Dallas Morning News Bush Aides Will Review Leak Notes Sat Oct 11 20:31:59 2003 64.140.158.151 Bush Aides Will Review Leak Notes By David Jackson The Dallas Morning News http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903A.shtml Tuesday 07 October 2003 White House's decision to give first look to its lawyers riles Democrats White House lawyers will review phone logs and other records supplied by presidential aides before turning the documents over to the Justice Department officials conducting the investigation into who leaked a CIA undercover operative's identity, officials said Monday. The disclosure inspired new Democratic calls for an independent inquiry. "To allow the White House counsel to review records before the prosecutors would see them is just about unheard of in the way cases are always prosecuted," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking on NBC's Today show. "And the possibility of mischief, or worse than mischief, is very, very large." Administration officials said the White House counsel's office may need up to two weeks to organize documents that some 2,000 employees are required to submit by 5 p.m. Tuesday. The documents must also be reviewed for national security or executive privilege concerns and to ensure the filings are responsive to Justice Department requests for information, White House aides said. The department is investigating whether Bush administration officials exposed a CIA operative's identity to reporters and a columnist, Robert Novak. Bush: 'Criminal action' President Bush underscored his concern about the leak Monday, telling reporters: "We're talking about a criminal action." The president said information would be submitted to the Justice Department "on a timely basis," calling the investigation "a very serious matter, and our administration takes it seriously." "I'd like to know who leaked," Mr. Bush added. "And if anybody has got any information, inside our government or outside our government, who leaked, they ought to take it to the Justice Department so we can find out the leaker." White House officials are required to turn in any documents they may have related to the principals in the matter, including former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, his wife, Valerie Plame, and any reporters who were contacted about the couple. White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said she could not put a timeline on when the documents might be turned over to the Justice Department but said the review would be expeditious. "It's going to be done with the intent of getting to the bottom of this," Ms. Snee said. "This is almost 2,000 people." Mr. Schumer and other Democrats have called for an outside special counsel, questioning whether Attorney General John Ashcroft can fairly investigate his patrons at the White House. Mr. Bush defended his Justice Department, saying, "These are ... professional prosecutors who are leading this investigation." Mark Rozell, a Catholic University politics professor who specializes in executive privilege, said it was reasonable for White House lawyers to take time to review the materials before sharing them with investigators. The length, he said, is up to the White House and its opponents. "There can be an argument over whether two weeks is the appropriate amount of time," he said. Charges of revenge Investigators want to find out who told reporters about Ms. Plame's identity. Mr. Wilson, who disputed the White House assertion that Iraq sought enriched uranium from Niger, says administration officials sought revenge by exposing his wife. Mr. Bush cited the uranium allegation during his 2003 State of the Union address, using it to argue that Saddam Hussein was trying to restart a nuclear program. Mr. Wilson, who believed his report from a 2002 trip to Niger had been ignored, went public with his skepticism in a July 6 op-ed piece for The New York Times. The next day, the White House retracted the uranium claim, saying Mr. Bush should not have used it in his speech. A week later, Mr. Novak wrote a column questioning why Mr. Wilson drew the assignment to check out the Niger allegations that began with intelligence officials in Italy. "Wilson never worked for the CIA," Mr. Novak wrote, "but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him." Mr. Wilson, who previously was posted in Niger, denied his wife played a role in his assignment to check out the uranium claim. Publication of her name has ruined her career as an undercover operative, he said. Exposure of a company she was associated with, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, also may have jeopardized a CIA front. Appearing Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, Mr. Wilson said: "I believe it was done to discourage others from coming forward." Mr. Wilson has specifically accused White House political adviser Karl Rove of some involvement, though aides to Mr. Rove said he had nothing to do with the exposure of Ms. Plame. The Justice Department opened the leak investigation at the behest of the CIA. White House Counsel Al Gonzales responded with memos to some 2,000 administration officials, ordering them to retain any Wilson-related records from Feb. 1, 2002, through Sept. 30, 2003. Those include computer files, telephone records, notes and memoranda. ----------------------------------------------------- White House Lawyers Reviewing Evidence Before Justice Department http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903A.shtml Howard Fineman | Recall Lessons for the President http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903B.shtml Lawyer Says Guantanamo Detainees Tortured http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903C.shtml AWOL State of Mind: Calls From Soldiers Desperate to Leave Iraq Flood Hotline http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903D.shtml Novak Leak Column Has Familiar Sound http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903E.shtml Supreme Court Clears Forced Medication For Death Row Inmates http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903F.shtml Dirty Secrets http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903G.shtml Nicholas D. Kristof | When Prudery Kills http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903H.shtml David S. Broder | Repairing California Government http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903I.shtml Six Months Later, Iraqi Illusions Lost http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100903J.shtml Conyers Calls For Rove's Resignation http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803A.shtml 3 GIs Killed, Rebels Issue Warning http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803B.shtml Bush Says, Rove Did Not Do It http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803C.shtml Congress Hits Warpath On Iraq Funding Issues http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803D.shtml Little Progress Made On Iraq Resolution http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803E.shtml UK: Television Journalist Who Quit Over Faked War Report is Found Hanged http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803F.shtml Bush Administration Sides With Pesticides Makers Against Farmers http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803G.shtml We Report, You Get It Wrong http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803H.shtml West Still Failing To Protect Afghan Women http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803I.shtml Local Peace Group Infiltrated By Government Agent http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100803J.shtml TIME: Leaking With a Vengeance http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703A.shtml Walter Cronkite | The New Inquisition http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703B.shtml Calif.'s Davis Comes Back Swinging at Schwarzenegger http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703C.shtml Police Flee as Saddam Loyalists Fuel City Revolt http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703D.shtml White House to Overhaul Iraq and Afghan Missions http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703E.shtml "Old Bull" Democrats Frustrate House GOP http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703F.shtml The American Saddam http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703G.shtml Nuclear Weapons Controversy in Tennessee http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703H.shtml Paul Donovan | Why Isn't the Truth Out There? http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703I.shtml Enron Seeks Millions for Power Never Delivered to Sierra Pacific http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/100703J.shtml ------- This White House Scandal Finally Tips the Scale — Marie Cocco, Sat Oct 11 21:09 'Not involved in the leaking of classified information' — APFN, Sat Oct 11 21:17
Main Page - Saturday, 10/11/03
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
APFN MESSAGEBOARD ARCHIVES
