Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, responded to comments made by CIA Director Porter Goss denouncing government officials who leak intelligence information to reporters. His statements came on the same day that new reports revealed that I. Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, had been ordered by the White House to leak classified intelligence estimates of Iraq’s pre-war weapons capabilities to members of the press.
“It is truly fitting that Mr. Goss’s comments were published on the same day that we learned of the Bush Administration’s willingness to imperil the work of our intelligence agencies for partisan political gain,” Rep. Slaughter said. “By Mr. Goss’s own standards, the White House has engaged in the reprehensible act of damaging our national security in a misguided quest to preserve its own standing in the minds of the American people,” she added. “Once again, this Administration put its own well-being first, and the well-being of the American people second.”
“This is yet another example of the double-standards and double-speak that define the conduct of this White House,” Rep. Slaughter continued. “How can senior aides in the Administration be ordered to leak classified information about an impending war, and then claim the moral high ground when other leaks, ones damaging to the Administration’s credibility, have occurred?” Rep. Slaughter said. “The Administration is effectively admitting that it has violated its own principals. It is clear that its political strategy is what it cares about most.”