WHO IS LYING?

by RAY FLEMING
EITHER President Bush is lying or I Lewis Libby, Vice-President Cheney's former chief of staff, is lying. Mr Libby is currently under investigation on charges of perjury and obstruction connected with the illegal disclosure of the name of a CIA operative to a reporter. Among the testimony provided by Mr Libby in advance of his trial and released this week, is a statement that in July 2003 he was authorised by President Bush, through Mr Cheney, to disclose key parts of what until then was a classified pre-Iraq war intelligence report on Iraq. The President has the authority to declassify information and Mr Libby's testimony indicates that he believed Mr Bush's instructions gave him legal cover to reveal intelligence to a reporter. At all times during the controversy over the leaking of intelligence-based material Mr Bush took a tough line, saying that it was illegal and unacceptable and that anyone responsible should be dismissed. If what Mr Libby says is true it appears that Mr Bush speaks with two voices: condemning leaking in principle but authorising it for his own purposes. The information leaked by Mr Libby was designed to counter an article in the New York Times which had suggested that the Bush administration's claim that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons was false. In his testimony Mr Libby says that the clearance he received from Mr Bush via Mr Cheney to leak the intelligence was “unique in his recollection”.