http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_didnt_know_about_CIA_leak_0620.html
Bush didn't know about CIA leak, McClellan says
Reuters
Published: Friday June 20, 2008
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By Andy Sullivan
WA****NGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush did not know about a White
House effort to leak the identity of a CIA agent but tried to protect
staffers who were involved in one of the biggest scandals of his
administration, former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told Congress on
Friday.
McClellan said he did not think Bush was involved in a 2003 effort to
blow the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, whose husband had
accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify the
Iraq war.
But Bush, through his chief of staff, ordered McClellan to tell
re****ters that White House staffers Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter"
Libby were not behind the leak, even though they both turned out to be
involved, McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee.
Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement in the leak might have been
greater, McClellan said.
"I do not think the president in any way had knowledge about it,"
McClellan told lawmakers. "In terms of the vice president, I do not
know. There is a lot of suspicion there."
McClellan, who was White House spokesman between 2003 and 2006,
recently released a book that accuses the White House of conducting a
propaganda campaign to make the case to invade Iraq. He says Libby and
Rove deceived him about their role in the Plame leak.
McClellan said Bush should fully explain what he knew about the leak
and how he decided to invade Iraq. The White House was "less than
candid and less than honest" as it made its case for war, he said.
McClellan's book, released last month, caused an uproar in Wa****ngton
and raised new questions about whether Bush and Cheney directed
staffers to smear war critics, like Plame's husband, and then block a
subsequent investigation.
That investigation ultimately led to a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for
Libby, Cheney's top aide, on obstruction and perjury charges. Bush,
who had promised to fire anyone involved in the leak, commuted Libby's
sentence.
"Concerns about possible obstruction of justice are not trivial and
clearly warrant this committee's attention," said committee chairman
John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.
Several Democrats on the committee called for Bush's impeachment, an
idea party leaders have rejected.
"You are the first high official in this administration to come before
this Congress and offer us a glimpse into the truth," Florida
Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler said.
Republicans and the White House have harshly criticized McClellan for
writing the book and then discussing his conclusions in a series of TV
appearances.
"I think Scott has probably told everyone everything he doesn't know,
so I don't know if anyone should expect him to say anything new
today," current White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
The hearing highlighted the former insider's pariah status as the
harshest questioning came from his fellow Republicans.
The committee's top Republican, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, questioned
McClellan's motives and said he had sold out Bush "for a few pieces of
silver."
That drew an objection from McClellan's attorney.
Other Republicans suggested that McClellan had been manipulated by
liberal book publishers and said he should have spoken up while at the
White House, rather than waiting to release a book during an election
year.
Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King said McClellan should have simply kept
his mouth shut.
"From an integrity standpoint, could you not have taken some of this
to the grave with you and done this country a favor?" King asked.
McClellan said his book accurately represented his views. Going public
with his doubts has not been easy, he said.
"You find out who your true friends are in a time like this," he said.
(Additional re****ting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by David Alexander)
--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004
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