From: "Rich Gauszka" 

The bigger problem is why go through the expense of an investigation of a
leak of classified information if Bush damn well knew he already
de-classified it? How many millions were spent on a special prosecutor?
Just charge that to election hijinks?


"George J. Sherwood"  wrote in
message news:4435db36{at}w3....
> Robert G Lewis wrote:
>
>> The questions in my mind is what are the procedures for the president to
>> declassify information ? What laws are in place to protect the identify
>> of
>> covert agents ? Was the CIA ever notified that her identify was
>> declassified or was it just leaked leaving her ( and others) exposed ?
>
> The procedure for the President are to just make the decision.  Pretty
> much
> only answerable to the voters.  Everything that I have read about this so
> far doesn't saying anything about authorization to release her name.  That
> seems to be missing here, big headlines about the President authorizing
> release of classified info, but I haven't seen that release included
> anything but info from the NIE.  I think people are making a big jump to
> reach this conclusion that he authorized the release of Plame's name.
> Maybe
> I have missed that part, but it isn't what Libby has said. What has been
> said is that the President authorized the release.
>
>>
>> it's one thing for the President to authorize the release of information
>> on an enemy state , its another to leak information that puts our intel
>> assets at risk. I don't how outing her identify did anything to correct
>> any perceived falsehoods that Wilson may have been putting out. Fight
>> falsehoods with truth not outing someone's spouse.
>
> Again, I believe this is a conclusion being reached not supported by the
> evidence yet.
>
> George

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