Sean

Bush won't give Congress papers in CIA leak probe

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, asserting executive privilege, has rejected Congress' request for documents on FBI interviews with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney from a probe to find who leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

The Bush administration said on Wednesday that turning over such records would violate the president's rights to counsel from his staff.

In a letter to the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Keith Nelson wrote, "The attorney general has requested that the president assert executive privilege with respect to these documents and the president has done so."

The letter was delivered on the same day the committee was scheduled to vote on a possible contempt resolution against Attorney General Michael Mukasey for failing to provide the requested information.

Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, called the executive privilege claim "ludicrous," but postponed committee action against Mukasey, saying lawmakers needed time to review Bush's claim.

In 2003, as the Bush administration was preparing for war with Iraq, media reports surfaced discussing Wilson's work at the CIA. She is married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who at the time accused the Bush administration of tailoring intelligence information to justify the Iraq war.

Following the federal probe into the matter, Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on obstruction and perjury charges. Bush subsequently commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence.

Waxman said the probe did not get to the bottom of Cheney's possible role in the leak, prompting his committee to seek the FBI documents.

"There is a key document that could explain what the vice president knew and what he did," Waxman said, referring to Libby's statement to the FBI that it was "possible" Cheney instructed him to blow Wilson's CIA undercover identity.

Waxman also noted that a letter from Mukasey to Bush dated Wednesday regarding the executive privilege stance "also raises questions about the president's involvement ... the documents being withheld summarize conversations held directly with the president."

Both Mukasey and Nelson wrote that the White House has attempted to accommodate Waxman's probe of the scandal by making available some FBI reports of interviews with senior White House staff and agency officials.

"We are not prepared to make the same accommodation for reports of interviews with the president and the vice president," Nelson said.

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Ptech

Yeah, Keith covered this tonight.

Anybody who doesn't realize that the Unitary Executive is a reality, is pretty much NOT in touch with reality.

Duvidoo

And wonder boy Karl Rove is now officially a commentator on Faux News (also not a conspiracy).

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Denie the Delight
retarded Duvi showed up and made a fool of himself followed by you.

Sean

When this was new news my step-father nearly left my home during a visit because he thought I was being evil and spouting lies about this mess. For years both of them, mom and he, were these blind little Dumbya worshippers and now they don't even want to talk about it. Yet were so adamant at the time that they had to request that I not bring the subjects up in conversation as not to "stir the pot."

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Ptech

Yeah Sean, I know what you mean. I have two (out of 3) Bushbot brothers. I have fairly well disowned them, though not completely.

Just in the last month or so they are changing their tune just a bit.

Duvidoo

I've heard that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are recording a theme song for Rove's spot on Faux News ... it's a retooling of a bluegrass classic which will now be called The Turd Blossom Special. One of my co-workers is a Bushbot ... we avoid discussing Stateside politics.

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Denie the Delight
retarded Duvi showed up and made a fool of himself followed by you.

Sean

Can't wait to hear it live in a couple of months for an ACL filming.

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