The VP can declassify classified material.

[headscratcher4]

I apologize if that response seemed pedantic, but your post seemed to link the authorization directly with the charges. They are, in fact, not directly linked. Cheney authorized, at least by current reporting, the NIE disclosure. Libby is not charged with crimes under the Identities Act, but for obstruction and perjury.

That is exactly right...so, whether the release of the information was authorized or not, shouldn't really matter in the Libby prosecution, he isn't charged with it. He is charged with obstructing the investigation...sort of what Martha was charged with. Now, angry right-wingers will claim that this is a put-up job, but the bottom line is that it goes to the old wisdom that this Administration (like the Clinton Administration before it) the effort to cover-up is often more legally dangerous than the originating event.

As I've argued here all day, all this disclosure does is, potentially, put the President at the heart of the effort to get Plame's name out, and we're still a long way away from knowing the validity of that assertion.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Cheney explained that he didn't mean to leak any classified information, it's just that Ms Plame stepped out of the bush right behind a duck, and he leaked the information before he realized she was there. His thoughts and prayers are with her and her family, and he certainly wasn't "drunk as a skunk" then, nor is he "lying like a flatfish" now. Indeed, all animal similes are inapplicable, especially ones involving weasels and rats.

 

[varwoche]

I apologize if that response seemed pedantic, but your post seemed to link the authorization directly with the charges. They are, in fact, not directly linked. Cheney authorized, at least by current reporting, the NIE disclosure. Libby is not charged with crimes under the Identities Act, but for obstruction and perjury.

No prob. Again though, it seems like a dodge on technicality. I'll take another crack at it here...

1) Cooper and Miller are on record that Libby was a source.

2) Libby is charged with 5 counts all to do with lying about divulging Plame's name and how he learned her identity.

3) The indictment says that Cheney conveyed information about Wilson and Plame to Libby.

4) Libby testified to the grand jury that he was authorized by Cheney to leak classified information. (I don't know if this relates to Plame.)

5) Libby was Cheney's chief of staff.

Though not proven, Cheney looks to be wallowing in it regardless if #4 relates to Plame.