日批在线视频_内射毛片内射国产夫妻_亚洲三级小视频_在线观看亚洲大片短视频_女性向h片资源在线观看_亚洲最大网

   

WORLD / America

Lawyer: Bush left leak details to Cheney
(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-09 09:44

US President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.


White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responds to questions, Friday, April 7, 2006, about recent assertions that President Bush authorized the leaks of intelligence information to counter administration critics on Iraq. Papers filed by the prosecutor in the CIA leak case against I. Lewis Scooter Libby said Bush authorized Libby to disclose information from a classified prewar intelligence report. [AP]


Bush merely instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.

It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified document that detailed the intelligence community's conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The new information about Bush and Cheney's roles came as the president's aides have scrambled to defuse the political fallout from a court filing Wednesday by the prosecutors in the complex, ongoing investigation into whether the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic.

Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the weapons threat in Iraq.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in the filing that Libby testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from the intelligence estimate.

Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about Plame.

Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal.

Fitzgerald's aim with the filing was to counter Libby's defense that he innocently forgot about conversations he may have had with reporters about Plame by showing that the White House's concern about the war criticism was so consuming it would be difficult to forget.

But by suggesting that the leak of Plame's name may have been set in motion by the president, however indirectly, the documents reverberated much more broadly. Democrats unleashed a storm of criticism against Bush, saying he appeared to have misused the declassification process for political gain.

On Friday, the White House argued there is an important different between disclosing sensitive information to further a public debate and leaking classified information that compromises national security. But the attorney said Saturday the president's instructions were not as specific as it might seem from both Fitzgerald's description of Libby's testimony and news accounts of it.

Because Bush declassified the intelligence document, the White House does not view Libby's conversations about it as a leak. But that determination is difficult to make without knowing precisely when Bush decided to declassify the information.

Libby passed the information about the document to New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003. It was 10 days later, on July 18, when the same portions of the document that Libby discussed with Miller were released publicly.

 
 

Related Stories
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩一级片免费看 | 中文精品在线 | 免费91看片 | 黄色在线视频网站 | 特级西西444www高清大胆 | 国产一区久久 | 成人精品久久 | 色综合天天综合 | 亚洲成人免费观看 | 日韩欧美区 | 日韩视频在线观看免费视频 | 成人一区二区视频 | 亚洲女人18毛片水真多 | 亚洲成a人片在线 | 欧美色图校园春色 | av国产一区 | 四虎官网 | 中文字幕一区二区三 | 五月天综合激情 | 久久精品一二三区 | 无遮挡黄色 | 免费av网站在线看 | 五月婷婷狠狠爱 | 九九热精品视频在线播放 | 欧美视频a | 好吊妞视频一区二区三区 | 夜夜夜夜爽 | 精品福利在线观看 | 国产激情无套内精对白视频 | 日日夜夜精品 | 黄色网址在线播放 | 中文在线日韩 | 日韩中文字幕免费视频 | 久久久久久9999 | 欧美你懂的 | 夜夜干天天操 | 欧美一级性生活视频 | 午夜影院在线观看18 | 成年人在线免费观看视频网站 | 午夜精品小视频 | 欧美视频免费 |