Bush said to have cleared Iraq leak - Yahoo! News

Bush said to have cleared Iraq leak - Yahoo! News: "Thu Apr 6, 6:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top White House aide testified that
President George W. Bush authorized leaking classified intelligence in 2003 in the face of criticism of his
Iraq policy from a former ambassador, according to court papers made public on Thursday.
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Democrats seized on the news, accusing Bush of hypocrisy. The president has often denounced leaks from his administration and vowed to punish the leakers. This was the first time Bush was directly linked to this incident.

'If the disclosure is true, it's breathtaking. The president is revealed as the leaker-in-chief,' said Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record) of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The papers cited Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President
Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, as testifying to a federal grand jury that Cheney had told him that Bush authorized him to disclose information from a secret National Intelligence Estimate to a New York Times reporter in July 2003.

The disclosure arose out of a long-running investigation into the leak of
CIA's operative
Valerie Plame's identity. Libby testified that he was specifically directed by the vice president to reveal the intelligence information to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

The court documents did not say that Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Plame's identity.

Libby also said he was cleared to brief the reporter about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had criticized Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Democrats, who hope to seize control of Congress from Republicans in November elections, demanded an explanation. Bush ignored a reporter's shouted question about the case.

The White House declined to discuss the disclosure. 'Our policy is not to discuss ongoing legal proceedings and that policy is unchanged,' said spokesman, Ken Lisa"