[pnews-news] Finally, Others are Also Asking if They Can Trust George Bush.

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Finally, Others are Also Asking if They Can Trust George Bush.
  Well, what took them so long? We seem to think there is so much 
information out there that no one could possible miss it but the fact of 
the matter is, who is reading and looking for it besides us? FOX News is 
the most watched news on TV and how many do you really think listens to 
NPR? The fact of the matter is we are in the minority and Americans are 
just too lazy or trustful or both to find out when they are being scammed. 
Do we deserve what we get?

    H



Editorial
A war of leaks, lies and legalities

If a former White House aide is telling the truth, President George W. 
Bush authorized the leak of highly sensitive intelligence information, an 
act that is legal but reeks of unethical conduct.

Bush is politically damaged by White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 
federal grand jury testimony that Vice President Dick Cheney told him the 
president approved of leaking a classified document used to justify the 
March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The revelation strikes at the heart of the 
straight-shooter persona the president has offered to the public. Bush has 
repeatedly deplored leaks and vowed to have no knowledge of leaking by his 
administration.

One wonders whether the president doth protest too much. Was Bush publicly 
attesting to a distaste for leaking while at the same time indulging in 
that favored sport of politicians?

Neither Libby nor Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald accuse the president 
of authorizing or even encouraging the outing of Valerie Plame, the CIA 
agent at the crux of the case. Plame's spouse, former Ambassador Joseph 
Wilson, faced off with the White House over its Iraq war intelligence and 
believes his wife's identity was revealed as retribution.

For the first time, Bush is directly linked in the leaking investigation, 
which, until now, primarily revolved around the activities of senior White 
House aides.

The president is not in any legal jeopardy. Constitutional powers allow a 
president to classify or declassify information. That power flows from the 
president to others in the chain of command. Bush further solidified this 
right in March 2003 by signing an executive order delegating 
declassification authority to Cheney.

But this episode stinks to high heaven.

The document in question argued Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his 
nuclear-weapons program and was used as the basis for the administration's 
sense of urgency for going to war with Iraq. The document's intelligence 
reports were ultimately proved untrue.

The president may or may not have outed Plame to discredit or punish her 
husband, but it appears the sensitive information was used for political 
gain.

In the end, it comes down to the ability to trust our top leader. Bush 
stood before the nation and condemned leaks and the people who make them. 
He pledged to find the perpetrators and hold them accountable. Looking 
back on that moment, the public wonders if the commander in chief is an 
honest man.

Copyright  2006 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2002917840_bushed09.html

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