President George W Bush's 2003 decision to declassify an intelligence report to rebut an Iraq war critic stirred unease even in the White House, an administration official said today in the perjury trial of a former vice presidential aide.
White House official Cathie Martin said she was "not comfortable" in July of that year when her boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, told her to use the information to counter charges that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for invading Iraq.
"I wasn't sure if I could use that point because it was related to the NIE," Ms Martin said, referring to a classified National Intelligence Estimate report saying Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium from Niger.
Mr Bush drew criticism last spring when he admitted he declassified the report and authorised White House officials to leak it to reporters.
The leak was designed to counter criticism from former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who said the administration ignored his findings that no uranium sale had taken place.
Ms Martin said she was "still not comfortable about the NIE" even as Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, began sharing the information with reporters.
Mr Libby resigned when he was charged with lying to investigators seeking to determine who blew the cover of Mr Wilson's wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, after her husband went public with his charges.
Mr Libby's lawyers say he did not lie deliberately to the FBI and a grand jury, but did not remember correctly what were trivial conversations when he was preoccupied with national security matters.
Mr Cheney is expected to testify on Mr Libby's behalf.
Prosecutors hope to show that Mr Libby's top priority at the time was to rebut Mr Wilson's charges.
Ms Martin is the third government official to testify that Mr Libby was told of Ms Plame's identity before he says he learned it from a reporter.
Ms Martin said Nr Cheney dictated a list of talking points to rebut Mr Wilson's claim two days after he went public with his charges in July 2003. The list included an item that was drawn from a classified report.
Ms Martin was not aware that Bush had already declassified the report by that time.
She currently works as deputy director of communications for policy and planning in the White House.