The other day, Congressman Waxman disclosed a letter to AG Mukasey asking for the transcripts of FBI interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

There's more to the story, in case you're wondering. Since these 2004 interview, we've learned

A. The President and White House staff were putting pressure on DoJ officials to fire US Attorneys, and using prosecutions to affect election outcomes;

B. The FBI agents do abuse NSLs, and have somehow forgotten about the war crimes evidence they had collected at Guantanamo;

C. The same DoJ staffers and lawyers who were tools of the President in propaganda and US Attorney firings, were involved with discussions with then Attorney General Ashcroft on the Fitzgerald investigation;

D. The President and NSA were conducting illegal surveillance; and

E. Scott MeClellan, Rove, Feith, and the President were directly linked with efforts to mislead the public.

One key statement the President recently made was that he was the source of the leak. In so many words, the President admitted he declassified the document.

Hello!?! That was the reason Fitzgerald conduct the interview in 2004, four years ago. The President should have disclosed that then, not reveal it four (4) years after the fact.

There's a fine point: Waxman is asking for the FBI interviews; but the interviews included Prosecutors. We may be talking about several different interviews, not just the ones with the FBI:

"Mr. Bush was not under oath as he answered questions posed by the
prosecutors, who were led by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, a United States
attorney who is in charge of the investigation." From

Some might argue that this was always known. Yet, even the President's closest advisers were claiming the President had nothing to do with this. This wasn't presented as a "belief," it was asserted as a fact.

Information Warfare: Disclose CIA Agent Name

Valarie Wilson's connection with the CIA was disclosed not because of a "declissification decision" but because Joe Wilson presented information showing the President was lying about war crimes: There was no lawful basis for war in Iraq.  The President's retaliation backfired: CIA agents are providing war crimes prosecutors with information on illegal rendition and POW abuse in Europe.

Since then, we've been reminded to believe the President "knew" something or he "believed" something. He keeps changing his argument. As Maureen Dowd reminds us: What hasn't changed is the President is wrong.

Waxman's Concern

Since 2004, Representative Waxman has been given the false impression that the President had nothing to do with the CIA leak; that there was no evidence; and that the President believed something about WMD data.

McClellan's book casts these assertions to the wind. Nobody can argue that the President "believed" there was WMD, when the President took retaliatory action against someone who contradicted him.

A genuine belief, if it were real, would not have been supported by retaliation against Valarie and Joe Wilson. The President should have confidently made his case, presented the evidence, and let the Wilsons alone. This President, knowing he had a dubious belief and there was no imminent threat, changed the subject from whether there was or was not WMD evidence; to whether the President has the "inherent authority" (Mclellan's phrase) to declassify information. He does not, and Addington should know this as it relates to ORCON.

The core issue with Valarie Plame was that as a covert agent, the President has no power or authority to declassify her name. ORCON rules apply. The documents with Valarie Plames name on them are expressly marked "ORCON" meaning only the originating office -- not the President or White House -- can declassify that information. The President's name isn't listed as the classifying official.

Put aside the classification. If the President did have "inherent authority" to declassify the documents with Plame's name on them -- he does not -- then the CIA would not have immediately contacted the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the disclosure of Valarie Wilson's connection with CIA covert operations.

The President in admitting that he "did" declassify the report misses the point: He's admitted to having a role, where the grand jury was asked to believe he had nothing to do with it.

Waxman has rightfully pounced on this. The President's statements in 2008 do not reconcile whith the chorus of enablers we've had paraded before us in the DoD-CIA-NSA propaganda effort.

Obstruction of Justice

Here's the key language showing the President has a problem:

Mr. Bush was not questioned under oath, but he did remain under an
obligation to testify truthfully and, technically if not practically,
he remained liable to be charged with a false statement if prosecutors
found he had failed to answer completely or honestly.

It appears the Grand Jury was given information in secret that was not correct; but Fitzgerald could only prove Libby was lying. Waxman's letter is signaling that there may be a line of evidence which the Grand Jury was not presented, but is one Waxman hopes to develop.

Did the President mislead investigators when they were given information about who was or was not involved with the declassification of Valarie Wilson's status as a covert agent with the CIA?

Based on what we've learned since 2004, there's a reasonable basis to throw to the winds all the GOP statements as propaganda; and reject any assertion the DOJ Staff counsel or FBI agents can be trusted. Rather, it's most likely the President hired an outside counsel because the White House staff worked with the DOJ staff counsel to get access to the briefing information provided to Ashcroft.

Waxman appears to suspect (a) the Grand Jury proceedings were leaked; (b) the President and Vice President knew in advance what questions they were going to be asked; and (c) they worked with legal counsel to frame their answers to mislead the FBI, prosecutors, and the Grand Jury.

There is evidence supporting this allegation. Libby was on thin ice, and knew he was steering investigators away from key facts, as evidenced by his perjury trial. This is the language that appears to be driving Waxman's concerns about the President and Vice President's statements:

But any effort by Mr. Libby to steer investigators away from his
conversation with Mr. Cheney could be considered by Patrick J.
Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, to be an illegal effort to
impede the inquiry.

Once the President asserted that he, the President "declassified" the document, the mystery since 2004 prompting Libby's perjury, melts away. There's no more confusion who Libby was protecting: The President and the illusion he "believed" something everyone knew was a lie: There was no WMD, Joe Wilson knew it, and the President knew Wilson's editorial would cause problems.

It defies reason to believe the President believed anything else. He would not have spent this much time pretending he believed there was WMD; but he took action to retaliate against the Wilsons. If they were wrong (which Joe Wilson is not), then the President cannot explain why he didn't let Joe Wilson have an "incorrect belief" about the WMD. The President knew Wilson wasn't wrong because the President didn't believe there was WMD. The President was behind the propaganda to create the illusion they had a belief.

All they knew was they wanted an excuse for a war, and the DoD emails show us the White House was surprised by the release of the Downing Street Memos. It took the DoD more than 30 days to respond to questions about the Times publication of the information showing facts were fixed.

There is a basis to have this contention the President knows much more, and may have deliberately misled the Department of Justice and Grand Jury. We need only look at Watergate, and Iran-Contra -- both mentioned in McClellan's book to know why  Waxman wants to see the transcripts:

Allan J. Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University in
Washington, said the lesson of recent history, for example in the
Iran-contra case under President Ronald Reagan, is that presidents tend
to know more than it might first appear about what is going on within
the White House.