Now that we know Scooter Libby's trial date -- January 8, 2007 -- there's been a new round of interest in the media about the CIA leak scandal. Lots of information will flow from Scooter's trial.
Fresh off a National Journal piece that examines Dick Cheney's role in the scandal, Murray Waas has identified very important information involving the role of Bush and what he knew. And, we've learned that if Murray Waas thinks something like this happened, it probably did:
Did President Bush personally receive information during his morning intelligence briefings about Joe Wilson's mission to Niger? Court filings in the CIA leak case appear to indicate that may well might have been the case.The key passage found in a letter from Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to Scooter's lawyers reads:
In response to our requests, we have received a very discrete amount of material relating to PDBs. We have provided to Mr. Libby and his counsel (or are in the process of providing such documents consistent with the process of a declassification review) copies of any pages in our possession reflecting discussions of Joseph Wilson, Valerie Wilson and/or Wilson's trip to Niger contained in (or written on) copies of the President's Daily Brief (PDB) in the redacted form in which we received them.This scandal just keeps brewing. And, it looks more and more like the President and Vice President were very involved. This White House -- which trumpets their national security credentials -- undermined national security by outing an undercover operative. One of the main offenders, Karl Rove, is not only still a top adviser to Bush, he still has top security clearance. Rove said he wants to make national security the top political issue in 2006. Fine, then let's make Rove's actions a big part of that political debate. That's what he'd do.
Hat tip to the Federation of American Scientist's Program on Government Secrecy for posting the letters -- and so much of the other written material on this subject.
