Thursday, April 06, 2006
Who You Gonna Call?
Much is being made of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's assertion that he was authorized to leak classified information by no less than the President and Vice President.
This is bad, but hardly a surprise. We all know it's not lying, cheating, or stealing when Republicans do it -- it's "Creative Patriotism".
No, what caught our eye is what happened next. Authorized to leak classified information in order to defend one of the key Bush Administration rationales for going to war in Iraq, what did Libby do?
He called the New York Times.
Specifically, Judith Miller:
Joseph Wilson told the world that the Bush Administration's claim that Iraq was trying to procure uranium was false. In retaliation the President and Vice President of the United States ordered the Vice President's Chief of Staff to leak classified information...
...to Judith Miller, and the New York Times. Specifically.
Why?
This is bad, but hardly a surprise. We all know it's not lying, cheating, or stealing when Republicans do it -- it's "Creative Patriotism".
No, what caught our eye is what happened next. Authorized to leak classified information in order to defend one of the key Bush Administration rationales for going to war in Iraq, what did Libby do?
He called the New York Times.
Specifically, Judith Miller:
- The presidential authorization was provided, the court papers said, in advance of a meeting on July 8, 2003 between Mr. Libby and Judith Miller, then a reporter for the New York Times. Mr. Libby brought a brief abstract of the N.I.E.'s key judgments to the meeting with Ms. Miller in the lobby of the St. Regis Hotel about two blocks from the White House.
Mr. Libby testified, the prosecutors said, that he was "specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified N.I.E. to Miller on that occasion..."
The court filing said that Mr. Libby said "he understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the N.I.E. held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium." Mr. Libby, the prosecutors, said, testified that the meeting with Ms. Miller was the "only time he recalled in his government experience when he disclosed a document to a reporter that was effectively declassified by virtue of the president's authorization that it be disclosed."
Joseph Wilson told the world that the Bush Administration's claim that Iraq was trying to procure uranium was false. In retaliation the President and Vice President of the United States ordered the Vice President's Chief of Staff to leak classified information...
...to Judith Miller, and the New York Times. Specifically.
Why?
