Did George Bush Authorize Plame Leak?

from AlterNet's PEEK:



Did George Bush Authorize Plame Leak?

Posted by Emptywheel, Firedoglake at 1:11 PM on May 29, 2008.

Scott McClellan may have implicated Bush in the Plame leak?



Scottie McC doesn't know it yet. But that's basically what he revealed this morning on the Today Show (h/t Rayne).

During the interview, Scottie revealed the two things that really pissed him off with the Bush Administration. First, being set up to lie by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. And second, learning that Bush had--himself--authorized the selective leaking of the NIE.



Now, for the most part, this is not new. We have known (since I first reported it here) that Scooter Libby testified that, after Libby told Dick Cheney he couldn't leak the information Cheney had ordered him to leak to Judy Miller because it was classified, Cheney told Libby he had gotten the President to authorize the declassification of that information.

Thus far, though, we only had Dick Cheney's word that he had actually asked Bush to declassify this information. We didn't have Bush's confirmation that he had actually declassified the information. In fact, we've had Dick Cheney's claims that he--Dick--had insta-declassified via his super secret pixie dust declassification powers.

Now, though Scottie refers, obliquely, to "this information," he explicitly refers only to the NIE. But as I've described over and over again, it's not just the NIE Bush authorized Dick to order Libby to leak. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/86732/

While the President can declassify information that was originally classified by the Executive Branch, the identity of CIA NOC agents is classified by the act of Congress that created the CIA. The President cannot declassify information that was classified by Congressional statute. At least that's how I understand it.

You go Marcy!!

needs to be combed over (and over and over).

I sure hope they get him on the stand and soon!

So, you already KNOW that the Secret Service's codename for Cheney is "Edgar"?

A mind is a terrible thing.

It happens to me, too.

Sorry, what was I saying?

rarely ever made that greater part of his resume a factor when they discussed Bush and his 'image' crafted for the American public.

If there was a dirty piece of work being committed, I am certain Bush and Rove discussed it and laughed about it before, during and after. The political game was the ONLY part of governing that Bush was comfortable with and that he enjoyed.

From emptywheel at firedoglake, May 29, 2008:


Scottie McClellan on MSNBC's Today Show, May 29, 2008







Is this evidence sufficient for prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to reopen the Valerie Plame case because of additional defendants now flushed out?

Or have you already?

Can we prosecute, convict and execute Bush for providing aid and comfort to the enemy, yet?

that he authorized the Plame leak!"