- WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House declined to say whether President George
W. Bush authorized the release of a CIA document in a bid to legitimize
the Iraq war, as a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney has charged.
-
- "There is an ongoing legal proceeding
and our policy is then that we are not going to comment on it while it's
ongoing and that remains our policy," White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said.
-
- "You will recall if you go back
to that time period that you're referencing that we did declassify information
in the national intelligence asessment to provide that information to the
public.
-
- "We want to make sure that there
is due process, that there is a fair trial and that we don't do anything
to jeopardize an ongoing legal proceeding," the spokesman added.
-
- Indicted former top White House aide
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby revealed in court papers, made public
Thursday, that Bush had authorized intelligence leaks ahead of the war
in Iraq.
-
- A federal prosecutor is investigating
the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, in 2003 after
her diplomat husband criticized the Bush administration's rationale for
the war.
-
- Libby, who is currently facing charges
of obstruction and lying in the investigation, is suspected of having revealed
Plame's job as an undercover CIA agent to a reporter -- a federal crime
in the United States.
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