Oct. 28, 2003).

3. "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." The President, Press Conference of the President (Dec. 19, 2005).

Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-conyers/memo-to-sunday-talkers-p_b_18685.html

Congresswoman Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House's intelligence committee, said: "If the disclosure is true, it's breathtaking. The president is revealed as the leaker-in-chief."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4887612.stm

... staffer" when the President had "declassified" the portions of the NIE that Libby was disclosing to her? Was he still unsure of the legality? Was he protecting the President’s plausible deniability in the court of public opinion — or the Veep’s? Or were they trying to do the media bait and switch again — having Libby plant the item, and then having another official substantiate it later? (There was a reference yesterday to Woodward having been used like a Kleenex — you have to wonder if the whole of the Washington press corps isn’t feeling this way in light of all these revelations, don’t you?)

And why, if the "declassification" process was so legal and on the up and up did the President, the Veep and Libby keep that fact from the rest of the staff — including cabinet level officials who were later asked to re-declassify the very same sections of the NIE? (See p. 24 for who was in the know.) Can you say CYA? I sure as hell can.

On p. 24, Fitzgerald refers to Libby being directed by Dick Cheney to brief reporters in place of his then-press secretary, Cathie Martin. Fitz says that "this is relevant to show the importance that defendant and his boss placed on the conversation concerning which he later testified." Meaning it’s awfully hard to think that Scooter forgot about this trifling matter of the political smackdown of Joe Wilson that week when he was tasked with the importance of the political smackdown of Joe Wilson that week by the Veep himself. (I’m just saying…) And because this was done in the context of and using the pretext of discussions about the NIE, there is no way to present the facts of Libby’s conduct without one and the other — they were intertwined, and Fitzgerald knows it.

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Much more in # 3 in the Hey Team Libby series that former prosecutor Smith has posted at firedoglake:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/07/hey-team-libbypart-iii

And, the links for # 1 and # 2 are, respectively:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/07/hey-team-libby-part-i

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/07/hey-team-libbypart-ii

... the United States, his administration and the Republican Leadership of the Senate and Congress. They have been betrayed and the cost of that betrayal is absolutely inconceivable, disgusting and sad and stretches from the banks of the Tigress River to the Gulf shores of Mississippi and Louisiana touching the lives of Iraqis, Americans, and countless others.

Read the full text of Of Irony, Sacrifice and Betrayal at:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/7/174556/1810