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White House awash with leakers

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By The Quad-City Times | Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:19 AM CST | () comments

At the White House, when it leaks, it pours.

“I want to know the truth,” President Bush said three years ago this month. “If there’s a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is.

“Leaks of classified information are bad things.”

The leak he was fretting was the illegal disclosure of an undercover CIA agent’s identity. Today, his concern over the outing of Valerie Plame seems almost quaint. But at the time, the president was clearly outraged. He didn’t like the leak or what it implied about his administration.

On Wednesday, Americans learned that his White House was rife with leakers.

A trio of reporters testifying on Scooter Libby’s behalf implicated a who’s who of the White House for leaking Plame’s CIA identity to a who’s who of the press corps.

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus testified under oath that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer disclosed Plame’s identity. Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward testified under oath then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaked it. Columnist Bob Novak testified under oath he heard it directly from Karl Rove as well as Armitage.

Two other reporters testifying earlier for the prosecution confirmed that Fleischer and Libby each leaked her identity.

The disclosures suggest that while Bush’s top aides seemed to freely disclose to reporters, they didn’t ‘fess up to their boss. At least they hadn’t by Feb. 11, 2004, when he told reporters “I want to know the truth.”

The “truth” about this sordid Libby mess is something the president’s top aides apparently didn’t share with him for months after the leak. They hadn’t by June 2004 when the president stated he would “fire” anyone found to have leaked the information. Perhaps he learned by July 2005, when he pledged to fire only those “convicted of a crime” in connection with a leak.

A jury will decide Libby’s fate. But the testimony indicts a White House staff that apparently not only contradicted law, but — if Bush’s February and June 2004 statements are any indication — a presidential directive as well.