All Hank, all the time.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
the leaked info was about WMD- I presume tending to indicate it was in Iraq. When it was not found they leaked information that had caused them to think it would be there- what value was that information then? it was wrong. other than possibly the source shouldn't it have been declassified?

From the thingy that Gatti linked to: "The Fitzgerald filing also notes that Libby told grand jurors that he conferred with David Addington, Cheney's counsel, about the leak directive and that Addington told him 'that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.' "

From the actual court filing: "[Libby] further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE. Defendant [i.e., Libby] testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE. Defendant also testified that he spoke to David Addington, then Counsel to the Vice President, whom defendant considered to be a legal expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."

Does unwritten, third-hand notification of the President's authorizing release of information cause it to be declassified?

ETA here is a link to the relevant portion of the filing: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby6.html because I can't figure out how to cut and paste and the paragraph after the link is interesting as to the questions of (a) whether this method of declassification works and (b) whether disclosing to Miller and only Miller was really "public."