The latest Murray Waas scoop is a potential blockbuster, that could further undermine the Bush administration's claim to be a stalwart in the area of national security (as if the Dubai ports scandal, and the Katrina disaster hadn't done enough). Here's what Waas has to say, via the HuffPo:
Did the Bush administration "authorize" the leak of classified information to Bob Woodward? And did those leaks damage national security?
The vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) made exactly that charge tonight in a letter to John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence. What prompted Rockefeller to write Negroponte was a recent op-ed in the New York Times by CIA director Porter Goss complaining that leaks of classified information were the fault of "misguided whistleblowers."
Rockefeller charged in his letter that the most "damaging revelations of intelligence sources and methods are generated primarily by Executive Branch officials pushing a particular policy, and not by the rank-and-file employees of intelligence agencies."
Later in the same letter, Rockefeller said: "Given the Administration's continuing abuse of intelligence information for political purposes, its criticism of leaks is extraordinarily hypocritical. Preventing damage to intelligence sources and methods from media leaks will not be possible until the highest level of the Administration cease to disclose classified information on a classified basis for political purposes."
Exhibit A for Rockefeller: Woodward's book, Bush at War.
Here is what Rockefeller had to say:
In his 2002 book Bush at War, Bob Woodward described almost unfettered access to classified material of the most sensitive nature. According to his account, he was provided information related to sources and methods, extremely sensitive covert actions, and foreign intelligence liaison relationships. It is no wonder, as Director Goss wrote, "because of the number of recent news reports discussing our relationships with other intelligence services, some of these partners have even informed the C.I.A. that they are reconsidering their participation of some of our most important antiterrorism ventures."
I wrote both former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George Tenet and Acting DCI John McLaughlin seeking to determine what steps were being taken to address the appalling disclosures contained in Bush at War. The only response I received was to indicate that the leaks had been authorized by the Administration. The CIA has still not responded to a follow-up letter I sent a year and half ago on September 1, 2004, trying to pin down which officials were authorized to meet with Mr. Woodward and by whom, and what intelligence information was conveyed during these authorized exchanges.
Were leaks of classified information "authorized" to Woodward? Rockefeller's letter says exactly that. And among other things, it is well known and has been reported long ago that one of Woodward's sources for both of his books about the Bush presidency was then-VicePresidential chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, who is portrayed in quite a flattering manner in both.
(Read the entire post, it's worth it...) If true, Waas, or rather Rockefellar (who is emerging as the real kingslayer in the Democratic insurgency), may have unearthed a sort of reverse Watergate, where the leaks flow from inside the administration out, placing classified information in the political sphere, to be used at will and in secret by the administration for purely political, or even P.R., purposes. Can that kind of carelessness with secret information go completely unpunished? From the Plame leak to the secrecy over domestic wiretapping, to the selling of the war using hastily declassified, but selective information, to the unwillingness to share basic information about the Katrina aftermath to the secret Dubai ports deal, this administration has shown almost a flagrant disregard both for Congress, for the concept of national security, for the seriousness of the classification process, and for the rule of law.
How much longer does this go on before Congress takes the next logical step, by forcing the president to account to them by means of impeachment? That doesn't mean the president would be removed from office, but given the administration's dismissive attitude toward the Congress, impeachment hearing would seem to be the only means of forcing the administration to come to the table.
If you agree, vote Democrat in November, because I doubt the GOP has the stomach to play 1972 Congress to Bush's Richard Nixon.
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%>
Tell a friend
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dim email, sendmail
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'put the webmaster address here
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sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
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'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
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sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
