Libby's Bombshell

"Revealing classified information is illegal, alerts our enemies, and endangers our country."
-President George W. Bush

"I never leak. I de-classify."
-Henry Kissinger

Murray Waas continues his great reporting on the Libby case with this bombshell...

Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records...

(bold added by me)

So Libby's defense tactic seems to be throwing the blame onto a supposedly untouchable White House.

Mostly, though, it further exposes how broad the conspiracy to out Plame was. While the article doesn't talk of Cheney directly telling Libby "tell Judy about Valerie Plame!", we know that was the endgame. Libby was smart enough to omit that smoking gun from his grand jury testimony. But as former Time reporter John Dickerson revealed, he was told by White House officials to "go ask the CIA who sent Wilson", further noting that "It seemed obvious that the people pushing me to look into who sent Wilson knew exactly the answer I'd find".

Why is this revelation significant? Well-

First, it significantly adds to a mounting body of information that Cheney played a central and personal role in directing efforts to counter claims by Wilson and other administration critics that the Bush administration had misused intelligence information to go to war with Iraq.

Second, it raises additional questions about Libby's motives in concealing his role in leaking Plame's name to the press, if he was in fact more broadly authorized by Cheney and others to rebut former Ambassador Wilson's charges. The federal grand jury indictment of Libby alleges that he had lied to the FBI and the federal grand jury by claiming that when he provided information to reporters about Plame's CIA employment, he was only passing along what he understood to be unverified gossip that he had heard from other journalists.

Instead, the indictment charges that Libby had in fact learned of Plame's CIA status from at least four government officials, Cheney among them, and from classified documents. Indeed, much of Libby's earliest and most detailed information regarding Plame's CIA employment came directly from the vice president, according to information in Libby's grand jury indictment.

The article later notes his legal strategy is similar to the one used by Oliver North. What great company to be in.

Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

So some intelligence matters are so important that the administration will not divulge them even to critical members of Congress. But others are leaked to journalists to win a political war. This is a pointed reminder that when the administration says it is withholding information to protect national security, a hefty dose of skepticism is in order. The same goes for their assurance that their wire-tapping has never been abused. Remind me again: at this point, why should we trust them?

We shouldn't.

Once again, we see why this White House cannot be trusted on matters of national security. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It may take years for all the facts to come to light, but what we know already does not paint a pretty picture. Good people like Patrick Fitzgerald and Murray Waas will keep digging. And we are grateful to them for it.