Has Libby finally flipped?

From Rorchach of No Capital (via an Eschaton comments thread) - then bank shot off of Dkos...

Cheney authorized leaks.

Libby is rolling on them (no specific word on Plame, per se):

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.
...
Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war.

From Murray Waas

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

According to sources with firsthand knowledge, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.

Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

...

Libby testified to the grand jury that he had been authorized to share parts of the NIE with journalists in the summer of 2003 as part of an effort to rebut charges then being made by former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson that the Bush administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make a public case for war.

Holy freaking DAMN... It's been a long time coming, but if this is true, the finger is finally pointed exactly where it belongs, at the scowling mug of Vice Sith-Lord Cheney. Now I've seen plenty false alarms before, and I still remain skepical, but on Dkos they speculate that Libby 's decision may have prompted by information recently confirming Valerie Plame's status as a NOC - which means that Libby is now vulnerable to the Intelligence Agents Identities Act if he was aware of her status at the time that he talked to Matt Cooper. Now this report doesn't specially say that Cheney asked for the outing of Plame, only the sharing of then classified information to "push-back" against Wilson, even though the CIA essentially confirmed Wilson's version of the story.

Whether it was legal for Cheney to declassify these documents or not for purely propaganda purposes is for legal experts preferably not named Victoria Toensig to debate. Given the fact that Cheney and Libby knew as of June 17, 2003 that the Niger uranium claims were bunk and Libby began this crusade with Judy Miller anyway on June 23, the service to which these documents were put remain safely outside of "ethical" territory.

And Ted Kennedy has a thing or three to say about it.

On Thursday afternoon, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., issued a statement saying that any implication of Cheney as the one who authorized release of classified information would require Bush to honor his promise to "clean house" of anyone who had anything to do with the Plame leak.

Yeah, and Polka-Dot Pigs will fly out of Rove's butt before that happens. But it's nice to have someone yet again point out the rampant hypocracy of the Bush Administratin.

Vyan