President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.
Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.
But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes.
Bush also said during his interview with prosecutors that he had never directed anyone to disclose the identity of then-covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife. Bush said he had no information that Cheney had disclosed Plame's identity or directed anyone else to do so.
One senior government official familiar with the discussions between Bush and Cheney -- but who does not have firsthand knowledge of Bush's interview with prosecutors -- said that Bush told the vice president to "Get it out," or "Let's get this out," regarding information that administration officials believed would rebut Wilson's allegations and would discredit him.
Correct me if I am wrong but don't we already know that Bush knew Valerie Plame was Joe Wilson's wife after that secret report that was made available to him on Air Force One in June 10th, 2003? Members of the Bush cabinet, if not the President himself, read the report and knew that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. The argument is that they did not know she was covert, but that is a ridiculous excuse. The report was stamped "Top Secret" which means that everything within it was not to be disclosed to anybody without top secret security clearance.
So if Bush told Cheney to "get the word out" he essentially said "out a CIA agent". That is treason.
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