Bush Leaked Classified Information for Political Gain
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| The Leaker in Chief. |
It started early. It started at the top. In fact, it started with
the boss. It started by the president of the United States leaking classified, national security information for his own personal and political gain.
Meanwhile, our troops died in the desert for a president who didn't have the decency to make an honest case for war. Then when he was found out, not only did he selectively leak national security secrets, but he did so to ruin a career CIA operative working in the field of WMD. Our president also tried to ruin the reputation of a man who stood up to Saddam Hussein during Daddy Bush's term.
Rep. Jane Harmon has now dubbed George
W. Bush the “Leaker in Chief.”
Meanwhile, Fox “News” is in full damage control, with
Bush's boy Brit taking
the lead.
“This just smells to high heaven,”
was Lou Dobb's assessment.
To review, today we learned that George
W. Bush selectively declassified documents in order to bolster his case
for war, while the White House Iraq Group gang made sure Joseph Wilson and his
wife were targeted. Teaching those uppity government employees a lesson turned
out to be a mission to save Bush's presidency.
Democrats want the details of just what happened and have put the request
in writing.
Here's a short excerpt:
… News accounts suggest that the White
House both (1) leaked classified intelligence information to further its faulty
case for war and (2) improperly concealed information regarding your personal
knowledge of serious doubts about this intelligence. These actions appear
to violate your own executive order on handling classified information and
– according to a new memorandum by the Congressional Research Service – represent
an unprecedented expansion of the Vice President's role in this process. I
request a full accounting of White House actions and full declassification
and disclosure of all documents bearing on these critical questions.
… … (source)
But if you go back to what came out of the president's own mouth,
the lengths Bush went to in order to keep the truth from us is simply staggering.
He obfuscated, redirected and misled us at every turn.
THE PRESIDENT:
Yes. Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. 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: … It's
a criminal investigation. It is an important investigation. 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.
QUESTION: Given — given
recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's
discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several
months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who
leaked the agent's name?THE PRESIDENT: That's up to —
QUESTION: And, and, do you stand by
your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And that's up
to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.
“I want to know the truth. That's
why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators;
full disclosure and everything we know that the investigators will find out,”
Bush said during a Cabinet meeting.But, he added, he has no idea what the investigation
will produce or whether the leaker's identity will ever be discovered.“I have no idea whether we'll find out who the
leaker is, partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do
a very good job of protecting the leakers,” he said. “You tell me:
How many sources have you had that's leaked information that you've exposed
or had been exposed? Probably none. I mean, this town is a town full of people
who like to leak information.”
White
House Reviews Documents in Leak Probe
President Bush, some claim, has the right to declassify any document
he so chooses. But declassifying documents for political gain, which is exactly
what happened in the leaking of Valerie Plame's name, is using national security
secrets for your own personal cover.
Then, President Bush lied — yes, lied — and covered up the truth
for years, including during a presidential election, because he and his team
knew that if the truth came out they would lose the 2004 election.
Bush never wanted us to know “the truth.” But it's obvious
now that he knew the truth, because he authorized the leak, and refused to level with the American people. To
this day, our president is lying to us, even refusing to comment on today's
blockbuster revelations.
Even assuming (and presuming) that Bush can declassify whatever he wants, via previously
laid down signing statements, which Deadeye intimated in his post shooting spree interview, does this also mean he can declassify national
security secrets and documents for his own political use? Using national security
information and leaking details to the press selectively so he can smear an
American citizen who is challenging his case on a matter as serious as war?
“The President has the legal authority to declassify information, but there are normal channels for doing so. Telling an aide to leak classified information to the New York Times is not a normal channel. A normal declassification procedure would involve going back to the originating agency, such as the CIA, and then putting out a public, declassified version of the document. …” (source)
What will it take for the American people, not to mention the
rubber stamp Republican Party, to understand what President Bush has been doing
for years? George W. Bush selectively leaked classified, national security information that would only help his case for
war, while defaming a CIA operative and a career diplomat, who knew the truth
and dared to share it with the people who are supposed to have a say in this
government.
It's time for everyone to understand that the 2006 elections is
a referendum on George W. Bush and how he has used the office of the presidency
to not only lie to the American people, but target citizens, from Joe Wilson
to people caught up in illegal wiretapping. Disgracing the presidency by turning it into his own political machine, where he can use national security as an election year tool, while telling lie after lie to the American people.
George W. Bush should be called the “Leaker in Chief,”
but more importantly, the president, the vice president and the Republican Party need to be held to account.
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