President Bush, just admitted to a student question in a speech at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International studies, this morning, that he did declassify the NIE report that has been the subject of so much discussion this last week.
Although, he left out, the fact, that by that time, he, Cheney, and Libby had all been informed that the information about the Niger Uranium claims, and aluminum tubes had been determined by our own intelligence agencies to be "highly dubious," at best, if not flat out false
RawStory,. April 10, 2006 reports Bush admits declassifying Iraq intelligence after question from student, not reporter
President Bush, who admitted Monday to declassifying an Iraq intelligence report that was later leaked to the New York Times by Vice President Dick Cheney's then-chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, informed the American public of his declassification order after a question from a student, not a reporter.
McClellan Refuses To Comment On Ongoing Investigation
Of note: White House reporters asked White House press secretary Scott McClellan no questions about the leak the first day after it was reported. Bush spoke today at the The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, at The Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C.
I saw the President's speech on CNN this morning, but this is the first transcript of it I've been able to find.
Transcript Of President's Remarks This Mornning
STUDENT: First let me say thank you very much for being here. And thank you for taking questions. I know we appreciate that. My name is Ben Dearing (sp). I'm a second-year Masters student studying international energy policy.
PRESIDENT BUSH: International -- ?
Q Energy policy.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, good!
Q Sorry. (Laughter.) My question, sir, is -- well, as Anthony eluded to earlier, and as you're aware, we have many students at SAIS who are currently working for or considering working for the State Department, the various intelligence agencies, and such. And how do you respond to the recent report by Prosecutor Fitzgerald that there is, in his words, "evidence of a concerted effort by the White House to punish Joseph Wilson," who himself has a distinguished record of government service.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah. No. I -- this is -- there's an ongoing legal proceeding which precludes me from talking a lot about the case. There's also an ongoing investigation that's a serious investigation. I will say this, that after we liberated Iraq, there was questions in people's minds about, you know -- about the basis on which I made the statements, in other words going into Iraq. And so I decided to declassify the NIE for a reason. I wanted to see people -- people to see what some of those statements were based on. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted people to see the truth. And I thought it made sense for people to see the truth, and that's why I declassified the document.
...And I felt I could do so without jeopardizing, you know, ongoing intelligence matters, and so I did. And as far as the rest of the case goes, you're just going to have let Mr. Fitzgerald complete his case, and I hope you understand that. It's a serious legal matter that we've got to be careful in making public statements about it. (Chuckles.)
Can you believe the President's audacity? I mean this takes audacity to a whole new level. Even beyond brassy, cheeky, cheesy... I'm at a loss for word.
I have to run this by you again. Just to make sure I am reading this right.
And so I decided to declassify the NIE for a reason. I wanted to see people -- people to see what some of those statements were based on. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted people to see the truth. And I thought it made sense for people to see the truth, and that's why I declassified the document.
He wanted people to see the truth?
Give us a break!
The Actual Truth Vindicate Joseph Wilson
Well, I agree on this goal. The truth has totally vindicated Joseph Wilson. I believe it was Lolligolli who wrote three diaries in a row on this. And has the direct quotes, and links that prove not only that what Libby told Judy Miller from these NIE documents was false.
But also. that Bush, Cheney, and Libby all should have known that, and had been informed of that by both Hadley and George Tenant.
I will track these down later this afternoon. I have to run off to a meeting now. But please help me prevent these liars from continuing to bamboozle the public with these flat out deceptions.
UPDATE1
Arianna Huffington, April 10, 2006, asks, skeptically, in her column at the HuffingtonPost, George Bush: Mastermind???
In today's New York Times, a senior Bush administration official "confirmed" that the president ordered the declassification of prewar intel "to rebut critics" but "left open several questions, including when Mr. Bush acted and whether he did so on the advice of Mr. Cheney. Still unclear is the nature of the communication between Mr.Bush and Mr. Cheney."
Please. The "nature of the communication" may not be confirmed but is it really unclear?
In his filing last week, Patrick Fitzgerald stated: "The evidence will show that the July 6, 2003 Op-Ed by Mr. Wilson was viewed in the Office of the Vice President as a direct attack on the credibility of the vice president (and the president)..." Note who gets relegated to parentheses-land.
Given this, choose the more plausible scenario:
That Cheney goes to (the president) and says: "Look, we gotta kneecap Wilson before this manipulated intelligence crap gets out of hand. I wanna have Scooter meet with Miller and slip her some cherry-picked and puffed up classified info from the NIE. I know I've got the constitutional chops to declassify the stuff myself but why don't you sign off too, just to be on the safe side."
Arianna's scenario seems much more likely to me. Arriana pulls out the stops and thinks of of silly the alternative hypothesis sounds.
Or that (the president), a man who wouldn't testify in front of the 9/11 Commission without Cheney by his side, suddenly woke up one morning and thought to himself: "I can't allow these irresponsible, unfounded, wild, and flat-out false accusations to go unanswered. I need to selectively declassify the paragraphs at the bottom of page 24 of the 2002 NIE that we can use to insinuate that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium from Africa. Then I'll tell Cheney to tell Libby to tell Judy that this was a "key judgment" of the assessment, even though the "key judgments" actually don't mention uranium at all. Later, I'll launch an all-out attack on leaks and leaking -- just to throw them off the scent. And, if years later this mess ever comes out, I can always have my press secretary say -- 10 times -- that my decision was 'in the public interest.' Let me get Cheney on the phone and give him his marching orders."