Classified acts

Now the lies are so bad they'd be funny if the US hadn't killed tens of thousands of people in the process. The incomparable Molly Ivins:

...the startling and funny part of the “mobile weapons lab” lie is the administration’s defense of it, which is so batty it’s an instant classic.

According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, the DIA report debunking the “weapons labs” is “a complex intelligence white paper and it’s ... one derived from highly classified information (and) takes a substantial amount of time to coordinate and to run through a declassification process.”

If I understand what McClellan is saying, Bush leaked bad information from a classified intelligence report because there wasn’t enough time for the contradictory DIA report to go through a declassification process. All of which would make more sense if we hadn’t just gone through this Valerie Plame episode, in which the White House says if the president leaked it, then it’s legal to leak it. No problem, the president can declassify at will, they said....