WH against leaks that expose their crimes, not ones that expose covert agents

White House cracking down on leaks -- except their own, of course

Could the White House be any more hypocritical? The Bush team has launched a massive crackdown on leaks:

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

Prosecuting reporters as spies -- how perfectly Soviet. The traditional media really is in an abusive relationship with the Bush administration.

According to the Bush White House, leaks are bad --- unless, of course, the Bush White House is using leaks of national security information for their own nefarious purposes like destroying their political enemies:

...Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), complained in a letter to the national intelligence director last month that "damaging revelations of intelligence sources and methods are generated primarily by Executive Branch officials pushing a particular policy, and not by the rank-and-file employees of the intelligence agencies."

As evidence, Rockefeller points to the case of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer whose identity was leaked to the media. A grand jury investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald resulted last year in the jailing of Judith Miller, then a reporter at the New York Times, for refusing to testify, and in criminal charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff. In court papers, Libby has said that his "superiors" authorized him to disclose a classified government report.

And as long as Libby's co-leaker, Karl Rove, is working at the White House with his top-level security clearance, Bush and company have no credibility on this issue.

(Americablog)