Proof That The White House Knowingly Lied About the NIE. The NYT points out that, according to Libby's grand jury testimony as revealed by Fitzgerald, not only did Libby say he was directed by his superiors to leak selected portions of the classified NIE to reporter Miller, but that Libby was directed by his superiors to flat-out lie to Miller about the NIE's findings:

According to Mr. Fitzgerald's motion, Mr. Libby testified that he was directed by Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush to describe the uranium allegations to Ms. Miller of The Times as a "key judgment" of the National Intelligence Estimate. Citing intelligence as a "key judgment" in such estimates carries great weight with policy makers, because the reports are meant to highlight the most important and solid judgments of the government's intelligence agencies.

"Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the N.I.E. held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium," prosecutors wrote.

In fact, the estimate's key judgments, which were officially declassified 10 days after Mr. Libby's meeting with Ms. Miller, say nothing about the uranium allegations. [...]

In an interview with The Times in 2004, a senior intelligence official involved in drafting the estimate said the uranium allegations were excluded from the key judgments because the drafters knew there were serious doubts about their accuracy.

As a result, the official said, the drafters cast the uranium allegations as a minor element in the overall assessment of Iraq's nuclear capabilities. The assertion that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium was mentioned on the bottom of Page 24 of the 90-page document. The drafters also noted, in an annex attached to the end of the document, that State Department intelligence officials considered the uranium allegation "highly dubious."

The Left Coaster's eRiposte has been noting that the NIE key judgments don't mention efforts to procure uranium since the "leaker in chief" story broke a couple days ago. But I think it is worth pointing out as the Times does that Libby was specifically directed by his superiors to lie to Miller on this point. Libby is not a stupid man. He knows the difference between a key judgment and the back pages. Why was he directed to lie on this point by the Vice President and the President?

In other words, this is concrete evidence that has been entered into court that the White House at the very highest levels knowingly lied about the intelligence, in leaking to Miller that the uranium pitch was a key judgment when the White House knew it was not. Proof that they knowingly lied -- that the president and vice president told Libby to lie on this point -- is a big deal.

Update: Larry Johnson finds more evidence that the White House knowingly lied about the uranium claim in the Post today.

Posted by Laura at April 9, 2006 07:48 AM