White House Says Some Leaks Are Good

April 7, 2006 — -- Scott McClellan wanted to talk about promising economic figures and the immigration bill on Capitol Hill. So when he walked into the White House briefing room, he read a statement of the points he wanted to make. The White House press secretary was all too aware that might be his last chance to talk about the issues the administration wants to push.

Then McClellan took questions, knowing the onslaught that would come and that they'd have nothing to do with the economy or immigration. It would be about "Topic A" in Washington this week: court documents alleging that President Bush authorized a leak to a New York Times reporter about previously classified material on Saddam Hussein's nuclear intentions. In the documents former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby said Vice President Dick Cheney told him the president had given the green light.

Twenty-four hours after the story broke, one very big question had already been answered. Had the president violated the law protecting the nation's most sensitive secrets? No. The president has the authority to declassify material. So, once he authorized the leak, it became declassified material. But some big questions remained. Was the president, a fierce critic of leaks, a hypocrite? Had he leaked material for political reasons?

McClellan was ready as the questions came, one after another after another. He has a reputation for discipline behind the podium, never going beyond the point his superiors have instructed him to go. That often infuriates reporters, but that's OK with McClellan and his boss, President Bush.

On this day, McClellan did not bother to deny the claim that the president had approved the leak. Instead, he argued there was nothing wrong about it. And he implied there was nothing really new about the story. After all, he said, he announced back on July 18, 2003, that information from the intelligence report had been declassified. But when making that announcement almost three years ago McClellan said: "It was officially declassified today." That was 10 days after Libby had shared the Iraq information with Times reporter Judith Miller. McClellan now dismisses the 10-day discrepancy as meaningless, that what he meant three years ago was that July 18 was the day it was released publicly.