Libby says Bush authorized Plame leak

[D_Raay]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby1.html

A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that President George W. Bush authorized him to leak information from a classified intelligence report to a New York Times reporter. Details of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's testimony were included in a court filing made yesterday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is prosecuting Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in connection with the probe into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Ok so what was all that "Whoever is responsible for this will be fired" business?

I guess he is giving himself a pink slip.

[King PSYZ]

I've seen this headline all over my google homepage and it made me laugh because nobody will care enough to take action against this corrupt administration.

[ASsman]

Hmmm, why aren't I happy over this? Oh because nothing will come of it.

[Echewta]

Clinton shoots someone in the face and ruins a jacket = impeachment
Cheney shoots someone in the face and puts them in the hospital = *shrug*

This is great. Nothing will happen because WE won't do anything about it.

[DroppinScience]

Don't be THAT quick to say nothing will come of this.

The scandals are piling up at an unprecedented rate. Something's gotta happen.

P.S. - Watergate took a LOOOOONG time to get going too, also keep that in mind.

[D_Raay]

I am waiting in anticipation for how they will try to spin this...

The initial talking points, or I should say point, was that he was within the law in declassifying this information.

Whether or not that is true matters little to the political implications of this. A major tactical mistake was made here. They had the opportunity to squash this from the outset.

[Echewta]

oh oh see! It was declassified. Oohhh. So nobody was really harmed here. No law was broken because it was declassfied. I see.

haha, there is the spin like you said. Awesome.

[what_the_doofus]

Clinton shoots someone in the face and ruins a jacket = impeachment
Cheney shoots someone in the face and puts them in the hospital = *shrug*

This is great. Nothing will happen because WE won't do anything about it.
i'm not on his side, but you're a fucking idiot. perjury is illegal, and it was blatantly obvious. shooting your friend with a pellet gun and him not pressing charges is not illegal.

there are many more things to call this administration out on, that is by far one of the least of them.

[Echewta]

fuck off ass

[checkyourprez]

just like everything in the past bunch of years.

no matter how much they denie it, it comes from the top.

makes me effin sick.


a bj is enough to try impeachment but none of this is?

[Ace42X]

shooting your friend with a pellet gun and him not pressing charges is not illegal.

Shotgun... Here, at least, a pellet gun is significantly less lethal.

And, here at least, there are plenty of laws regarding the safe use of firearms. Shooting someone with them is generally in breach of those.

[D_Raay]

Shotgun... Here, at least, a pellet gun is significantly less lethal.

And, here at least, there are plenty of laws regarding the safe use of firearms. Shooting someone with them is generally in breach of those.
Also I would like to see any of us be able to shoo shoo the police for a full 14 hours afterward. If he WAS drunk, no one would ever know.

[DJ_Skrilla]

just like everything in the past bunch of years.

no matter how much they denie it, it comes from the top.

makes me effin sick.

a bj is enough to try impeachment but none of this is?

Unfortunately, Legal experts say that President Bush had the unquestionable authority to approve the disclosure of secret CIA information to reporters, but they add that the leak was highly unusual and amounted to using sensitive intelligence data for political gain.

Experts said the power to classify and declassify documents in the federal government flows from the president and is often delegated down the chain of command. In March 2003, Bush signed an executive order delegating declassification authority to Cheney

Sucks.... But fuck, like someone else said the scandals are piling up. It will be an interesting election in November.

[yeahwho]

"I Will Fire Whoever Was Behind This Leak...Unless You Figure Out It Was Me"

[yeahwho]

We are being so manipulated by the very person who swore to uphold the honor of our country,

The latest twist in the leak investigation -- the news that Libby told a grand jury that he had Bush's permission, via Cheney, to divulge sensitive information to journalists -- raises a slew of questions too important for the White House to duck:

Is the president telling the truth? Is he a hypocrite? Under what circumstances did he take the country to war, and how far was he willing to go to cover them up? Can the president be trusted to distinguish what's truly in the national interest, as compared to what's simply in his political interest?

More from the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/04/10/BL2006041000588.html)