Authorized Disclosure Vs. Declassification
The revelation in Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's latest document dump, that according to Scooter Libby's testimony, President Bush authorized disclosure of parts of the late 2002 NIE on Iraq's supposed WMDs is being conflated with the documents supposedly having been declassified.
Nowhere in Fitzgerald's filings does it say that the documents were actually declassified. Only that Bush supposedly--second hand to Libby from Cheney--authorized their disclosure.
A PDF of Fitzgerald's court filings can be found here.
Libby testified that he was so unsure of the legality of an off-the-cuff authorization by the chief executive to disclose classified information that he sought a second opinion from none other than the then-counsel to the Vice President, David Addington (see A Kook By Any Other Name).
He got the wrong answer. There are specific procedures involved in declassifying documents which were not followed in this case. These include recalling all distributed copies of the document in question, and updating classification databases.
The administration apologists are repeating, ad nauseum, the meme that the president can declassify documents at will. This is true. But he must sign an Executive Order (even if itself classified) to that effect. That is how President Kennedy declassified the U-2 photos used at the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This was not done in this case. The proof?
According to Fitzgerald's account, Libby believed that only he, Bush and Cheney knew about the calculated disclosure. Even Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, was kept in the dark, and he wasted efforts trying separately to "declassify what Mr. Libby testified had already been declassified."
To further confuse the Executive Order issue, apologists are pointing to a separate March 2003 EO which gave Vice President Cheney express authority in the declassification process. This is a whole other matter, and is a red herring.
The whole thing boils down to yet another misuse of intelligence for domestic political purposes.
A senior administration official, speaking on background because White House policy prohibits comment on an active investigation, said Bush sees a distinction between leaks and what he is alleged to have done. The official said Bush authorized the release of the classified information to assure the public of his rationale for war as it was coming under increasing scrutiny.
That kind of thing is frowned upon by professionals:
"It is a question of whether the classified National Intelligence Estimate was used for domestic political purposes," said Jeffrey H. Smith, a Washington lawyer who formerly served as general counsel for the CIA.
Nowhere in Fitzgerald's filings does it say that the documents were actually declassified. Only that Bush supposedly--second hand to Libby from Cheney--authorized their disclosure.
A PDF of Fitzgerald's court filings can be found here.
Libby testified that he was so unsure of the legality of an off-the-cuff authorization by the chief executive to disclose classified information that he sought a second opinion from none other than the then-counsel to the Vice President, David Addington (see A Kook By Any Other Name).
He got the wrong answer. There are specific procedures involved in declassifying documents which were not followed in this case. These include recalling all distributed copies of the document in question, and updating classification databases.
The administration apologists are repeating, ad nauseum, the meme that the president can declassify documents at will. This is true. But he must sign an Executive Order (even if itself classified) to that effect. That is how President Kennedy declassified the U-2 photos used at the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This was not done in this case. The proof?
According to Fitzgerald's account, Libby believed that only he, Bush and Cheney knew about the calculated disclosure. Even Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, was kept in the dark, and he wasted efforts trying separately to "declassify what Mr. Libby testified had already been declassified."
To further confuse the Executive Order issue, apologists are pointing to a separate March 2003 EO which gave Vice President Cheney express authority in the declassification process. This is a whole other matter, and is a red herring.
The whole thing boils down to yet another misuse of intelligence for domestic political purposes.
A senior administration official, speaking on background because White House policy prohibits comment on an active investigation, said Bush sees a distinction between leaks and what he is alleged to have done. The official said Bush authorized the release of the classified information to assure the public of his rationale for war as it was coming under increasing scrutiny.
That kind of thing is frowned upon by professionals:
"It is a question of whether the classified National Intelligence Estimate was used for domestic political purposes," said Jeffrey H. Smith, a Washington lawyer who formerly served as general counsel for the CIA.
posted by Effwit at 8:21 AM
6 Comments:
Scotty was trying to leave the impression that declassification occurs at the moment Mr. Prez decides to leak . or to give Scotty the benefit of the doubt, at the moment it is leaked. A journalist at the W.H. press conference tried repeatedly to press him on the formalities but Scotty slithered out of nailing the trivialities of Exec. orders. If Mr. Prez did indeed do things the right way then Scotty might have been expected to answer the Q forthright and definitively.
M1:
Sounds like Scotty was in typical form.
Also, the intel that Libby disclosed was only the part of the NIE that made it look like we believed that Iraq had WMDs. The fact that they left out the caveats shows that they knew that they had bad intel from the beginning and knew that they had intentionally lied about it to justify going to war. Remember this was still early in the war, and most people still expected some WMDs to turn up.
This is definately impeachable stuff. If enough goopers in the House defect.
And if it had been done correctly, Judith Miller wouldn't have been the only journalist to get the WMD story from the NIE.
The caveats have it. They always have. They always will.
The meat is always in the missing.
M1:
Yep, any representations from these toads should be met with Caveat Emptor.
Caveat Emporer
M1:
Good one.
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