http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800895.html

Justin Gardner – We know now that Wilson was misrepresenting the facts of his trip and his findings to the press and to the country. It is both legal and ethical to set the record straight. I don’t find partially declassifying an NIE in order to stop the damage to the country to be unethical. Such operations are delicate and I think that the President is well within the bounds both legally and ethically in his declassification in order to stop a pack of lies that was eroding support for the national policy of the US.

Justin, what is your understanding as to why the information was declassified and where did you discover this information?

I got my information from the court docs. The reason why seems simple. As you pointed out, Bush wanted to present the other side of the argument. But to think that an op-ed in the NY Times would be so harmful that you’d have to declassify a NIE document is certainly odd to me.

Also, will you please explain to me where the credibility problem comes into play. Thanks.

The credibility problem comes into play when people think Bush declassified this in response to an editorial in the NY Times. Declassification because of an editorial? Sorry, but that’s odd. And then this all leads to Plame being outed. If Bush knew about this, what else did he know. Maybe we’ll never know, but this new info points to the possibility he was involved in that too. As I’ve stated before, I have no idea whether they knew if Plame was covert or not, but since Bush has said outright that he thinks his authority supercedes any of our laws, then one can surmise that he’d think he was above the outing of a covert agent as well. And frankly, I don’t think that the majority of Americans think the President is above the law given that we’re in a war without end.

Thanks for the comment Monica.

The POTUS is the absolute and sole classification and declassification authority. The President has absolute power to declassify information as his judgment – and his judgment alone – sees fit. The most familiar instance of this power is JFK’s 1963 decision to declassify near real-time imagery of Soviet ballistic missile site under construction in Cuba to garner political support for his naval blockade policy in what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is Day 1 stuff from intelligence school. Every time you see comabt camera footage on CNN or disclosure of the name of a ongoing military operation, you are seeing the result of this process.

From what I’ve heard the administration say, the info was declassified to show the other side of the debate in regards to Wilson’s op-ed.

Also, will you please explain to me where the credibility problem comes into play. Thanks.

But yes, there appears to be nothing illegal here, but it doesn’t help his credibility problem.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sec_50_00000421—-000-.html

(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent
Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.