Is this Treason?

The President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States conspire to leak classified intelligence to reporters, solely to counter the criticism of those questioning any urgent need to invade Iraq. Then they leak the name of an undercover CIA operative in an attempt to discredit her husband who had exposed a few of their lies.

Former White House official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney was upset by an ambassador's public questioning of the Iraq war and that President Bush, Cheney and Libby were involved in a plan — kept secret from other senior White House officials — to leak previously classified intelligence to reporters to counter the criticism.

Libby's audiotape testimony, played for jurors in federal court here, offered new details about how the White House orchestrated a campaign to discredit the Iraq war critic, former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson's wife, undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, was subsequently exposed in the media, triggering a criminal investigation.

...The tapes offer an intriguing window into the reaction within the White House to mounting criticism of its crumbling case for war with Iraq, as well as a chance to witness Fitzgerald's method as he sparred with Libby during eight hours of grand jury testimony. Libby can be heard describing in a low voice how Cheney was "upset" when Wilson went public with allegations that the White House had twisted intelligence to make the case for war.

In an op-ed article, Wilson said he had been sent to investigate a key claim — that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African nation of Niger — and found it untrue months before Bush included the assertion in his 2003 State of the Union speech.

"It was a serious accusation," Libby said. "It was a very serious attack." It also quickly became a "topic that was discussed on a daily basis" in the White House.

Can you imagine what the Limbaugh's and Hannity's and O'Reilly's of the world would call it if Clinton and Gore had done the same thing? "Treason" comes to mind.