WASHINGTON, 8 April 2006 — Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, surprised everyone Thursday during sworn testimony when he said that President Bush authorized the leak of highly classified intelligence on Iraq.
The disclosure came while the White House is trying to defend itself against charges that it embellished the case against Saddam Hussein.
Libby’s testimony, if true, would put the president and vice president in the awkward position of hav-ing authorized leaks — a practice both men have long said they abhor. Bush has repeatedly denounced the leaks that are a trademark of inside-the-Beltway politics. In September 2003, for example, he said: “There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There are leaks at the Executive branch, there are leaks in the Legislative branch, there are just too many leaks. I want — and if there’s a leak out of the Administration, I want to know who it is. And if a person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.”
Special prosecutors are currently investigating charges of perjury and obstruction of justice against Libby. According to the filing, Cheney told a top aide that Bush had authorized the release of information supporting the Administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein had sought nuclear weapons materials in the African nation of Niger.
Libby said, “the president had authorized” him through the vice president to “disclose the relevant portions” to make a case that there was evidence of weapons of mass destruction. He then leaked parts of the highly classified National Intelligence Estimate to Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times.
Libby’s leaks of the NIE in 2003, were an effort by the Administration to justify its case for invading Iraq and to combat criticism by Joseph Wilson who was questioning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities. The identity of Wilson’s wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, also made its way into the press at the same time, but this testimony from Libby does not address that leak.
Legal experts say that if the president leaked information, he didn’t break any laws because he has the power to declassify information. His actions, though, may have been irresponsible.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., released a statement saying that if the assertions in the filing are accurate, they suggest a deliberate attempt to shore up support for the war not through open public debate, but by clever manipulation of opinion.
“It is deeply disturbing to learn that President Bush may have authorized the selective disclosure of our most sensitive intelligence information to the media to help justify a war and discredit critics,” Feinstein. “We’re not commenting on an ongoing legal proceeding,” Scott McClellan, Bush’s press secretary, said Thursday.
