DNC Chairman Howard Dean on American Morning

This morning, DNC Chairman Howard Dean appeared on CNN's "American Morning" to discuss the Democratic agenda and National Security. Dean discussed allegations that Vice President Dick Cheney may have authorized former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to leak classified information in a time of war for political gain. Dean stressed the importance that if Cheney is found responsible for leaking classified information during a time of war, the Vice President should step down.

Below are excerpts from Governor Dean's appearance:

If Vice President Ordered A Leak For Political Gain, He Should Step Aside:

"What Vice President Cheney has been accused of doing -- by his chief aide who has been indicted -- is ordering the chief aide to leak national security information for the purpose of talking about his political opponents and trying to put them down. And that is really a violation, a terrible violation. If Vice President Cheney has, in fact, ordered the leaking of intelligence information, that means he has to step aside. We don't know if it's true, but he has been accused of it. If it's true, he has to step aside."

• Libby Authorized By White House "Superiors" To Leak Classified Data. Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, "told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence" that Libby "disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003." [AP, 2/9/06]
  
  
• Individuals With "First Hand Knowledge" Identified Cheney As One of Libby's Superiors Who Authorized Leak. "The public correspondence does not mention the identities of the 'superiors' who authorized the leaking of the classified information, but people with firsthand knowledge of the matter identified one of them as Cheney. Libby also testified that he worked closely with then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in deciding what information to leak to the press to build public support for the war, and later, postwar, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence." [National Journal, 2/9/06]
  
  

On Vice President's Authority to Leak Classified Information at a time of War:

"Nobody has the authority to release this information. It's against the law. Classified information, especially when you release it at a time of war. ... and you certainly don't release it to discredit your political opponents."

Democrats Have a Positive Winning Agenda For 2006:

"The truth is we have a tremendously positive agenda. One, we want honesty and openness back in the government. Two, we want a defense policy that requires telling the truth to the American people and our soldiers. Three, we want jobs in America that will stay in America. Four, we want a health care system that covers everybody and not some horrendous farce like this drug benefit program that they put through. And five, we want a public education system that restores optimism and opportunity in America."

"What I'm hoping is that we will get a majority back in the House and Senate so [we can] put a stop to the budget philosophy of spend and borrow, and spend and borrow and get honesty back in government. We have to have a positive program and that is what ours is: jobs, health care, a strong national defense and honesty."

Republican Leadership Has Been Harmful for America:

" ...so much harm is being done by this Administration, with the enormous budget deficits, and the disastrous and misleading behavior of the President when Katrina came along. Now it turns out that there is a senior intelligence agent who has retired saying that they did cook the books on intelligence. These are really serious charges. This is probably the most corrupt administration we've had..."

• CIA Iraq Intelligence Chief: White House Cherry-Picked Pre-War Intelligence; Ignored Warnings Of Post-War Problems. Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia at the CIA from 2000 to 2005, "accused the Bush administration of 'cherry-picking' intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein." Specifically, in an article in Foreign Affairs, he asserts that, "intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made." Pillar wrote that estimates of post-war Iraq were ignored. These reports indicated that a post-war Iraq "would not provide fertile ground for democracy." The analysis called for "a Marshall Plan-type effort" to restore the Iraqi economy. The analysis also predicted Sunnis and Shiites battling for power. Finally, he noted that intelligence officials "anticipated that a foreign occupying force would itself be the target of resentment and attacks -- including guerrilla warfare -- unless it established security and put Iraq on the road to prosperity in the first few weeks or months after the fall of Saddam." [New York Times, 2/10/06]
  
  
• White House Given Crucial Report Days Before Katrina Hit. "In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show. A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's 'situation room,' the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document." [Washington Post, 1/24/06]

Democrats Will Protect America:

"One, we do need to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden. The president spent five years and he has not done it. Two, North Korea needs to get rid of its nuclear weapons. The president's been in office for five years and he has not done it. Three, since the president has been in office Iran is about to get nuclear weapons. This is not a President who is strong on defense. This is a president who talks tough but doesn't play smart. We need to be much tougher and the truth is we need use our brains and not just our brawn to defend America."