Libby Says Bush, Cheney Didn’t Authorize CIA Agent’s Name Leak
April 13 (Bloomberg) — A former top administration official said President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized him to discuss with reporters intelligence on Iraq’s weapons program and didn’t authorize leaking a CIA agent’s name.

Former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, in documents filed late last night in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Bush and Cheney only authorized him to disclose once-classified details from a National Intelligence Estimate paper that they believed supported the president’s claims that Iraq was attempting to buy nuclear material in Niger….

Any argument by the government that the case involves only Libby and Cheney’s office “is a fairy tale,” said the 26-page document filed by Libby’s lawyers. “Mr. Libby’s actions were authorized at the highest levels of the executive branch.”

Libby’s attorneys made clear they intend to call as a witness Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser, to testify “regarding Mr. Libby’s conversations with Mr. Rove concerning reporters’ inquiries about Ms. Wilson.”…..

Fitzgerald and Libby are disputing how many government records, documents and memoranda Cheney’s former chief of staff is entitled to as he prepares his defense for his perjury trial in January 2007.

Fitzgerald last week cited Libby’s grand jury testimony in asserting that Bush authorized disclosure of classified information on Iraq’s weapons program to rebut war critics. The special counsel didn’t allege that Bush authorized aides to divulge the identity of Plame.

Libby’s lawyers underscored that point in their response last night. “Consistent with his grand jury testimony, Mr. Libby does not contend that he was instructed to make any disclosures concerning Ms. Wilson by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or anyone else,” they said.

I heard this early on TV so maybe I don’t have it exactly right.

This doesn’t sound like what you are saying.

Ledeen:
Linzer and Gellman say, referring to the phony documents, that “the evidence Cheney and Libby selected to share with reporters had been disproved months before.” And they add, in a triumphant tone reserved for the announcement of a knockout punch, that “the Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair maintained they had additional, secret evidence they could not disclose. In June, a British parliamentary inquiry concluded otherwise, delivering a scathing critique of Blair’s role in promoting the story.”
But Linzer and Gellman are wrong, indeed so clearly wrong that it takes one’s breath away. The British government did indeed have information about Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium in Africa, and it wasn’t connected to the forgeries. And the definitive British parliamentary inquiry — the Butler Commission Report of July, 2004 — not only did not deliver “a scathing critique,” but totally endorsed the position of British intelligence. http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200604100726.asp

Baloney! He lets this “mistake” brew and fester for a week before he issues a correction? Typical political maneuver by a man who is sinking as fast as the Titanic. He has charged one man over a 2.5 year investigation for PERJURY! That’s it…..