Bush Reported to Authorize Leak

[Trajan Octavian Titus]

I clarified my answer. It is not a crime what he did--but he looks completely dishonest.

How so?????????

I'm still not getting this, this feels like just another in a long list of blown out of proportion b.s. stories by the drive by media trying to "get," Bush.

I.E. it's another piece of sh!t that they're trying to get to stick.

 

[American]

What's with this constant use of the word "leak"? If Bush authorized the release of information, it's not a leak. Now, we don't know what the information was that Bush authorized was, or if it was the same information Libby disclosed. The comment Bush made regarding the lead I believe was in reference to disclosing the name of a CIA agent.

 

[aps]

What's with this constant use of the word "leak"? If Bush authorized the release of information, it's not a leak. Now, we don't know what the information was that Bush authorized was, or if it was the same information Libby disclosed. The comment Bush made regarding the lead I believe was in reference to disclosing the name of a CIA agent.

The president has the authorization to de-classify a document; however, there are steps to take, which this president did not take. The process goes through the CIA, and George Tenet knew nothing about this situation.

 

[disneydude]

How so?????????

I'm still not getting this, this feels like just another in a long list of blown out of proportion b.s. stories by the drive by media trying to "get," Bush.

I.E. it's another piece of sh!t that they're trying to get to stick.

Yeah...that's right its that "Vast left-wing conspiracy" combined with the "Liberal Media" that is out to get Bush.
The Bush Apologists are going to be out in full force on this one.
Maybe its time for King George to come clean to the American People and say to all you who supported me "You've been duped".

The issue isn't whether Bush broke the law. I think most would concede that it doesn't appear that the leaks violated any law (it was the coverup that got Libby in trouble). However, when Bush stands before the American public and acts all high and mighty and pretends to be ignorant of anything that is going on. And when he states that anyone involved in the leaks should be fired....maybe, just maybe he should be true to his word for once.

If it turns out to be true, it looks like Bush authorized these leaks at a time when he was facing a difficult re-election bid in a desperate attempt to keep his falling approval ratings in check. This would be manipulating the American public at its worst.

 

[shuamort]

Claim what?

What I quoted.

 

[easyt65]

If it turns out to be true, it looks like Bush authorized these leaks at a time when he was facing a difficult re-election bid in a desperate attempt to keep his falling approval ratings in check. This would be manipulating the American public at its worst.

:shock:

Are you kidding me?

What about the continued negative press about the war, media feeding us the libs like Murtha, dean, and Kerry calling our troops Nazis and terrorists while screaming 'we can't win - retreat?!
- Where are the news reports bragging about how suicide bombings and roadside bombings in iraq is down 85% since the very end of the war?

What about the BS news about how Bush is so bad for the country, and the libs like Feingold introducing legislation to censure a President for a LEGAL program? The media and Libs constantly bombard us with BS negative 'news' trying to sway our opinions and trying to try the GOP in the court of public opinion!
-- WHERE is the incredible news about the country's growing and thriving economy right now? Unemployment is down for the 3rd or 4th straight month, the average being lower than any administration since the early 90s! The #s for those in New York receiving un-employment benefits has declined to the lowest point since the 1980s, one report says. The stock market is on a roll of increased gains that have not been seen as well in years, as reported BRIEFLY yesterday. Yet NOT ONE FR#@%&*^ WORD ABOUT ANY OF IT IN THE NEWS TODAY!

Clinton was a MASTER at lying and manipulating the media. There is literally a friggin' GRAVE YARD, not just a skeleton or two, of scandals, treason, and crimes in his closet that got BURIED and not reported during his administration.....
(Hillary's theft opf files, denying she knew about them, then them showing up in the White house living quarters with her fingerprints all over them, yet nothing done to her; the illegal FBI files; Clinton's wiretaps AND authorization to search and seize private property without warrants during a time of peace; the Chinese missile technology treason; etc.......)
......and you can actually say, "This would be manipulating the American public at its worst"?! :shock: :doh

Manipulating the media in this country has become the NORM, not the exception anymore, unfortunately!

 

[aps]

How so?????????

I'm still not getting this, this feels like just another in a long list of blown out of proportion b.s. stories by the drive by media trying to "get," Bush.

I.E. it's another piece of sh!t that they're trying to get to stick.

Do you presume that the media is out to get just Bush or did you say the same kind of thing when Clinton had his mishap with Monica Lewinsky? Why are people like you always providing excuses for the president? Please give me 3 things he has done that you have disagreed with. I am so tired of people like you defending him at all costs. He's a human being, and he makes mistakes. It takes away your and anyone else's credibility when you refuse to accept that he has f**ked up during his presidency. Again, no one is perfect. But I can't tolerate people who refuse to acknowledge that Bush has made mistakes.

 

[Stinger]

In seriousness though, if this comes out to be indeed factual, the implications would change the entire scope of things considerably.

How? It changes nothing.

This administration indeed has waaaay too much power, by power, I specifically mean unchecked power.
As you said pac, this just gets more and more interesting. These guys one by one are dropping like flies.

It have no more nor less power than the constitution gives it and no more than any other Administration has had.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

Why shouldn't politicians use sensitive national security info for poilitical gain?
What's wrong w/ that?

 

[python416]

How so?????????

I'm still not getting this, this feels like just another in a long list of blown out of proportion b.s. stories by the drive by media trying to "get," Bush.

I.E. it's another piece of sh!t that they're trying to get to stick.

Oh gee, maybe he is dishonest because he claimed that if anyone in his administration had anything to do with the leak, then they would be fired - meanwhile, it was Bush and Cheney that authorized it?

Or maybe because he was playing politics with national security issues by retaliating against his critics using his access to classified information, and his access to declassify classified information?

Pretty cut and dry to me.

 

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by shuamort
I'm curious why you claim that.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Stinger
Claim what?

What I quoted.

You quoted
"
Originally Posted by Stinger
It that is Joe Wilson and you think quoting him has any validity you aren't dealing with reality. He's not a spokesman for the White House and certainly not one who speaks the truth."


That he is not a spokesman for the White House? He certainly wasn't.

That he does not speak the truth, proven by the 9/11 commission and his own phoney claims such as his claim he inspected the forged documents and determined they were forgeries when in fact they didn't come to light until months after is trip to *****.

"
The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the ***** intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between ***** and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to *****."

Or for instance his claim that his wife had nothing to do with his appointment, the 9/11 commission found differently



"The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him."

Or his claims about Iraq trying to buy yellow-cake and his meeting with the former President of *****

"
Wilson said that a former prime minister of *****, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between ***** and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."
According to the former ***** mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998."


Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html?referrer=emailarticle


His story has been totally debunked.

 

[Stinger]

I clarified my answer. It is not a crime what he did--but he looks completely dishonest.

The dishonesty was on Wilson's part. He attacked the White House with his lies and the White House discredited those lies. Had they not done so the American people would have been left to believe lies. Don't you think it important for the Administration to make sure that the public is dealing with the facts and not lies?

 

[Stinger]

Here's the Smoking Gun Article about Bush "leaking": Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak.


And here's an amusing link to this:
President Bush said Monday that if anyone on his staff committed a crime in the CIA leak case, that person will "no longer work in my administration." I can only hope he'll fire himself.

Geeeeeezzzzz, what don't you guys understand or is you partisianship making you blind. It is NOT illegal for the President to declassify a document and release information. They did nothing illegal and in fact they should be commended for countering the lies Joe Wilson was trying to fool the people with and making sure the correct information was in our hands so our positions could be based on facts not lies.

 

[aps]

The dishonesty was on Wilson's part. He attacked the White House with his lies and the White House discredited those lies. Had they not done so the American people would have been left to believe lies. Don't you think it important for the Administration to make sure that the public is dealing with the facts and not lies?

WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE THAT SADDAM WAS TRYING TO BUY URANIUM?

 

[Deegan]

Why shouldn't politicians use sensitive national security info for poilitical gain?
What's wrong w/ that?

You have the intelligence they declassified, can you honestly tell me there is something "sensitive" in those reports, something you think we should not have known?

 

[disneydude]

:shock:

Are you kidding me?

What about the continued negative press about the war, media feeding us the libs like Murtha, dean, and Kerry calling our troops Nazis and terrorists while screaming 'we can't win - retreat?!
- Where are the news reports bragging about how suicide bombings and roadside bombings in iraq is down 85% since the very end of the war?

What about the BS news about how Bush is so bad for the country, and the libs like Feingold introducing legislation to censure a President for a LEGAL program? The media and Libs constantly bombard us with BS negative 'news' trying to sway our opinions and trying to try the GOP in the court of public opinion!
-- WHERE is the incredible news about the country's growing and thriving economy right now? Unemployment is down for the 3rd or 4th straight month, the average being lower than any administration since the early 90s! The #s for those in New York receiving un-employment benefits has declined to the lowest point since the 1980s, one report says. The stock market is on a roll of increased gains that have not been seen as well in years, as reported BRIEFLY yesterday. Yet NOT ONE FR#@%&*^ WORD ABOUT ANY OF IT IN THE NEWS TODAY!

Clinton was a MASTER at lying and manipulating the media. There is literally a friggin' GRAVE YARD, not just a skeleton or two, of scandals, treason, and crimes in his closet that got BURIED and not reported during his administration.....
(Hillary's theft opf files, denying she knew about them, then them showing up in the White house living quarters with her fingerprints all over them, yet nothing done to her; the illegal FBI files; Clinton's wiretaps AND authorization to search and seize private property without warrants during a time of peace; the Chinese missile technology treason; etc.......)
......and you can actually say, "This would be manipulating the American public at its worst"?! :shock: :doh

Manipulating the media in this country has become the NORM, not the exception anymore, unfortunately!

Sometimes I wonder if we are even on the same planet.

1. You talk about suicide bombings being down since "the very end of the war". I'm sorry, did you really buy that "Mission accomplished" B.S. and Bush saying that major combat is over. I think if you ask the military, we are still very much in a war. But maybe you believe that all the information about the war going on in Iraq is fake information aired by the "Liberal Media".

2. A thriving economy? You obviously live in the state of "Euphoria" because I don't see anywhere in this country where the economy is thriving. True, the economy has shown some signs of life but everytime this administration makes claims about the economy growing, the numbers come in at much lower levels than expected. A good examply is the latest Holiday season spending which fell sharply lower than expectations. Thats usually a sign that the economy is not thriving.
What I see are people working for less and less, cost of living increasing and people struggling more and more everyday just to make ends meet. At the same time, Corporate America's pockets getting fatter and the middle class shrinking in this country as a result of Bush's policies.

3. Why does everything have to be a comparison to Clinton. Let me explain to you, the guys been out of office for 6 years - get over it. Its almost like you are saying...."Well Bush may have done.......but Clinton did this, Clinton did that". I will be the first to say that Clinton did many things in office that I personally disagree with. I felt tremendously let down by his personal flaws. But I also believe that there were many good things that he did while in office. But mark my words, you will never see me trying to apologize for anyones indisgresions by pointing to anothers character flaws.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

You have the intelligence they declassified, can you honestly tell me there is something "sensitive" in those reports, something you think we should not have known?

It was the classified National Intelligence Estimate. If it weren't sensitive, why was it classified?

 

[Stinger]

WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE THAT SADDAM WAS TRYING TO BUY URANIUM?

Well here is just some

"
Wilson said that a former prime minister of *****, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between ***** and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."
According to the former ***** mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html?referrer=emailarticle


or


By Mark Huband
The Financial Times of London | June 28, 2004Illicit sales of uranium from ***** were being negotiated with five states including Iraq at least three years before the US-led invasion, senior European intelligence officials have told the Financial Times.

Intelligence officers learned between 1999 and 2001 that uranium smugglers planned to sell illicitly mined Nigerien uranium ore, or refined ore called yellow cake, to Iran, Libya, China, North Korea and Iraq.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13997

But the important fact for this discussion is that Joe Wilson and his wife tried to perpetrate a fraud on the American people by thier attack on the Administration. The Administration would have none of it and release the intelligence information which discredited what he was saying. Now do you fault them for doing so or should they have just let Joe and Valerie carry out their little plan?

 

[Simon W. Moon]

Well here is just some

Have you taken the time to send these to the US Intel Community yet? I know we discussed it earlier. Since these reports are still at odds w/ what the US Intel Community is saying, perhaps you should finally breakdown and let them in on the secret evidence you have that they must not know about.

 

[Stinger]

Sometimes I wonder if we are even on the same planet.

Yes I have to wonder.


2. A thriving economy? You obviously live in the state of "Euphoria" because I don't see anywhere in this country where the economy is thriving. [/quote]

It's all over.

True, the economy has shown some signs of life but everytime this administration makes claims about the economy growing, the numbers come in at much lower levels than expected.

Not true at all, in fact the unemployment numbers came out yesterday and we are at near record low levels and more people are working now than ever before. Corporate profits, up. Productivity, up. Inflation, low. Revenues, up. Wages, up.

A good examply is the latest Holiday season spending which fell sharply lower than expectations. Thats usually a sign that the economy is not thriving.

One quarter, when we were in need of a little slowing anyway? Estimates so far are that this quarter will be between 3.4 and 4 GDP grwoth.

What I see are people working for less and less, cost of living increasing and people struggling more and more everyday just to make ends meet.

People aren't struggling more and more.

At the same time, Corporate America's pockets getting fatter and the middle class shrinking in this country as a result of Bush's policies.

When corporations do good we all do good, where do you think all our 401Ks and IRAs are invested?

3. ...... But I also believe that there were many good things that he did while in office.

Such as protecting women from sexual abuse in the workplace?

 

[Deegan]

It was the classified National Intelligence Estimate. If it weren't sensitive, why was it classified?

Now you're just playing dumb, did it shock you, did you think to yourself, "gee whiz, I shouldn't know this stuff, our enemies shouldn't know this stuff?" No, it was pretty much harmless information, which at one time was deemed classified, but then declassified after it had become common knowledge. It's really funny how I hear these reporters talking about "oh my, classified information, how dare he use this information" when the same people are pumping insiders for as much as they can get on a daily basis!

The point is, classified information is declassified everyday, and just because this may have helped the admin., they now act like there is something wrong with that, like you said, political gain. This is all about a common frustration, some want to believe intelligence was made up, or cherry picked, and that has not been proved. So the best they can do is to now try and throw this out as something that will stick, it won't, not for common sense thinking folks.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

Now you're just playing dumb, did it shock you, did you think to yourself, "gee whiz, I shouldn't know this stuff, our enemies shouldn't know this stuff?" No, it was pretty much harmless information, which at one time was deemed classified, but then declassified after it had become common knowledge.

Which info was it?

Afaict, the allegation is that incomplete excerpts were leaked to provide an appearance that was not quite in line with the whole thing. Kind of like what happened @ Weekly Standard whe it published a bunch of raw intel as fact when the USIC said that the stuff was not what the WS said it was.
It was true that there were such and such reports, but the reports weren't presented in the WS with the analyses that said some of the items were not reliable info.

Thanks for the commentary about my "common sense." Can't ever get enough of that from MB participants.

 

[aps]

Now you're just playing dumb, did it shock you, did you think to yourself, "gee whiz, I shouldn't know this stuff, our enemies shouldn't know this stuff?" No, it was pretty much harmless information, which at one time was deemed classified, but then declassified after it had become common knowledge. It's really funny how I hear these reporters talking about "oh my, classified information, how dare he use this information" when the same people are pumping insiders for as much as they can get on a daily basis!

The point is, classified information is declassified everyday, and just because this may have helped the admin., they now act like there is something wrong with that, like you said, political gain. This is all about a common frustration, some want to believe intelligence was made up, or cherry picked, and that has not been proved. So the best they can do is to now try and throw this out as something that will stick, it won't, not for common sense thinking folks.

Yes, classified information is declassified; however, there is a process that one undergoes to declassify information. The way Bush did it in this circumstance is highly unusual. And the parts he wanted to declassify were solely those that supported his arguments that Saddam was reconstituting WMDs. What about the portions of that report that refute such finding? Why wasn't that going to be declassified?

What you fail to acknowledge, Deegan, is the circumstances that portions of this document were declassified. If the information in the NIE report was necessary for all of us to know, why didn't Bush hold a press conference about it? This way, everyone would know that Joe Wilson was wrong about his findings in N iger. Rather, Bush wanted to get the information leaked out by a reporter. Why? If you don't have the common sense to question that, then you shouldn't be telling those of us who are wondering why Bush handled this the way he did that we don't have common sense.

 

[Deegan]

Which info was it?

Afaict, the allegation is that incomplete excerpts were leaked to provide an appearance that was not quite in line with the whole thing. Kind of like what happened @ Weekly Standard whe it published a bunch of raw intel as fact when the USIC said that the stuff was not what the WS said it was.
It was true that there were such and such reports, but the reports weren't presented in the WS with the analyses that said some of the items were not reliable info.

Thanks for the commentary about my "common sense." Can't ever get enough of that from MB participants.

More distractions, that's all I get from you, distractions and more questions when I ask for answers. You have become a bore Simon, either answer the question or don't, defend your position........no, finally take a position, or don't. Do you know how many reports I have seen with words or sentences blackened out, this is a ridiculous path you are taking here. As for common sense, or lack there of, if the shoe fits..................

 

[Trajan Octavian Titus]

It was the classified National Intelligence Estimate. If it weren't sensitive, why was it classified?

lmfao, do you even know what classified means? Once the President says it publicly by the very definition of the word it is no longer classified!

This was not top secret it was confidential, but hay you and the drive by media keep throwing that **** up against the wall, this times it's a three year old story that means absolutely jackshit, it's gotten laughable at this point.

That's what journalism has become reporters don't report the news they make up the news no matter what the facts are, the front page is now the editorial section.

When asked why people go into the career of journalism the top answer is: "to change the world." Well hay that's all well and good except that's not what journalists are supposed to do they're supposed to report the facts not their own opinions.



It's freaking pathetic.