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Letter: Bush hypocritical on CIA leaks

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Isn't it time for George Bush to take a long, hard look in the mirror to see how the majority of Americans are now viewing his presidency? We now know he not only misled us into war by cherry-picking intelligence to bolster claims that Saddam Hussein was an "imminent threat," but now he has also been identified in court documents for having authorized the release of classified information, via Vice President Dick Cheney, to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's claim that Saddam had not obtained nuclear materials from Niger.

Whether a president's authority to declassify intelligence in this instance is legal or not is not the underlying issue. That a president is able to release such information to punish or embarrass anyone who questions his motives is the more important question. To chastise "leakers" for undermining national security when one of those leaks came from the Oval Office is indefensibly hypocritical.

Phil Ventura, Las Vegas

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