Questions of Credibility

"The public correspondence does not mention the identities of the 'superiors' who authorized the leaking of the classified information, but people with firsthand knowledge of the matter identified one of them as Cheney. Libby also testified that he worked closely with then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in deciding what information to leak to the press to build public support for the war, and later, postwar, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence. . . .

"Libby's legal strategy in asserting that Cheney and other Bush administration officials authorized activities related to the underlying allegations of criminal conduct leveled against him, without approving of or encouraging him to engage in the specific misconduct, is reminiscent of the defense strategy used by Oliver North, who was a National Security Council official in the Reagan administration."

Incidentally, this was Waas's second scoop in a week resulting from his careful reading of documents that were filed in court last week by Libby's defense team.

In his personal blog last Friday, Waas called attention to a passage suggesting that Bush might have been personally briefed regarding former ambassador Joseph Wilson's February 2002 CIA-sponsored mission to Niger during his regular morning intelligence briefing.

Why aren't other reporters reading these things as closely?

Big Storm Coming

Eric Lipton writes in the New York Times: "In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

"But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight."

Spencer S. Hsu writes in The Washington Post: "Michael D. Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was rebuffed in his request for a claim of executive privilege and plans to testify to a Senate panel today about his calls and e-mails to President Bush and top White House aides in the Hurricane Katrina crisis, Brown's lawyer said yesterday."

The lawyer "wrote that Brown will testify if asked about communications with Bush, Vice President Cheney, Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin, domestic policy adviser Claude A. Allen and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley."

Allen just resigned the day before yesterday, by the way.

Cheney Makes It Political

Jim VandeHei writes in The Washington Post: "Vice President Cheney suggested last night that the debate over spying on overseas communications to or from terrorism suspects should be a political issue in this year's congressional elections.

"Speaking to Republicans gathered for the annual CPAC convention, Cheney said the debate over the National Security Agency surveillance program 'has clarified where all stand' on an issue that has drawn criticism from congressional Democrats and some Republicans.