Specter urges Bush, Cheney to explain CIA leak

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060410/ts_usatoday/specterurgesbushcheneytoexplaincialeak;_ylt=AhOSHetaSg1dLOrO74ytqH.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
Specter urges Bush, Cheney to explain CIA leak

By David Jackson, USA TODAY 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday that
President Bush should speak publicly about a leak of classified intelligence that was released to rebut an
Iraq war critic.


"The president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people," Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said on Fox News Sunday.

"The president may be entirely in the clear, and it may turn out that he had the authority to make the disclosures which were made," Specter said. "It was not the right way to go about it because we ought not to have leaks in government."

Specter was referring to a brief filed last week in the case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney.

Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Cheney told him Bush had approved revealing portions of a National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's alleged attempt to buy uranium from Niger, according to the brief filed by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

[OKthatsIT]

1. OH SURE SPECTOR, like you explained the 'single gun theory'

GIVE ME A BREAK!

THEY NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED BY a GRAND JURY!

[rodeodance]

3. seems as though Fritz has not found anything on them (yet).

[OKthatsIT]

13. FITZ needs to subpoena the White House IT Staff.

Why havent we heard this, yet?

[BR_Parkway]

29. Really? Then why did this testimony come to light? I think Fitz just

pushed a major button, and did it for a reason. I'm thinking to pressure someone to give up something, but not sure who yet. Perhaps to kick another leg out from under Libby, prehaps to let Hadley know he's completely serious about taking them all down and to show that he's willing to go all the way to the top.

Shrub just admitted authorizing the leak according to some of the headlines? If so, the the White House just admitted that they exposed the entire Brewster Jennings organization - and that part hasn't even hit the airways and news channels yet.

[cain_7777]

20. Need Pepper

Bush and Cheney need to "pepper" eahother in the face to take some heat off the leak scandal

[Pat Speer]

33. Specter is a hypocrite!

Specter has never come clean about his time on the Warren Commission and his creation of the single-bullet theory. (For a discussion of his involvement, see the Movement of the Back Wound slide in the Examining the Examinations section of this presentation: http://homepage.mac.com/bkohley/Menu18.html)
When he was a Democrat he participated in covering up the murder of a Democratic president. He then became a Republican, and was almost given the job of Nixon's defense counsel during Watergate. If he tries to come back to the Democrats after butting heads with Bush, they should tell him to take a hike.

[rodeodance]

2. Libby: Plame's CIA employment as "a peripheral issue"

....It said Wilson's findings did not change any CIA analysts' assessments that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa and disputed Wilson's claim that his wife did not recommend him for the Niger mission.

In his television interview Sunday, Wilson said CIA officials expressed skepticism of the Niger allegations in the weeks leading to Bush's State of the Union speech.

Libby said he regarded Plame's CIA employment as "a peripheral issue" for officials who responded to Wilson's critique, the prosecution filings also said.

Prosecutors wrote that some documents requested by Libby "could be characterized as reflecting a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against" Wilson.

[rodeodance]

4. Cnn talking of this now

[rodeodance]

5. Norah saying the Pres now 'implicated' in the leak.

[rodeodance]

6. showing clip of Specter saying a 'detailed explanation' needs to come

from Cheney and President.

[rodeodance]

7. Joe Wilson saying WH ought to release transcripts of interview with Fritz.

[rodeodance]

9. they showed a clip of this.

[rodeodance]

10. msnbc a bit earlier also did this story.

[stop the bleeding]

11. thanks rodeodance, this is the way that I wanted the week to start out

your updates are crucial for me while I'm in cube hell.

[rodeodance]

14. yes, a good monday morning--

[trotsky]

8. Oooh... big demands.

Pretzelboy will say, "Yeah, I done it because I gotta protect the country in a time of war. That Plame gal's husband was defeatin' the war effort and encouraging the terraists. So I had to do it."

And the Repukes will line up to fellate him and tell us just how wonderful a prezident he is.

[gratuitous]

12. Shorter Specter: Come onnnnnnnnnnn! Guys!

Why don't you convene a hearing and start issuing subpoenas, Arlen? Hell, if Congress can gear up for an investigation on whether the White House was spending public money on Socks the cat (I shit you not), surely they can poke around into whether or not the Bush administration was outing CIA covert operatives during wartime, couldn't it?

[rodeodance]

15. I would love to see more---but this IS a repug talking!

[jobycom]

16. Exactly: Bush and Cheney won't admitt to a crime unless they are forced

and the only people who can force them are the Republicans in Congress. Specter needs to remember bis oath and his job and his duty to his country and try to force criminal hearings--UNDER OATH--on the matter. Otherwise he's helping Bush skate.

[boobooday]

17. Oh, he URGES them

Oooh, how scary. Couldn't issue a subpeona, could you? Couldn't make a DEMAND?

What a sniveling weasel.

[rodeodance]

18. this story is coming up again on msnbc

[rodeodance]

19. teaser: Republican 'breaks rank" with WH

[Ian David]

21. Spooky Arlen is The GOP's own Joe Biden...

"I'm gonna speachify for twenty-eight minutes about how I feel... and then spend two minutes explaining why I'm not gonna vote that way."

[emald]

22. pRezident owes us PRISON time, but we don't need any more

"explanations" from these criminals. fuck their words, who cares anymore beside the 38% of us who are freakish enough to support this animal turd. No more explanations, please. We all get the picture, really clearly now. Just get the fuck out and go die somewhere. God, I hate this administration, this congress who hand him power, and the 38% of freaks who think the chimp is right.

[VP505]

23. Phony Specter

is going to do his usual, make a statement like this: "The president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people,", then when it comes time for action, he obstructs and does nothing but protect Bu$h. The MSM, being the lap dogs they are, publish it anyway, as if it really showed Specter to be exercising his over-site responsibilities.

[Teena]

24. It was my understanding -

that Valerie Plame's job as a CIA agent was to help in the interception of sales of WMDs, which in my way of thinking, is HELPFUL in the "war on terror." If she was outed by the Hillbilly Hitler, then he was - in effect - OBSTRUCTING his own "war on terror!" This is what needs to get out - Bush the Traitor - as he will surely be portrayed in history books of the future, ordered something done that made our nation LESS SAFE!

[jazzjunkysue]

31. Exactly: She was looking for loose nukes, too, I believe.

All her sources were probably taken out and shot the next night. Guh-bye all the years of work it took Valeri to create her informants. Those are not replaced in a month or a year. That just set the whole world back a decade, if not more.

He's a traitor, period. People have had enough.


We have to make sure they don't rig the next election, just to keep their sorry asses out of jail.

[Miss Chybil]

25. The president needs to explain why he let this go to the grand jury,

if he only gave out info he was "authorized" to release.

[Spinzonner]

26. Anyone remember this quote from Fearless Leader ?

President Bush:

"I do not need to explain why I say things. — That's the interesting thing about being the President. — Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."


I think WE'RE included in 'anybody'

[PaDem]

27. Please Arlen..........

the tough cop routine isn't fooling anyone at this point.

[flyarm]

28. heyyyy Arlin..he also needs to explain outing brewster jennings!

a covert operation that he and his criminals exposed and destroyed!

fly

[lovuian]

30. Oh Ya I would like him to explain in court not on TV

let him be questioned...under oath...

[matt819]

32. I guess of you're republican you can have it both ways

If it was declassified, then why was it leaked.

If it was declassified, why wasn't the entire document declassified?

Slight problem with timing, as the official declassified document, without the opposing viewpoints, was declassified more than a week after the information was leaked. And it was undoubtedly declassified precisely because it had been leaked.

We are the laughingstock of the entire world.