By D. Cupples | Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a book, due out in the spring, in which he apparently admits to having given false information to the press and the public about other White House officials' roles in the outing of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Below is a small excerpt from McClellan's book, courtesy of Editor & Publisher:
"The most powerful leader in the world [President Bush] had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
"There was one problem. It was not true.
"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."
Bravo to McClelland for making the admission. If other former (and current) White House officials would do likewise, we taxpayers would get a clearer picture of what's been going on over the last seven years.
Upon hearing about McClellan's admission, Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee called for an investigation (video is at Think Progress). So did Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd (E&P).
At the Huffington Post, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson dusted off this old quote from President Bush's father, a former president and former CIA Director:
"'I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.' George Herbert Walker Bush, CIA dedication ceremony, April 26, 1999."
Apparently, the current president disagrees with his father on that point.
Truthout's Jason Leopold recently interviewed Valerie Wilson . One of the most disturbing revelations was that she (along with George Tenet, John Ashcroft and Karl Rove) had received credible threats in 2004; when Mrs. Wilson asked for additional security, CIA officials denied her request without giving reasons -- despite the fact that Tenet, Ashcroft and Rove already had solid security (video, part I).
In July 2003, Joe Wilson (Valerie's husband) wrote a New York Times op-ed that asked this question: "Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?" Wilson's answer:
"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
Today, those words don't seem unusual, untrue or even mean spirited. It was after Joe Wilson's op-ed that White House staffers apparently revealed to the press Valerie's status as a covert CIA agent. In a civil suit against Vice President Dick Cheney and others, Cheney's lawyers bizarrely argued that it was fine for White House staffers to blow Mrs. Wilson's cover, because her husband had publicly criticized President Bush's Iraq war policy. No, I'm not kidding. (See BN-Politics)
See Memeorandum for other bloggers' reactions.
Related BN-Politics Posts:
* Cheney's Bizarre Defense of Libby and the Plame Outing
* Bush's Clemency Record: Mocking Woman on Death Row
* Conservative Andrew Sullivan on the Libby Pardon
* Despite Threats, Judge Orders Libby to Head to Prison
* Pardon This: Bush Rescues Libby from Excessive Prison Term
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