F-Bombs away

A Fitzgerald bomb, that is. The straight-shootin Libby prosecutor began his trek into the presidential history by filing documents that suggest Scooter Libby dropped a dime on his former bosses:

Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors that President Bush authorized a leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

The dems are giddy, but the filing doesn't specify whether Bush or Cheney directed Libby to give up Plame's covert status,

According to Fitzgerald's court filing, Cheney, in conversation with Libby, raised the question of whether a CIA-sponsored trip by Wilson "was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife."

All this commotion heightens the mystery of why Fitzgerald won't give up the identity of the Novak leaker. He's previously indicated this person should be protected because she/he is not a part of the case. Gee, if the spectre of a presidential leak is so important, why not divulge the Novak source, too? Such a thing would seem to render today's revelation moot, unless the Novak leaker got the scoop from Libby. But even if, that would still make that person an accessory.

But let's not fall off the relevance wagon. If Plame was covert why won't Fitzgerald provide the Libby defense with any CIA assessments of the damage done by the leak? His answer so far is that it's a non sequitur--Libby is being charged with perjury not for outing an agent. That's why today's leak sounds strangely political.

And, although the MSM will forget, the blogosphere remembers that Joe Wilson distorted the role of his wife in the trip. Yes, Cheney was the one who asked for additional info on the Niger issue to begin with, but he might've been correct on the eventual investigatory trip--there is reason to believe Wilson's trip was an opportunistically pointless junket set up by his wife with the outcome already established before Wilson hit the jetway at Dulles. This has been discussed ad naseum by 'the Macs', MacRanger and Maguire (alright, the latter isn't a true Mac but sounds Mac-ish enough).

The usual suspects have already jumped on this news like coyotes on a dying rabbit. I'm not going to waste time quoting many, but here's a sample:

The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put the interests of his political party ahead of America's security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said.

Fine, but no one's been charged with outing an agent, which represented the original Special Prosecutor mandate. And the SP continues to protect the identity of someone who outed an agent. The merry-go-round goes round and round.

Regardless of any facts this is going to be an MSM free-for-all, as they've already shown absolutely no ability to keep this story straight from its very infancy. The AP writer started the ball rolling with his own little zinger:

Libby's testimony indicates both the president and the vice president authorized leaks. Bush and Cheney both have long said they abhor that practice, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers.

The most recent instance is the administration's launching of a probe into who disclosed to The New York Times the existence of the warrantless domestic surveillance program.

All aboard for the impeachment express, now boarding on track thirteen.

MORE 4/6

Most bloggers will have an opinion on this, of course. Instapundit points to Austin Bay who says the prez can declassify any dern thing he wants, while Murray Waas isn't so sure.

Waas also details a letter sent to John Negroponte by Jay Rockefeller a few months ago regarding serious intelligence leaks by the Bush administration:

In a Feb. 17, 2006 letter to John D. Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., wrote that he believed that disclosures in Woodward's book damaged national security. "According to [Woodward's} account, he was provided information related to sources and methods, extremely sensitive covert actions, and foreign intelligence liaison services."

Some of those purported leaks came from Scooter Libby, including this reference:

Woodward's book contains, for example, a detailed account of a January 25, 2003 briefing that Libby provided to senior White House staff to make the case that Saddam Hussein had aggressive programs underway to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

If you actually open the book and read page 289 where it mentions this briefing, you'll see the following:

"Libby used the intercept of the two suspected terrorists laughing about killing a donkey with ricin that McGlaughlin had discarded as unreliable. He said Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 attacks, was believed to have met in Prague with an Iraqi Intelligence officer and cited intellgence of as many as four meetings. The others knew the CIA had evidence of two meetings perhaps, and that there was no certainty about what Atta had been doing in Prague or whether he had met with the Iraqi official. Libby talked for about an hour."

There's really nothing comparable to the release of the NSA surveillance program, at least in that paragraph. Actually, such a move by Rockefeller suggests a level of desperation over recent proceedings. What's up with that FBI's leak investigation, anyway?

As to Woodward, anyone who considers him a useful idiot hasn't read the book or doesn't know much about him. Therefore, if he wasn't being used nor been converted to a neocon perhaps there were good reasons for his actions of recent years. Remember-- we are still at war.

RINSE AND SPIN 4/7/06

The WaPo discusses the precarious political position the administration finds itself in trying to deflect incoming shrapnel from the F-bomb. For example, they (and most of the left) point to Bush's statement about "taking care of the leaker" when this thing first came to light. John F-ing Kerry quickly weighed in and told Bush to 'look in the mirror'.

The spinsters will attempt to say Bush was referring to staffers not him--that as president he can leak or keep anything he desires. That's gonna be a tough sell to a pack of hungry hyenas.

SLAP DOWN 4/7/06

John Podhoretz does the honors. By the way, I believe this article explains the situation better than about 95 percent of the MSM attempts to date.

PEOPLE ARE OUTRAGED, I TELL YOU 4/8/06

At least according to Ariana.

POINT PROVEN AGAIN 4/9/06

ABC has hoisted the transcript from Stephanopoulis's interview with Joe Wilson on this morning's This Week. Amidst a hail of softballs hurled at Joe there was only one questioning his veracity, specifically about the WaPo's contention that his trip actually strengthened the case. Wilson took a mighty swing and fouled off this marginal inside fastball, while George never elaborated or followed up, for example explaining the stuff about the 1999 Iraqi contingent to Niger seeking a business relationship.

And of course, he whisked right past any unpleasantness regarding the Senate's conclusion that Wilson had lied about his wife's role in the trip. Again.