Bush OK'd Iraq leak, Libby says

WASHINGTON -- President Bush authorized the leak of a classified intelligence report about Iraq to a New York Times reporter, according to court papers that quote I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby said, according to the papers, that he leaked the information in July 2003 to reporter Judith Miller ''only after the vice president advised [Libby] that the president specifically had authorized [the] defendant to disclose certain information" from the intelligence report.

The intelligence report stated that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was intent on acquiring materials for nuclear weapons. The report also said the State Department was ''highly dubious" about intelligence purporting to describe Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear materials.

But the court papers do not indicate whether Libby mentioned those doubts when he leaked information from the report, raising the possibility that Libby was leaking selectively in a way that overstated Iraq's effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

It is uncertain what impact, if any, the leak had on Miller's reporting. Previously, the administration had cited Miller's stories about Hussein's weapons programs to buttress its case for war.

In October, Libby was indicted on charges of lying about his conversations with reporters during the investigation into who in the administration had disclosed the identity of an undercover CIA official, Valerie Plame Wilson, possibly in retaliation for her husband raising doubts about the justification for going to war in Iraq.

Libby's statement about Bush came to light in court documents filed by the government late Wednesday in its case against Libby, to oppose his request for thousands of pages of documents for his defense. The 39 pages of documents contained numerous descriptions of Libby's grand jury testimony.

The documents say Libby testified that he was told by Cheney that Bush had authorized the leak of the Iraq intelligence report. But the papers leave unclear whether Libby believed Bush had authorized him to leak Plame Wilson's name.

The president has the authority to declassify information, but Democrats said it was hypocritical for him to decry leaks of classified information and then do so selectively when it suited his purpose.

''In light of today's shocking revelation, President Bush must fully disclose his participation in the selective leaking of classified information," said the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement that the court filing shows the case ''goes way beyond Scooter Libby. At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role in allowing classified information to be leaked."

Bush has condemned the leaking of classified information, saying it would not be tolerated by anyone in his administration. ''I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information," Bush said in September 2003, two months after he allegedly approved Libby's leak. ''If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

Bush did not respond to a question yesterday about the matter. Kenneth Lisaius, a White House spokesman, said in a telephone interview, ''Our policy is not to discuss ongoing legal proceedings, and that remains our policy."

The Libby case focuses partly on Bush's assertion in his January 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had obtained a nuclear material called yellowcake from Niger. ''The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Bush said. The invasion of Iraq began two months later.

Bush's assertion prompted a former US ambassador to Iraq, Joseph C. Wilson IV, to write a July 6, 2003 op-ed page article in The New York Times, in which he said some ''intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Wilson had visited Niger at the request of the CIA to investigate the claims in 2002 and found them baseless.

Wilson's column ''was viewed in the Office of the Vice President as a direct attack on the credibility of the Vice President (and the President) on a matter of signal importance: the rationale for the war in Iraq," prosecutors wrote in the document. As a result, prosecutors said, Libby sought to undermine Wilson. Within two days after the op-ed appeared, Bush allegedly authorized the leak of intelligence information about Iraq.

The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, sent by the CIA to Bush in October 2002, said Hussein's efforts to develop nuclear weapons could take from months to seven years. ''Although we assess that Saddam does not yet have nuclear weapons or sufficient material to make any, he remains intent on acquiring them," the report said.

But it also contained a footnote from the State Department casting doubt on suggestions that Iraq had acquired yellowcake from Niger. ''The claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in [the State Department's] view, highly dubious," the State Department said.

In the court papers filed this week, Libby said he received Bush's permission to leak ''key judgments" from the NIE and disclosed the report to Miller around July 8, 2003.

Miller resigned from the Times last year amid controversy about the accuracy of her prewar reporting.

A major issue in the Libby case is whether he leaked to Miller the fact that Wilson's wife was a CIA official. The court papers say Libby said he got ''approval from the President through the Vice President to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval," but do not specify whether that approval included the right to reveal Valerie Plame Wilson's identity.

The court papers quote Libby as saying that ''he was specifically directed by the Vice President" to speak to some reporters ''regarding the NIE and [Plame] Wilson." The court papers say he ''discussed Ms. Wilson's employment" with Miller and a Time magazine reporter, Matthew Cooper.

A column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003, first reported that Valerie Plame Wilson was Joseph Wilson's wife and a CIA agent. There have long been questions about whether White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove played a role in leaking the information to Novak.

The court papers released yesterday said Libby believes that Rove would be a ''key witness" in the trial, ''in that he will testify concerning a conversation with [the] defendant on July 10 or 11, 2003 regarding Robert Novak's intent to print a story regarding Ms. Wilson's employment at the CIA."

The government said in the court papers, however, that it did not intend to call Rove as a witness.

The White House made the NIE publicly available on July 18, 2003, about 10 days after Libby's leak. The court papers were first disclosed yesterday on The New York Sun's website.