Bush and the Plame leak

Murray Waas has new information on the Plame leak investigation:  Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic National Journal 07/03/06.  According to Waas' report, Bush told the federal prosecutors that he had directed Dick Cheney to head up the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson, which eventually led to the outing of Plame as an undercover CIA operative.

This is not a "smoking gun" tying Bush directly to illegal actions.  But it emphasizes yet again that he was dissembling when he was answering questions in public on the leak investigation when it first got underway.  Waas writes:

One senior government official familiar with the discussions between Bush and Cheney - but who does not have firsthand knowledge of Bush's interview with prosecutors - said that Bush told the vice president to "Get it out," or "Let's get this out," regarding information that administration officials believed would rebut Wilson's allegations and would discredit him.

A person with direct knowledge of Bush's interview refused to confirm that Bush used those words, but said that the first official's account was generally consistent with what Bush had told Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Libby, in language strikingly similar to Bush's words, testified to the federal grand jury in the leak case that Cheney had told him to "get all the facts out" that would defend the administration and discredit Wilson. Portions of Libby's grand jury testimony were an exhibit in a recent court filing by Fitzgerald.

But let's assume for a moment that Bush didn't intend for any illegal actions to be taken in pursuit of this goal.  We shouldn't lose sight of the war issue here.  Murray writes:

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

Joe Wilson had reported his findings on the reports suggesting that Iraq had sought yellowcake uranium in Niger.  Obviously, Bush would want to "defend his administration".  But according to this, he wanted to "not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson".

But Wilson's report came to the correct conclusion.  Wilson provided more truthful information in his report than Ahmad Chalabi and his fellow scammers were manufacturing and feeding to the bureaucratic lie factories that Rummy and Cheney had set up in their respective offices.  It shows, at the very best, how very little Bush cared about whether he had taken the country to war based on fraudulent information.

Waas also reminds us of this:

A senior government official who has spoken to the president about the matter said that although Bush encouraged Cheney to get information out to rebut Wilson's charges, Bush was unaware that Cheney had directed Libby to leak classified information. The White House has pointed out that the president and vice president have broad executive powers to declassify whatever information they believe to be in the public interest. Meanwhile, court papers filed by Fitzgerald in April suggest that Libby was reluctant to leak any classified information to the press, and only did so after being assured that his actions were approved by both the president and vice president.

Regarding a meeting with Judith Miller that was scheduled for July 8, 2003, in which Cheney wanted Libby to leak her portions of the National Intelligence Estimate, Fitzgerald asserted in the court papers that Libby "testified that he was specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose... [portions] of the classified NIE to Miller on that occasion."

"[Libby] further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE. [Libby] testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE."

Christy Hardin Smith of FireDogLake has commented on the new Waas article: Well, Lookee Here… 07/04/06.  She writes on the timing of events discussed in Waas' article:

Coincidence? I think not. And if you think that this group of Machiavellian back-alley revenge masters would stick firmly to the "rebuttal on the facts" when they held a trump card of not only attempting to shut Ambassador Wilson up, but intimidating other critics who might also step forward, you can think again. Family has always - ALWAYS - been off limits, especially family that happens to be working for the CIA in a sensitive nuclear and other WMDs arena which is vital to national security interests for the nation at the moment.

But in this case, none of that mattered because Dick Cheney’s credibility had been questioned, the old bull saw red, and all bets were off. That sonofabitch Wilson was going to pay. (Can’t you just hear it coming out of old Mr. GFY’s mouth?)

Emptywheel at The Next Hurrah is also scrutinizing the new Waas report.  In Protecting Dick and Bush? 07/03/06, he writes:

All of which suggests that the underlying story of this Waas pieces is that Libby has claimed Bush was involved in authorizing his activities from that week. And Bush has denied part of Libby's claim.

Which all of a sudden puts some distance between OVP and WH on the Plame Affair. Dick, Addington, and Libby carried out their little insta-declassification. While WH carried out a smear the old-fashioned way, by really declassifying something first, then leaking it. (It's unclear whether the distance is real, or whether it's a nice fiction invented by all involved to protect the President.)

Now, as I suggested above, I'm not sure I buy it, mostly because I find it hard to believe that WH didn't know that Libby and Dick (and Bolton and Feith and so on and so on) had long insta-declassified things and laundered it through Judy or some other credulous reporter. That is, leaking something classified to journalists was a regular habit of the Neocon cabal's, and I really doubt that Bush knew nothing about it.