President Bush: Leak Investigation Focuses On His Role

"There’s just too many leaks, and if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is."
--President George W. Bush, (September 30, 2003)

Earlier, I posted an update on Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the CIA leak, which included an update with a report that the President himself authorized the leaking of an Iraq-related National Intelligence Estimate to the NY Times' Judy Miller, thus placing him directly in the chain of events that led to the Plame leak. What does it all mean? A lot of people are discussing that today. Here's a sampling-

National Journal (Murray Waas): Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks

SmokingGun.com has the documents: Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak

Firedoglake: Bush Authorized Libby NIE Release to Press

Andrew Sullivan: Bush Nailed

Wonkette: Scooter: “Bush Said I Wouldn’t Get In Trouble!”

The next time the White House or their Justice Department seeks to jail reporters/whistleblowers for exposing wrongdoing (ie. warrantless wiretapping, secret CIA torture prisons), let's keep this in mind.

And this White House wants to be trusted more with wiretapping (especially with no oversight) than the leak-free FISA court? Seriously? This just cuts to their credibility on so many issues where they have been defensive about leaks that have 'harmed' them or national security (or more the former- they consider any harm to them as a threat to national security anyway). After revelations like this, in addition to their numerous failures of national security (Osama still at large, the Iraq debacle, the port saga, the Katrina aftermath, etc etc), I do not understand how this administration still has credibility on this issue. National security to them is only as important as it is useful politically.

Meanwhile, the gang at TPM Muckraker look at what is likely to be the White House's defense here, via a section from a recent Fitzgerald filing-

Defendant 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. Defendant testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE. Defendant testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then Counsel to the Vice President, whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.

It's the fancy talk version of the old "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal" Nixon defense.

Arianna Huffington also gives her take on this defense-

Call it Addington's Theory of Presidential Magic: Take a classified document. Wave the president's wand over it. Say the secret word ("WHIG-y, WHIG-y"). And, presto-chango, the super secret info is now a Judy Miller exclusive!

Of course, this kind of powerful presidential magic can only be used very sparingly -- declassifying information the White House wizards think will help cover the administration's collective ass while keeping classified information such as the one-page summary of the NIE that shows Bush played fast and loose with intel in making the case for war.

It's declassification as PR tool. Cherry-pick and leak. Repeat as necessary.

Meanwhile, the White House Press Corps fails to ask McClellan about this. What more does the President have to do to get the press to focus on this scandal? Punch a cop? This scandal goes deep and reveals much about how far this administration was willing to go to protect their case for war, especially after it had been debunked.

[PS- PowerLine's Scott Johnson says poor Bushie just had to defend himself against his nasty liberal detractors. He ignores that the main points in Wilson's report were, of course, completely accurate and even the administration would not try to refute its basic findings on the intel at this points. He also, as always, ignores the numerous other evidence that has accrued over the past couple years clearly showing how the White House knew the intel they were presenting was iffy (if not inaccurate) and pushed for war anyway. He also ignores the hypocrisy of leaking for your benefit while criminalizing whistleblowers for their leaks. Never underestimate the ability of the remaining Bush supporters to spin his scandals to his favor... At least he mentioned the story, while most conservative blogs would rather discuss Rep. McKinney or Mexicans.

Andrew Sullivan has a followup post on these defenses and a second on Presidential hypocrisy.]

[PPS- TPM Muckraker on how this was a secret one-off, partial declassification... aka a "leak".]