The news, at least in the minds of those who make up the MSM, coming out of the “Scooter” Libby revelation is that the leak of classified information that he passed on to the press was authorized by President Bush himself. The Left, typified by today’s Los Angeles Times reaction, is almost giddy — once again they think, we’ve got him! Once again, they are deluding themselves. It’s really quite sad in an ironic sort of way. Here’s how the LA Times started out today:

President Bush personally authorized leaking classified information to deflect Iraq war critics at a time when declining public support for the invasion threatened his reelection campaign, according to testimony from a former senior White House aide.

The assertion, which came in a filing late Wednesday by federal prosecutors in the perjury case against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, connects the president for the first time to a case that until now publicly focused on the activities of senior aides and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, is facing charges related to the disclosure of a CIA operative’s identity.

Catch that one? ” is facing charges related to the disclosure of a CIA operative’s identity” — Ooooooooo, sounds clandestine and criminal. Actually, Libby is facing charges of giving false statements to federal investigators — the Martha Stewart syndrome — charges made to, in my opinion save face and justify the investigation monies spent, ’cause the feds couldn’t find any evidence that Libby committed any other crime “related to the disclosure of a CIA operative’s [Valerie Plame's] identity”. You know Plame, she’s the CIA agent so worried about her covert identity that she posed for a two-page photo spread for Vanity Fair — yeah, that’s real covert! To be any more out there than she is, she would have had to wear a blouse with a target on it for the shoot!

Then the story goes on forever rehashing the details around Plame and her husband Joe Wilson, yellow-cake uranium in Niger, Judith Miller and her incarceration for refusing to name Libby — yadda, yadda. At the end, they print statements from Reid, Pelosi, the “Dick” Durbin, “Magic-hat Kerry and our own Jane Harmon, along with that of a single GOPer, Brian Jones, Republican National Committee communications director. Never let it be said that the LA Times has ambitions to be fair & balanced!

So, if the President of the United States releases classified information in any manner available to him, is that legal? If someone authorizes info to be distributed, is that a leak? Austin Bay sets the record straight on these questions:

The sudden press flap over Scooter Libby’s alleged “revelation” that President Bush declassified intelligence information related to Iraq is silly but all too predictable. The entire flap relies on mixing terms and “misunderstanding by innuendo” — a technique of demagoguery, not journalism. The flap is yet more evidence that the national press is more interested in playing “gotcha” with the Bush Administration than reporting the news.

Presidents and vice-presidents can declassify information based on their own good (or bad) judgment. That is a privilege and responsibility of the office. Their authority is near-absolute. Disseminating unclassified information isn’t a crime — no matter the technique used. The information can be disseminated at a press conference, in a press release, in a speech, or — yes– via leak. (UPDATE: Background links I should have included in the original post– though the president’s power in the sphere is common knowledge. The president is at the top of the Classification Authority hierarchy– he holds the ultimate classification/declassification power.

As Bay says several times in his post and in replies to comments, the general rule of thumb is that if you have the authority to classify to a certain level, then you also have the authority to de-classify from the same level. Since POTIS is at the top of this chain, he can de-classify at will. Checks and balances consist of political debate, and the ultimate check of elections.

Captain Ed (Blogger of the Year — way to go!) has more, and Powerline says this is just more old news. Whadda ya expect from the MSM — relevant, balanced, breaking information?

Technorati Tags: Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Valerie Plame, Presidential Leak, Austin Bay

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Media Bias, P.O.T.U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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