In Politics, Leaking Stories Is a Fine Art
WASHINGTON — Months after U.S. troops stormed into Iraq, the Pentagon drafted a top-secret document using classified intelligence to spell out Baghdad's involvement with Al Qaeda. It supported one of President Bush's strongest arguments for the war.
Within days, big chunks of the classified report appeared verbatim in a conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard, complete with the paragraph numbers that are a telltale feature of Defense Department documents.
Headlined "Case Closed: The U.S. Government's Secret Memo Detailing Cooperation Between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," the article said the intelligence left no doubt that Iraqi President Hussein had been in league with Al Qaeda.
It was a classic leak -- the kind of national security breach that the Bush administration had often reacted to with indignation.
But instead of complaining, officials held up the article as proof of the Hussein-Bin Laden nexus. Vice President Dick Cheney told the Rocky Mountain News: "One place you ought to go look is an article
Even at the time, most members of the intelligence community believed the relationship between Hussein and Bin Laden was relatively unimportant and considered the leaked memo a distortion of evidence.
The episode unfolded in late 2003 and early 2004 at a time when critics were beginning to question Bush's case for going to war. And it reflected one of the most basic facts of life in Washington: Though high-level officials often portray leaks as renegade acts that betray the public trust, leaks are just as likely to be fully approved, calculated actions by loyal members of an administration -- moves designed to advance an agenda, thwart enemies and manipulate public opinion.
Such leaks are a primary reason so much Washington reporting is based on anonymous sources -- and why critics often question the motives of the unnamed person.
Sometimes, planning for important leaks starts in the White House.
It was disclosed Thursday that former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had testified that the president approved a leak in July 2003 of selected material from a different classified report. The information was meant to bolster another administration argument for the Iraq war. The White House has not denied leaking the material.
Critics say such leaks helped Bush in the buildup to the war.
