But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes. [National Journal]Why, then, wouldn't Cheney have gone through the official declassification process to "get the word out"? Why would the Shrub make a huge stink about how awful the leak was and state the perpetrator(s) would be punished to the fullest extent of the law instead of admitting he'd given the order to declassify the info? Last but not least, why would Libby lie to the grand jury about the circumstances? The answers to those questions are pretty obvious. Information can be declassified, under Bush Executive Order 13292, based on the President's (of Vice President's) assertion that declassification and disclosure of the information was necessary because the [administration's belief that] public's need to know the information far outweighed the need to keep the information secret. The decision on a matter such as this is made that the discretion of the POTUS/VPOTUS. Ultimatley, the administrtaion obviously decided that the information about Plame needed to publicized in the name of public interest but the information as to how and why that information was relayed publicly needed to remain classified. It's good to be King. . .
Tags:Valerie Plame; politics; The Bushevik Revolution; we're America, we own the world; BBA; conservatism; media; Downing Street Memorandum; Dick Cheney; media; Lewis Scooter "Leaky" Libby; IraqSphere: Related Content
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