Prometheus 6   

Wrong from who's perspective?

The Wrong Message

Monday, October 13, 2003; Page A18

PRESIDENT BUSH SENT the wrong message when he announced, in response to a reporter's question last week, that he has "no idea whether we'll find out" who disclosed the identity of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert D. Novak. Washington, the president said, "is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official." The president insisted that he'd "like to" know. But, alas, "this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials." And with "all due respect to [the press], you do a very good job of protecting the leakers."

…If the chief of a company like Enron said something similar to Mr. Bush's remarks about a Justice Department investigation, his words would be taken as a wink to those responsible that they won't be caught if they keep quiet. That, we trust, was not what Mr. Bush meant to convey. But the tone of his lament could well have that effect. The problem is not that reporters protect their sources, which they are honor-bound to do. It is that the president has not consistently and unequivocally sent the message that he means to find out what happened and who was responsible, that those who know must tell the Justice Department and that responsible parties should 'fess up.