Cheney Doesn't Share

[rodeodance]

Cheney Doesn't Share

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; 12:46 PM

Another memorable scene of the inner workings of the Bush White House unfolded yesterday in the federal courthouse where former vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby is on trial.

This one is particularly significant because it gives credence to the widespread view that Vice President Cheney oversees his own intensely secretive, highly defensive and sometimes ruthless operation within the White House -- and that he does so with President Bush's approval, but often outside the view of Bush's top aides.




Greg Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times: "As Libby sat silently in the courtroom, jurors heard his recorded voice describe how he was instructed to leak intelligence secrets to select reporters, even as other White House officials were expressing concern over the leaks and debating whether the administration should formally declassify intelligence reports on Iraq to combat criticism of the case for war.

"At one point, Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald can be heard on the tapes expressing disbelief that Libby would take part in those meetings without disclosing that the president had effectively already declassified key portions of one of the main prewar pieces of intelligence on Iraq, a national intelligence estimate on Saddam Hussein's alleged banned weapons programs.

"'Was that unusual for you to have the national security advisor, the director of Central Intelligence, the White House chief of staff among others in the dark as to something that you had done regarding declassification?' Fitzgerald asked.

"'It is not unusual for the vice president to tell me something which I am not allowed to share with others,' Libby replied."




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html