Well, well, well! Remember the Valerie Plame scandal where Bush swore he'd fire the person responsible for the leak? Looks like Libby has fingered Bush himself!
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-04-06T170208Z_01_WAT005235_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BUSH-LEAK.xml
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush authorised the leak to the media of classified material about Iraq, a former aide to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said according to court papers filed by prosecutors and made public on Thursday.

The aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, also testified that he was specifically directed by Cheney to speak to the media about the intelligence information and about Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had criticised Bush's Iraq policy, according to the papers.

Libby has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice after an investigation into the leaking to the media of the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent, which Wilson says was done to pay him back for his criticisms.

The court documents made public on Thursday emerged from that investigation.

The reported authorisation by Bush of disclosure of secret material in 2003 came at a time when the March 2003 Iraq invasion was being challenged after U.S. forces failed to find weapons of mass destruction, cited by Bush as the main reason for the action.

Bush had the authority to declassify and allow publication of the material. But the court papers said Libby noted "it was unique in his recollection" to get approval from the president, via the vice president, to discuss material with a reporter that would be classified if it were not for this approval.

The documents showed that Libby, testifying before a federal grand jury before his indictment, said that he got approval from Bush through Cheney to discuss the classified Iraq material with then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Will the investigators be able to ask Cheney to collaborate? It looks as if someone will have their head in the noose after that testimony. For starters, Libby can't claim he forgot to tell investigators about something that was "unique in his recollection".

I wonder if the administration will say that they're only going to fire someone who broke the law, but the President is the (only) person who can release this information without breaking the law.

I would've thought there would be a process to declassifying something other than telling an underling to secretly leak it.

"Sure thing Scooter, old pal old buddy o' mine. You tell them I authorized the leak and you don't go to jail. At this point, I don't have anything to lose. I just say 'yeah so what? I'm the frikking President and I can do whatever I want!' By the way... sorry you lost your job over this but sometimes ya just gotta take a hit to save the quarterback!"

**edit** Oh! Did I say I don't believe it? I don't think Bush authorized it anyway. I think Cheney's pulling the strings on this one and they're doing a last minute maneuver to save a beloved buddy. I don't think Bush would contradict a Cheney maneuver publicly even now.

What people should be asking is why did Bush call for an investigation to "get to the bottom of it", wasting taxpayers money on an investigation? I can't wait for this administration to be OUT! We need some integrity back in the White House. Nixon post-Watergate was more palatable as leader than Bush.

Wow - this News media pseudo scandal de jour fizzled fairly quickly . . .

That's because at this point Americans are no longer shocked by despicable actions taken by our President and Darth Cheney.

That doesn't change the fact that your boy has the second lowest approval rating of any modern President. Only Nixon had a lower approval rating, and he required a presidential pardon before it was all said and done.

What people should be asking is why did Bush call for an investigation to "get to the bottom of it", wasting taxpayers money on an investigation? I can't wait for this administration to be OUT! We need some integrity back in the White House. Nixon post-Watergate was more palatable as leader than Bush.Glad someone else sees the obvious too. Why did he deny that anyone leaked it when he himself was the one to authorize it? He's either lying now or he was lying then.

To say he leaked a CIA operative's name to the press, or caused it to happen, but that's ok because he is the President is BS. He still put into jeopardy everyone who worked under that cover or could be traced back to that.

Anyone else think it is hilarious, and oh so typical, that he gets a new chief of staff to "shake up" the staff? The staff that needs to go is the top guys. As usual the rank and file who are taking orders from these clowns are the ones to be the designated scapegoats for the ones who continue to fail to take responsibility for their own screw-ups. Reminds me a lot of what goes on in typical companies.

I don't think the crime itself, the leaking of this woman's identity, was so bad. I think the exposure of underhand political methods, the manipulation of the press, misuse of security information, and contempt for the public is far worse.

I do. Anyone else who worked for the dummy energy company that was a front for the spying could also be traced back to that operation and fingered for a operative.

So, lets say some operative named Joe was in Iraq working for Company XYZ, which was a CIA front for spying. He's now in another country and someone says (or informs) his current targets that Joe was known to be working for Company XYZ which was a CIA operated front. So the assumption would now be that Joe's career as an operative is probably over. It didn't just affect Ms. Plame.

New Chief of Staff who comes in and states that he's gonna "clean house"? Just another layer for scapegoating if there's a problem down the road. "It wasn't me... the Chief of Staff messed up by leaving 'X' in that position".

Well, Scott McClellan is going. The designated spokesperson who gets to repeat the administration's lies. Man, that job couldn't pay enough!

Wow... I always felt kind of sorry for Scot McClellan... now I REALLY feel sorry for him. He is nicknamed "Piggy" in this article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2142277,00.html
Piggy' gets chop at last in revamp of White House
From Tom Baldwin in Washington
MINUTES after announcing the resignation of the White House press secretary, President Bush was the victim of another communications failure when his helicopter was prevented from taking off because of a broken radio.

Indeed, the sight of Marine One being grounded provided the type of vivid political symbolism that this US Administration has, in recent months, proved incapable of producing. Scott McClellan’s tormented, sweaty, pink-faced appearances in front of the White House press corps had, for some, become almost too painful to watch.

“The living symbol of this White House’s profound and perhaps mortal problem with language and meaning,” was the verdict of the writer Michael Wolff in a recent Vanity Fair article. “He’s Piggy in Lord of the Flies: a living victim, whose reason for being is, apparently, to shoulder public ridicule and pain . . . he’s the person nobody would ever choose to be.”

Anyone else think it is hilarious, and oh so typical, that he gets a new chief of staff to "shake up" the staff? The staff that needs to go is the top guys. As usual the rank and file who are taking orders from these clowns are the ones to be the designated scapegoats for the ones who continue to fail to take responsibility for their own screw-ups. Reminds me a lot of what goes on in typical companies.

A company VP I once worked for had a pithy saying "If the customers are complaining about the whores, you don't throw out the beds."

Heh! This sums it up pretty well...

John Aravosis at Americablog suppresses a yawn:

"Who cares? Seriously. Bush gets rids of his spokesman? Ooh, big deal. The guy who is ordered to lie for him is going to be replaced by another guy who is ordered to lie for him. And this will significantly change the direction of this disaster of an administration how? Bush also changed the head of the Office of Management and Budget - that would be his accountant, for all intents and purposes. So, we now have a new accountant, and a new mouthpiece who simply parrots what Bush tells him. How is that going to change the situation in Iraq? How is that going to prevent Bush from getting us into a third disastrous war, a nuclear one this time, in Iran? Is the new press secretary or the new accountant going to come up with the war plan for Iran this time instead of Rummy?"

These people know sarcasm!

Georgia10 at Kos is practically nostalgic:

"Will anyone be able to fill Scotty's shoes? Who can master the art of 'we don't comment on ongoing investigations?' Who has the stamina to repeat day after day, week after week, that Saddam 'was a grave threat'? Who has the skill to weave the words 'terrorists flew planes into buildings' into at least one question per briefing? The nomination floor is open.

"Buh-bye, Scotty."