President George W. Bush's 2003 decision to declassify an intelligence report to rebut an Iraq war critic stirred unease even in the White House, an administration official said on Thursday in the perjury trial of a vice presidential aide.
White House communications official Cathie Martin said she was "not comfortable" in July of that year when her boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, told her to use the information to counter charges that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for invading Iraq.
"I wasn't sure if I could use that point because it was related to the NIE," Martin said, referring to a classified National Intelligence Estimate report that said Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium from Niger.
Martin was not aware that Bush had already declassified the report by that time.
Bush admitted he'd declassified the report and okayed leaking it to the media to use in defense of criticism by Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Back then, leaking declassifying intel was alright -- mostly because the White House thought it would help them politically. When the intel won't help them, the NIE isn't cleared...
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Tags: news | politics | congress | Bush | Iraq | war | Scooter Libby | John Negroponte | bullshit
