WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case. - New York Times
OR
President Bush authorized White House official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to disclose highly sensitive intelligence information to the news media in an attempt to discredit a CIA adviser whose views undermined the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, according to a federal prosecutor's account of Libby's testimony to a grand jury. - Washington Post
In other words - if you remember President Bush being asked about all this and saying he would get to the bottom of it - I wondered whether the president would have plausible deniability or not. Apparantly not.
"The White House did not challenge the prosecutor's account of Bush's and Cheney's role in orchestrating the effort to discredit Wilson yesterday." - Washington Post
No - it's not so amazing that the President authorized the leak; what is amazing is that he has been caught doing it.
All along the campaign trail - the Bush administration has been able to maintain plausible deniability with things like the Swift Boat ads; and the attacks against Max Cleland.
And they've been able to have plausible (somewhat plausible) deniability about their own beliefs and reasons for the Iraq invasion. But if you pull one card out - such as this authorized leak - then the house of cards tumbles.
They've just made too many enemies in the establishment: CIA, FBI, ARMY, AIR-FORCE etc. And my theory is that the real powers are fed up.
