The FireDogLake team is getting pretty good at this live reporting thing. Take a look, for example, of today’s summary of the Libby trial by Jane Hamsher & "Swopa"
on Politics.tv, better than anything you might hope to find on CNN.
I've become hooked. The FDL coverage has created an incredible online community that is fun to watch. The success of the FDL team has at least three components:
1. Live blogging of the trial,
2. insightful commentaries by the bloggers, and
3. free-for-all comments by FDL "pups" and bloodhounds.
There's a lot of fluff in the comments (the "pups"), but also some good bloodhound work. Consider, for example, this comment by "cinnamonape" on Christy Hardin Smith’s blog today under the title, The Trouble With Mary.
The comment is #184 on the thread, on February 8th, 2007 at 1:23 pm. S/he starts out by quoting BobbyG @77 :
TREASONOUS, IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES BY POTUS AND VPOTUS:
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a snippet of Libby’s grand jury testimony...
Libby, looking at his notes: ... this is Steve Hadley saying, no question, it’s better if we leak the [National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq].
Fitzgerald: What does that mean?
Libby: Steve Hadley is saying that it would be better if we got the NIE out, and "leak" means telling it to giving it to a reporter to say, you know, here’s something you can write about. It’s like an exclusive or something like that.
Fitzgerald: And had the NIE been declassified at that point?
Libby: It had in the sense that the president had told me to go out and use it with Judith Miller. I don’t, I don’t know that Mr. Hadley knew that at that point.
Fitzgerald: OK. And did anyone decide to leak the NIE that week?
Libby: Well, the president had told me to use it and declassified it for me to use with Judith Miller. I don’t think Mr. Hadley was told to go out and talk about it. I think Ms. [Condoleezza] Rice had talked about the NIE in general earlier in the week on television.
Fitzgerald: So, prior to July 10th, you had talked to Judith Miller about the NIE?
Libby: Correct, sir.
Fitzgerald: And your understanding is that even though it was a classified document, the president had authorized you to talk to her about it?
Libby: Definitely, sir.
"...the president had told me to use it and declassified it for me to use with Judith Miller."
Mr Bush, can we see the documentation regarding such "declassification"?
Didn’t think so. I’m sure such is "classified."
(putting aside the loudly begged question of why they simply didn’t go massively public)
If this crap doesn’t rise to impeachment level, then we oughta just strike that section from the Constitution.
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"cinnamonape" then comments,
Brilliant! Great observation...and one that clearly implies that Fitz is looking at BIGGER ISSUES than merely the leaking of Plame’s identity. Note that Fitz has always used the term "the leaking of classified information"...a far more general statement. And he is clearly looking at those that might be involved in a broader conspiracy...including Hadley, Rice and even the President...who may have acted to post-hoc...protect someone who intentionally leaked National Security information.
Also note that the DEFENSE has not subpoenaed to get the dates of the declassification order for the NIE released. Fitz hasn’t since he doesn’t need them to establish his points in this trial...but it’s clear that the WH has refused to release this information or other documentation on dates and orders of declassification that Cheney or Bush have undertaken either.
Bush’s own executive order doesn’t allow such concealment "to protect from embarassment or criminal activity"...but of course that text is a carry-over from the Clinton Executive Order that they probably didn’t realise might need to be deleted!
At the very least, I think that this shows that Bush & Cheney are (mis-)handling classified information with careless disregard for national security. The FDL team has nicknamed this "insta-declassification," and in this example, proper procedures (such as notification of the head of the CIA, etc.) are not being followed, thereby possibly endangering sensitive and critical missions in the field. If this is not an impeachable offense, then what is?????
It is time for our representatives to get up some backbone and start investigating whether this testimony is accurate, and if so, whether this casual use of classified material is, or is not, a high crime and misdemeanor. Please let them know what you think about this.
Bob Schacht
Silence is complicity.