From: Adam 

George Sherwood wrote:
> On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 23:48:37 +0100, Adam wrote:
>
>> "I've constantly expressed my displeasure with leaks,
particularly leaks
>> of classified information."
>>
>> Answers on a postcard to.....
>>
> Good editorial in the Washington Post today on this whole affair.
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR20060408008
95.html
>
> PRESIDENT BUSH was right to approve the declassification of parts of a
> National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make
> clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons.
> Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public
> benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release
> clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and
> hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling.
>
> Mr. Wilson subsequently claimed that the White House set out to punish him
> for his supposed whistle-blowing by deliberately blowing the cover of his
> wife, Valerie Plame, who he said was an undercover CIA operative. This
> prompted the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. After
> more than 2 1/2 years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has reported no
> evidence to support Mr. Wilson's charge. In last week's court filings, he
> stated that Mr. Bush did not authorize the leak of Ms. Plame's identity.
> Mr. Libby's motive in allegedly disclosing her name to reporters, Mr.
> Fitzgerald said, was to disprove yet another false assertion, that Mr.
> Wilson had been dispatched to Niger by Mr. Cheney. In fact Mr. Wilson was
> recommended for the trip by his wife. Mr. Libby is charged with perjury,
> for having lied about his discussions with two reporters. Yet neither the
> columnist who published Ms. Plame's name, Robert D. Novak, nor Mr. Novak's
> two sources have been charged with any wrongdoing.
>
> George

Chuckle. So another placed piece.

Constructive leak.

There is no reason why Plame's name needed leaking in order to show it was
not Cheney who ordered Wilson to Niger. A simple "the CIA
ordered...." would have done but oddly that's not what was
said...instead & as part of the slurring of Wilson it had to be said
that it was his wife, thus casting some kind of aspersion upon the trip as
if it had been improper in some sense/fashion.

It was more a case of "find me some intel which we can use against
Wilson & I'll declassify it" which is decidedly dodgy esp because
it involved intel gleaned from the services of other countries.

Adam

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