Saturday, April 08, 2006

Declassification or Leak

I suppose I'm confused. Not an unusual circumstance with respect to the logic of politics.
PRESIDENT BUSH was emphatic in July 2003: ''If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." According to a federal prosecutor this week, the president himself authorized the leaking of classified CIA material. This whole affair cries out for a congressional investigation into the leak, and also into the broader question of how President Bush and Vice President Cheney used intelligence to draw the United States into war with Iraq.
So here's my questions:
If the President can't declassify and reveal information, who can?

If it's ok for non-authorized 'whistle-blowers' to illegally reveal classified information for exposure of the 'truth,' why is the President's actions viewed as wrong? Didn't that 'leak' of information actually reveal the truth of the allegations that Wilson had put forth in the MSM, in direct opposition to what he reported in classified documents to the CIA?

Then there is this:
No one is saying Bush wanted Plame's identity to be revealed, and leaks are an integral aspect of official Washington. Bush may technically not have leaked secrets since presidents apparently can declassify information at will. The disclosure that Bush plays the Washington game, however, shows his hypocrisy and ought to inhibit him from threatening newspapers that use leaks to report essential information.
Bush plays political games by the rules and is a hypocrite? Legally, he can declassify and reveal information, and I'd state that the information was in no manner "essential" to any security needs. But when the press gets illegal information, the President can't try to control the release of said information, even if it's essential to national security?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm just dense, and then I realize that it's not me, it's the morons who write these editorials.

You can go read the BoGlobe's editorial and find the rest of the factual challenges that this editor has against a setting of reality.


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