To: michael97123 who wrote (2549 ) 4/9/2006 11:39:27 PM From: Sully- Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 14758 << "It was manipulation of secret classifed or declassified (as you say) info that disturbs me and the larger perception concerning the worsening attitudes toward this admin." >> I see you still don't get it. There was no "manipulation". Information was already being processed & released back then because the MSM was adamantly demanding answers to lying Joe Willson's false allegations. And there were NO allegations of "LEAKS" back then. So why are there hysterical, albeit misguided assertions about "LEAKS" today?Message 22342001 ....Would anyone argue that this disclosure was unauthorized? And does anyone remember what was happening at the time of the so-called leak? There was an enormous clamor over the "16 words" in the State of the Union address, and about pre-war intelligence in general. The administration was in the process of declassifying various pre-war intelligence findings, like those in the National Intelligence Estimate. In the midst of that came the specific accusations made by Joseph Wilson in an op-ed published in the New York Times on July 6, 2003. How was the White House to answer them? On pages 23 and 24 of the Fitzgerald filing, the prosecutor describes what Libby was authorized to tell Times reporter Judith Miller during their July 8, 2003 meeting, two days after Wilson's op-ed was published: Defendant testified that he thought he brought a brief abstract of the NIE's key judgments to the meeting with Miller on July 8. Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium.... Defendant advised Miller that Wilson had reported that he had learned that in 1999 an Iraqi delegation visited Niger and sought to expand commercial relations, which was understood to be a reference to a desire to obtain uranium. Later during the discussion about Wilson and the NIE, defendant advised Miller of his belief that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.Has anyone who is so agitated about the latest news actually read that paragraph? Libby's assignment was to give Miller more information about Wilson's trip to Africa — information that Wilson had conveniently left out of his article in the Times. But as far as the basic facts of the matter were involved, the fact that an envoy had been sent to Africa, the fact that that envoy was Joseph Wilson, the fact that he had been exploring possible Iraqi overtures to obtain uranium, and the fact that he had reached some conclusions about the issue — all that was out of the bag by the time Libby met Miller on July 8. And who, by the way, had let it out of the bag? None other than Joseph Wilson....