Karl Rove to be named as a source in the outing of CIA agent

[Dolemite]

Just what he did remains to be seen

----------------

MSNBC.com

The Rove Factor?
Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

July 11 issue - Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an undercover CIA agent's identity. The case has been the subject of press controversy for two years. Saying "we are not above the law," Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine decided to comply with a grand-jury subpoena to turn over documents related to the leak. But Cooper (and a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller) is still refusing to testify and faces jail this week.

At issue is the story of a CIA-sponsored trip taken by former ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. "Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews... that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Cooper's July 2003 Time online article.

Now the story may be about to take another turn. The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with NEWSWEEK, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.

The controversy began three days before the Time piece appeared, when columnist Robert Novak, writing about Wilson's trip, reported that Wilson had been sent at the suggestion of his wife, who was identified by name as a CIA operative. The leak to Novak, apparently intended to discredit Wilson's mission, caused a furor when it turned out that Plame was an undercover agent. It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official. A special prosecutor was appointed and began subpoenaing reporters to find the source of the leak.

Novak appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special prosecutor, and other journalists who reported on the Plame story have talked to prosecutors with the permission of their sources. Cooper agreed to discuss his contact with Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, after Libby gave him permission to do so. But Cooper drew the line when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked about other sources.

Initially, Fitzgerald's focus was on Novak's sourcing, since Novak was the first to out Plame. But according to Luskin, Rove's lawyer, Rove spoke to Cooper three or four days before Novak's column appeared. Luskin told NEWSWEEK that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." Luskin declined, however, to discuss any other details. He did say that Rove himself had testified before the grand jury "two or three times" and signed a waiver authorizing reporters to testify about their conversations with him. "He has answered every question that has been put to him about his conversations with Cooper and anybody else," Luskin said. But one of the two lawyers representing a witness sympathetic to the White House told NEWSWEEK that there was growing "concern" in the White House that the prosecutor is interested in Rove. Fitzgerald declined to comment.

In early October 2003, NEWSWEEK reported that immediately after Novak's column appeared in July, Rove called MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews and told him that Wilson's wife was "fair game." But White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at the time that any suggestion that Rove had played a role in outing Plame was "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, McClellan was asked directly if Rove and two other White House aides had ever discussed Valerie Plame with any reporters. McClellan said he had spoken with all three, and "those individuals assured me they were not involved in this."
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/

 

[Dolemite]

washingtonpost.com
N.Y. Times Reporter Jailed
Writer for Time Magazine Will Testify in CIA Leak Case

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 7, 2005; A01

A federal judge ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller to the Alexandria jail yesterday after she again refused to cooperate in an investigation of whether senior administration officials leaked a CIA operative's name in retaliation against an administration critic.

In a last-minute surprise, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper avoided Miller's fate by agreeing in the same court hearing to cooperate with special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's probe.

Cooper told the judge that he said goodbye to his 6-year-old son yesterday morning and was expecting to go to jail for as long as four months. But minutes later he received a surprise phone call from his government source, who, Cooper said, freed him to break their confidentiality agreement and to tell a grand jury about their conversations in July 2003.

It was a showdown of national proportions, with a mild-mannered chief judge of one of the most important trial courts in the country pitted against high-profile reporters for prominent national news organizations. In the past 20 years, 18 reporters have been jailed for refusing to identify sources or to turn over information, according to press advocacy groups, but most were involved in local disputes between a reporter and a district attorney in the midst of a criminal trial.

This battle centered on questions about President Bush's justification for taking the country to war, the reputations of two top media organizations, and allegations that someone in a bitter White House broke the law to strike back at a public critic.

It also posed painful questions for the press about whether journalists have falsely assumed that they have an absolute legal right to promise anonymity to sources. Ultimately, the case even led to a philosophical rift within the Fourth Estate, with Time magazine yielding to Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan's order to turn over Cooper's reporting notes and Times editors saying the magazine was wrong to do so.

Hogan said Miller was mistaken in her belief that she was defending a free press. He stressed that the government source she "alleges she is protecting" had already waived her promise of confidentiality. He said her source may have been providing information not to shed light on government secrets but to try to discredit an administration critic.

"This is not a case of a whistle-blower" revealing secret information to Miller about "dangers at a nuclear power plant," Hogan said. "It's a case in which the information she was given and her potential use of it was a crime. . . . This is very different than a whistle-blower outing government misconduct."

Miller told Hogan that if she broke her promise to one confidential government source, other sources would no longer come forward, and the public would inevitably learn less about what the government is doing.

"I know that the freest and fairest societies are those with a free press . . . publishing information that the government does not want to reveal," she said. She compared her effort to that of U.S. troops risking death in their fight for freedom in Iraq: "If they can do that, surely I can face prison to defend a free press."

Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. released a statement saying that "there are times when the greater good of our democracy demands an act of conscience. Judy has chosen such an act in honoring her promise of confidentiality to her sources."

Fitzgerald has been investigating for 18 months whether senior Bush administration officials broke the law by knowingly leaking the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to reporters as retaliation for an opinion piece written by her husband. Plame's name first appeared in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak in July 2003, eight days after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify war with Iraq. Wilson led an earlier mission to Niger to investigate allegations that Iraq was trying to buy uranium for nuclear weaponry, and he concluded they were unfounded.

Hogan found Miller, Cooper and Time in contempt of court last October for defying his order to cooperate in Fitzgerald's investigation. Their appeals of his order were exhausted last month when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, sending the case back to Hogan.

Miller was led out of the courtroom well by two U.S. marshals through a backdoor exit to a holding cell for processing. Before leaving, she handed her gold necklace to her husband, hugged her two attorneys and waved goodbye to a small cluster of friends in the court. She could be jailed until Oct. 28, when the term of the investigating grand jury expires.

Her attorney, Robert Bennett, said Miller may be the only one jailed in an investigation focused on government leaks. He called it an "absolute tragedy."

But Hogan disagreed: "I don't understand how this is a tragedy. It is Ms. Miller's choice. She has the keys to release herself. . . . She has a waiver she chooses not to recognize."

The dramatic sight of a reporter being led off to jail, however, spurred many journalists and free-press advocates to warn that reporters, especially those covering the White House and national security issues, will find it much harder to obtain accurate information about government operations. Press advocates and lawmakers said that yesterday's events proved the need for a new federal shield law to protect journalists against the release of information about confidential sources.

"It's the mother of all chilling effects," said longtime media lawyer Charles Tobin. "There can't be any stronger statement to journalists and their sources that the law won't stand behind them."

John F. Sturm, president and chief executive of the Newspaper Association of America, said confidential sources have revealed major safety violations at nuclear plants, corporate fraud and other vital information. "Without the promise of confidentiality, sources, including whistle-blowers, will not come forward," he said.

Hogan disputed assertions that jailing Miller would bring good reporting to a halt. He noted that the Supreme Court ruled in Branzburg v. Hayes in 1972 that reporters do not have a right to protect confidential sources in criminal investigations.

" Branzburg has been the law for 33 years and it hasn't stopped anything . . . including Watergate," Hogan said.

But his order prompted some hand-wringing among reporters and media experts about whether the New York Times and Time magazine helped or hurt the cause of a free press by fighting a less-than-sympathetic case all the way to the Supreme Court -- and losing.

Yesterday, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller answered that complaint by telling reporters outside the courthouse that the paper felt it did not have much choice.

"To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld . . . you go to court with the case you have," Keller said. "It's not the ideal case for anybody."

Tobin agreed: "I don't think reporters feel like they get to pick and choose which sources to protect and which ones to throw under the bus."

Cooper told reporters who congratulated him as he left the court that he did not feel lucky.

"There's no congratulations here," he said. "It's a very sad day . . . when journalists just doing their jobs face the prospect of jail."

Cooper declined to identify the government source who called and freed him to speak to the grand jury and Fitzgerald about their conversations in 2003.

One of the government officials Cooper talked to during that period was Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, according to Cooper's notes and Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin. Luskin has said that Rove did not identify Plame to Cooper and did nothing wrong.

In an interview yesterday, he said Rove was not the source who called Cooper yesterday morning and personally waived the confidentiality agreement.

"Karl has not asked anybody to treat him as a confidential source with regard to this story," Luskin said.

Wilson released a statement yesterday saying that Miller has joined his wife as the "collateral damage" of a White House effort to smear him. He said Bush has not done much since he insisted in 2003 that the administration "get to the bottom" of the leak.

"Clearly, the conspiracy to cover up the web of lies that underpinned the invasion of Iraq is more important to the White House than coming clean on a serious breach of national security," he said.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

 

[code_pirahna]

And he'll be pardoned by Bush

 

[Dolemite]

And he'll be pardoned by Bush

hell yeah that's his boy

 

[LordSinister]

That's what's shity about the whole deal. They will just bury this with another Shivo, Elian, Chandra story.

 

[Dolemite]

Rove at center of leak investigation
By Associated Press

Monday, July 11, 2005 - WASHINGTON - For the better part of two years, the word coming out of the Bush White House was that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identity and that whoever did would be fired.

But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan wouldn't repeat those claims Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging the political operative spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame's name.

McLellan repeatedly said he couldn't comment because the matter is under investigation. When it was pointed out he had commented previously even though the investigation was ongoing, he responded: "I've really said all I'm going to say on it."

Democrats jumped on the issue, calling for the administration to fire Rove, or at least to yank his security clearance. One Democrat pushed for Republicans to hold a congressional hearing in which Rove would testify.

"The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "I trust they will follow through on this pledge. If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is about our national security."

The investigation into the 2003 leak had largely faded into the background until last week, when New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail rather than reveal who in the administration talked to her about Plame.

Cooper also had planned to go to jail rather than reveal his source but at the last minute agreed to cooperate with investigators when a source, Rove, gave him permission to do so. Cooper's employer, Time Inc., also turned over Cooper's e-mail and notes.

One of the e-mails was a note from Cooper to his boss in which he said he had spoken to Rove, who described the wife of former U.S. Ambassador and Bush administration critic Joe Wilson as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA, Newsweek magazine reported.

Within days of the July 11, 2003, e-mail, Cooper's byline was on a Time article identifying Wilson's wife by name _ Valerie Plame. Her identity was first disclosed by columnist Robert Novak.

The e-mail did not say Rove had disclosed the name. but it made clear that Rove had discussed the issue.

That ran counter to what McClellan has been saying. For example, in September and October 2003, McClellan's comments about Rove included the following: "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved," "It was a ridiculous suggestion," and, "It's not true."

Reporters seized on the subject Monday, pressing McClellan to either repeat the denials or explain why he can't now.

"I have said for quite some time that this is an ongoing investigation and we're not going to get into discussing it," McClellan replied.

Asked whether Rove committed a crime, McClellan said, "This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation."

Rove declined to comment Monday and referred questions to his attorney. Last year, he said, "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name."

The Rove disclosure was an embarrassment for a White House that prides itself on not leaking to reporters and has insisted that Rove was not involved in exposing Plame's identity.

The disclosure also left in doubt whether Bush would carry out his promise to fire anyone found to have leaked the CIA operative's identity. Rove is one of the president's closest confidants _ the man Bush has described as the architect of his re-election, and currently deputy White House chief of staff.

Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Plame's husband suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. Wilson has since suggested his wife's name was leaked as retaliation.

The e-mail that Cooper wrote to his bureau chief said Wilson's wife authorized a trip by Wilson to Africa. The purpose was to check out reports that Iraq had tried to obtain yellowcake uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Wilson's subsequent public criticism of the administration was based on his findings during the trip that cast serious doubt on the allegation that Iraq had tried to obtain the material.

Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said his client did not disclose Plame's name. Luskin declined to say how Rove found out that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and refused to say how Rove came across the information that it was Wilson's wife who authorized his trip to Africa.

Rove's lawyer says his client has done nothing wrong.

"In the conversation, Karl is warning Cooper not to get too far out in front of the story," Luskin said. "There were false allegations out there that Vice President Cheney sent Wilson to Niger and that Wilson had reported back to Cheney about his trip to Niger. Neither was true."

"A fair-minded reading of Cooper's e-mail is that Rove was trying to discourage Time magazine from circulating false allegations about Cheney, not trying to encourage them by saying anything about Wilson or his wife."

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and a private group, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, called on Bush to suspend Roves security clearances, shutting him out of classified meetings.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked the Republican chairman of the House Government Reform Committee to hold a hearing where Rove would testify.

Rove should resign or the president should fire him, said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of the liberal advocacy group, MoveOn PAC.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asked Rove to detail any conversations he had about Plame before her name surfaced publicly in Novak's column.

 

[Dolemite]

CIA Leak Quotes


Monday July 11, 2005 10:31 PM

By The Associated Press

Some of the denials, other comments, at media briefings by White House spokesman Scott McClellan when asked by reporters whether President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was involved in the leak of a CIA officer's identity:

^Sept. 29, 2003

Q: You said this morning, quote, ``The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved.'' How does he know that?

A: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. ... I've said that it's not true. ... And I have spoken with Karl Rove.

Q: It doesn't take much for the president to ask a senior official working for him, to just lay the question out for a few people and end this controversy today.

A: Do you have specific information to bring to our attention? ... Are we supposed to chase down every anonymous report in the newspaper? We'd spend all our time doing that.''

Q: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, ``Did you ever have this information?''

A: I've made it very clear, he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was.

^---

^Oct. 7, 2003

Q: You have said that you personally went to Scooter Libby (Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff), Karl Rove and Elliott Abrams (National Security Council official) to ask them if they were the leakers. Is that what happened? Why did you do that? And can you describe the conversations you had with them? What was the question you asked?

A: Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C., at a time like this there are a lot of rumors and innuendo. There are unsubstantiated accusations that are made. And that's exactly what happened in the case of these three individuals. They are good individuals. They are important members of our White House team. And that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved. I had no doubt with that in the beginning, but I like to check my information to make sure it's accurate before I report back to you, and that's exactly what I did.

^---

^Oct. 10, 2003

Q: Earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands.

Q: So none of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: They assured me that they were not involved in this.

Q: They were not involved in what?

A: The leaking of classified information.

^---

July 11, 2005:

Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?

A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we're not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Q: But Rove has apparently commented, through his lawyer, that he was definitely involved.

A: You're asking me to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Q: I'm saying, why did you stand there and say he was not involved?

A: Again, while there is an ongoing investigation, I'm not going to be commenting on it nor is ... .

Q: Any remorse?

A: Nor is the White House, because the president wanted us to cooperate fully with the investigation, and that's what we're doing.

 

[QueEx]

Bring Rove before a grand jury.

I can hear it now: "I had nothing to do with that woman."

Didn't work for Clinton; and it shouldn't work for Rove.

QueEx

 

[Dolemite]

yo Tavis just talked about it in depth and showed the white house press conference today where scott mcclelland got ripped.

Karl Rove might have lied to congress under oath about this too.

Rove has powerful allies but he also has many many enemies. I think this is the ammunition that many people scared of Rove and Bush were waiting for. The NBC White House correspondent went crazy on McClelland today, Scott looked fucked up and scared- hey I wonder if ScottM is Scott McClelland???????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dolemite]

try another domain i blocked all of disney long ago

 

[QueEx]

[frame]http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/12/cia.leaks/index.html[/frame]

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>GOP on Offense in Defense of Rove</font size></center>

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; Page A01

Republicans mounted an aggressive and coordinated defense of Karl Rove yesterday, contending that the White House's top political adviser did nothing improper or illegal when he discussed a covert CIA official with a reporter.

With a growing number of Democrats calling for Rove's resignation, the Republican National Committee and congressional Republicans sought to discredit Democratic critics and knock down allegations of possible criminal activity.

"The angry left is trying to smear" Rove, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, a Rove protege, said in an interview.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether anyone in the Bush administration unlawfully leaked the name of a CIA official, Valerie Plame, to the news media. Although the White House has previously said Rove was not involved in the episode, a recently disclosed internal Time magazine e-mail shows that Rove mentioned Plame, albeit not by name, to reporter Matthew Cooper before her name and affiliation became public in July 2003. The grand jury is scheduled to hear from Cooper today.

The emerging GOP strategy -- devised by Mehlman and other Rove loyalists outside of the White House -- is to try to undermine those Democrats calling for Rove's ouster, play down Rove's role and wait for President Bush's forthcoming Supreme Court selection to drown out the controversy, according to several high-level Republicans.

The White House said Bush retains full confidence in Rove, but for a second day officials would not answer a barrage of questions about Rove's role in the leak scandal on the grounds that the investigation is not complete. But the RNC -- effectively Bush's political arm -- weighed into the controversy in a major fashion.

Mehlman, who said he talked with Rove several times in recent days, instructed GOP legislators, lobbyists and state officials to accuse Democrats of dirty politics and argue Rove was guilty of nothing more than discouraging a reporter from writing an inaccurate story, according to RNC talking points circulated yesterday.

"Republicans should stop holding back and go on the offense: fire enough bullets the other way until the Supreme Court overtakes" events, said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.).

Rove has not been asked by senior White House officials whether he did anything illegal or potentially embarrassing to the president and he spent most of the day strategizing on Bush's Supreme Court nomination, aides said.

"No one has asked him what he told the grand jury. No one has deemed it appropriate," said a senior White House official, who would discuss the Rove case only on the condition of anonymity. "What you all need to figure out is, does this amount to a crime? That is a legitimate debate." Still, some aides said they were concerned about the unknown. "Is it a communications challenge? Sure," the official said.

Privately, even Rove's staunchest supporters said the situation could explode if federal prosecutors accuse Rove or any other high-level official of committing a crime. William Kristol, a conservative commentator with close White House ties, said it would be hard to imagine a prosecutor conducting an investigation that has landed one reporter in jail and challenged the constitutional rights of the journalism profession without indicting someone. Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald "is the problem for the White House, and we have no idea what he knows," Kristol said.

Bush has said if any White House officials were involved, they would be fired. The president yesterday twice refused to answer questions on whether Rove should be dismissed.

The controversy involves former U.S. diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had been sent by the CIA in February 2002 to Niger to investigate allegations that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy nuclear material. Wilson subsequently became a critic of administration policy in Iraq and after the invasion in March 2003 questioned whether Bush had exaggerated the threat from Hussein.

After Wilson went public with his concerns, columnist Robert D. Novak reported that he had been told by two administration officials that the Niger trip had been suggested by Wilson's wife, Plame. It is a federal felony to knowingly identify an active undercover CIA officer, but legal experts said such a crime is very difficult to prove.

Whatever the legal considerations in the case, the emerging record suggests that the administration was involved in an effort to discredit Wilson after he went public with his criticism.

According to the Time magazine e-mail, the conversation between Cooper and Rove took place a few days before Novak's column appeared in July 2003. Cooper says Rove raised questions about Wilson's credibility, offering a "big warning" not to "get out too far on Wilson," Newsweek has reported.

The e-mail comports with a previously reported conversation between a Washington Post reporter and an administration official two days before the Novak column ran. The administration official, who has not been identified, described the Wilson trip as a boondoggle that was set up by his wife and was not being taken seriously by the White House.

Rove has maintained he neither knew Plame's name nor leaked it to anyone. In an interview yesterday, Wilson said his wife goes by Mrs. Wilson, so it would be clear who Rove was talking about, and noted how Rove attends the same church as the Wilson family. Wilson said Rove was part of a "smear campaign" designed to discredit him and others who undercut Bush's justification for war.

Wilson was a chief target of the new GOP offensive designed to take some pressure off Rove. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said the White House did not have to discredit Wilson. "Nobody had to do that," he said, adding that "he discredited his own report" by including unfounded allegations. The RNC talking point memo included a list of anti-Wilson lines.

"In all honesty, the facts thus far -- and the e-mail involved -- indicate to me that there is not a problem here," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "I have always thought this is a tempest in a teapot."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...5071200093.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

 

[QueEx]

[frame]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162406,00.html[/frame]

 

[Dolemite]

Rove Did Leak Classified Information

David Corn Wed Jul 13, 4:39 PM ET

The Nation -- "The fact is, Karl Rove did not leak classified information." So said Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican Party.


"I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name." So said Karl Rove of Valerie Wilson/Plame last year on CNN.

"He did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the
CIA." So said Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, after Newsweek reported Rove had been a source for Time magazine's Matt Cooper but before Newsweek revealed a Cooper email that said Rove had told Cooper that "wilson's wife...apparently works at the agency on wmd issues."

The White House may be stonewalling on the Rove scandal, but the Rove camp--aided by its echo-ists in the conservative media--has been busy establishing the twin-foundation for his defense: he did not mention Valerie Wilson/Plame by name; he did not disclose classified information. The first of these two assertions is misleading and irrelevant; the second is wrong.

Did not disclose her name

According to Cooper's email, Rove told Cooper that "Wilson's wife"--not "Valerie Plame," or "Valerie Wilson"--worked at the CIA. But this distinction has absolutely no legal relevance. Under the relevant law--the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982--a crime is committed when a government official (not a journalist) "intentionally discloses any information identifying" an undercover intelligence officer. The act does not say a name must be disclosed. By telling a reporter that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA officer, Rove was clearly disclosing "identifying" information. There was only one Mrs. Joseph Wilson. With such information in hand, Cooper or anyone else could easily have ascertained the name of this officer. (A Google search at the time would have yielded the name--and maiden name--of Wilson's wife.) Revealing the name is not the crime; it's disclosing information that IDs the officer. Imagine if a government official told a reporter, "At 3:15, a fellow in a green hat, carrying a red umbrella and holding a six-pack of Mountain Dew, will be tap-dancing in front of the Starbucks at Connecticut Avenue and R Street--he's the CIA's best undercover officer working
North Korea." That official could not defend himself, under this law, by claiming that he had not revealed the name of this officer. The issue is identifying, not naming. Rove and his allies cannot hide behind his no-name claim.

******

Don't forget about DAVID CORN's BLOG at www.davidcorn.com. Read recent postings on Rove and the Plame/CIA leak, the latest GOP pro-Rove spin, how a conservative columnist tried to recruit Corn for Rove's defense, and other in-the-news subjects.

*******

Did not disclose classified information

A reading of this law also indicates that if Cooper's email is accurate then Rove did pass classified information to Cooper. It's possible that Rove did so unwittingly. That is, he did not know Valerie Wilson's employment status at the CIA was classified information. But he and his posse cannot say the information he slipped to Cooper was not classified.

The Intelligence Identities Protection Act makes it a crime to identify "a covert agent" of the United States. The law defines "covert agent," in part, as "a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information." (My emphasis.)

This definition clearly recognizes that the identity of an undercover intelligence officer is "classified information." The law also notes that a "covert agent" has a "classified relationship to the United States." Since the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate the Plame/CIA leak and the Justice Department affirmed the need for an investigation and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, once handed the case, pursued the matter vigorously, it is reasonable to assume that Valerie Wilson fits the definition of a "covert agent." That means she has a "classified relationship" with the government.

By disclosing Valerie Wilson's relationship to the CIA, Rove was passing classified information to a reporter.

"There is little doubt," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, that the employment status of an undercover CIA officer, "is classified information." He notes that the "most basic personnel information of the CIA--the number of personnel, the salaries--is classified. Anything more specific--like the identity of a NOC [an officer working under "nonofficial cover," as was Valerie Wilson] or the numbers and identities of officers working in a particular region of the world--is classified."

To sum up, it does not matter if Rove did not mention Valerie Wilson by name, and it is not true that the information he passed to Cooper was not classified.

Rove may still have a defense against criminal prosecution. Under the law, a government official is only guilty if he or she discloses information "knowing that the information disclosed so identifies" a "covert agent." Rove could claim that he was not aware that Valerie Wilson was working at the CIA as a covert official. After all, there are CIA employees--analysts, managers, and others--who do not work under cover. If special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicts Rove or anyone else, the most difficult part of the case will likely be proving that the person charged with the crime meets this he-knew-she-was-undercover test.

Not all wrongdoing is a crime. But leaking classified information is always serious business. George W. Bush took an unambiguous stand on the leaking of classified information when he was asked on September 30, 2003, about Karl Rove's possible role in the Plame/CIA leak. Bush noted,

I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action.

Well, now Bush knows. Rove, according to the Cooper email, did not leak a name but he did leak classified information. Much of his defense is in tatters. And where is Bush's "appropriate action"?

*******************

 

[tian]

Nothing will happen to Karl Rove. He runs Washington.


CIA 'outing' might fall short of crime
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The alleged crime at the heart of a controversy that has consumed official Washington — the "outing" of a CIA officer — may not have been a crime at all under federal law, little-noticed details in a book by the agent's husband suggest.

In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in Washington, D.C., where they married and became parents of twins. (Related story: Bush waits on Rove)

Six years later, in July 2003, the name of the CIA officer — Valerie Plame — was revealed by columnist Robert Novak.

The column's date is important because the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a "covert agent" must have been on an overseas assignment "within the last five years." The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say. Wilson's book makes numerous references to the couple's life in Washington over the six years up to July 2003.

"Unless she was really stationed abroad sometime after their marriage," she wasn't a covert agent protected by the law, says Bruce Sanford, an attorney who helped write the 1982 act that protects covert agents' identities.

The leaking of Valerie Plame's identity started a chain of events that now has the White House at the center of a political firestorm as some Democrats demand President Bush fire close aide Karl Rove. Rove discussed Plame's CIA connection with Time reporter Matthew Cooper in 2003, though without naming her, according to Rove's attorney.

Joseph Wilson would not say whether his wife was stationed overseas again after 1997, and he said she would not speak to a reporter. But, he said, "the CIA obviously believes there was reason to believe a crime had been committed" because it referred the case to the Justice Department.

Spokesmen for both the CIA and federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating whether a crime was committed, also would not comment.

Though that key law may not have been broken in leaking the name, Fitzgerald must still be pursuing evidence of some type of wrongdoing, said Victoria Toensing, another of the attorneys who helped draft the 1982 act. Like Sanford, she doubts Valerie Wilson, as she now refers to herself, qualified as a "covert agent" under that law. She and Sanford also doubt Fitzgerald has enough evidence to prosecute anyone under the Espionage Act. That law makes it a crime to divulge "information relating to the national defense" that "the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury" of the nation.

But, Toensing said, "reading between the lines, I'd say he's got a 'Martha Stewart case' " involving perjury or obstruction of justice. In other words, though a crime may not have been committed at the start, one may have occurred during the investigation when someone lied to Fitzgerald or to a federal grand jury.

The tempest started when Novak wrote about why Joseph Wilson had gone to Niger in 2002 on a fact-finding mission for the CIA. Wilson had been sent to check on reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium — fuel for nuclear weapons. In 2003, he disputed administration claims that Iraq had tried to buy the uranium.

Novak wrote that "Valerie Plame is an agency (CIA) operative" and that "two senior administration officials" said she suggested sending her husband to Niger. Time magazine's Cooper filed a similar online story three days later.

The stories led to Fitzgerald's investigation and the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who did not publish a story. She has refused to discuss conversations she had with a source.

This week, Democrats including Sens. John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Rove should be fired. An e-mail Cooper allegedly sent to a Time colleague and obtained by Newsweek last week indicates Rove was among Cooper's sources. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said Bush still has confidence in Rove. Wednesday, Bush said he wouldn't comment until "the investigation is completed."

 

[Dolemite]

Wilson Charges White House ‘Smear’ Campaign
Now to the Karl Rove/CIA scandal. Ambassador Joseph Wilson has accused the White House of running what he called a "smear campaign" against him and called on President Bush to fire Rove over the outing of Wilson's wife, undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Wilson spoke yesterday at a Capitol Hill press conference with New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer.

* Joe Wilson:
"The fact that somebody decided that they would go ahead and leak classified information for the purposes of achieving a political end is simply unacceptable. It's unacceptable for Democrats. It's unacceptable for Republicans. It's unacceptable for Americans and for the national security of this country…Irrespective of whether a law had been violated, it's very clear to me that the ethical standards to which we should hold our senior public servants has been violated and it is for that reason that I have called for, not Karl Rove's resignation, but for the president to honour his word that he would fire anybody who has involved with that leak."

Wilson's accusations came after the Chair of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman sent reporters an e-mail claiming to list "Joe Wilson's Top Ten Worst Inaccuracies and Misstatements," along with other messages challenging his veracity. The controversy spilled out into the corridors of Congress on Thursday, where lawmakers in the US Senate planned to devote 90 minutes debating legislation related to the matter. Senator Schumer, who has co-sponsored legislation calling for Rove's top-level security clearance to be lifted, slammed Republican moves to question Wilson's credibility, calling the attacks "unfair and un-American" and "Kafkaesque." But Republicans are levying a countercharge that the Democrats are running a smear campaign against Rove.

* Kay Bailey Hutchison (R, Texas):
"I have seen nothing so far that would indicate that there was any law broken by Karl Rove and I think to jump because Karl Rove because Karl Rove is clearly a friend an confidant of the president- I think is wrong."

--------

White House Worried About Possible Indictments

The Washington Post is reporting that White House officials are privately saying that they are concerned that the investigation into the outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame will lead to an indictment of someone in the administration later this year. This comes as Democrats escalate their calls for the man known as "Bush's brain" to be stripped of his security clearance and fired. There are also calls for Congressional hearings. One of those leading the charge in the House is California Democrat Henry Waxman.

* Henry Waxmann (D, California):
"This is a serious matter because it affects the national security of this nation. It's an even more serious matter because if our national security has been jeopardized, it's been jeopardized for political purposes."



Dems Attempt to Strip Rove’s Sec. Clearance
A group of Democratic senators lead by Minority Leader Harry Reid put forth an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill that would have denied security clearances to any federal official who has revealed the identity of an undercover CIA operative. The amendment read "No federal employee who discloses or has disclosed classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be entitled to hold a security clearance for access to such information." Republicans opposed the amendment, and countered with one of their own that attacked the number 2 Democrat Senator Dick Durbin for his attack on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo where he compared it to a concentration camp and a Soviet Gulag. The amendment said "any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent's comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk, shall not be permitted access to such information or to hold a security clearance for access to such information." The Democrats' amendment went down on a 53-44 party-line vote, while the Republicans' amendment lost 64-33, with about 20 Republicans joining the Democrats in voting against it. Republican Sen. Susan Collins said "We should not be doing this. She said "This is exactly why the American public holds Congress in such low esteem right now.''



Times Confirms Rove Talked to Novak About Plame

And there is a new twist in the role of right-wing columnist Robert Novak, who first publicly named Valerie Plame. The New York Times is reporting that it has confirmed that Rove spoke with Novak as he was preparing his July 2003 article that exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA operative. The paper says its source is "someone who has been officially briefed on the matter." Rove has told investigators that he learned Plame's name from Novak, as well as the circumstances in which her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, traveled to Africa to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq. After hearing Novak's account, The Times says Rove told Novak, "I heard that, too." The previously undisclosed telephone conversation allegedly took place on July 8, 2003. The Times' source says the call was initiated by Novak. Six days later, Novak's column reported that two senior administration officials had told him that Wilson's wife "had suggested sending him" to Africa. That column was the first time in which Plame was publicly identified as a CIA operative. Meanwhile, The Washington Post is reporting that Rove told investigators that he first learned about Plame from a journalist and that he later learned her name from Novak.

 

[Dolemite]

washingtonpost.com
Memo Is a Focus of CIA Leak Probe

By Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 16, 2005; A06

Federal prosecutors investigating the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity have asked several witnesses in the case whether they read a State Department memorandum mentioning her that circulated inside the Bush administration in the days before she was publicly named, according to people familiar with the testimony.

FBI agents showed the State Department memo to several witnesses during the interviews over the past two years, according to lawyers in the case, in an effort to determine whether it was the source of information about Plame's role at the CIA. A key mystery in the leak case is how senior administration officials first learned of Plame's identity and her relationship to a key critic of President Bush's Iraq policy, before her name appeared in news reports.

Lawyers familiar with the testimony of White House senior adviser Karl Rove said he has admitted discussing Plame, though not by name, but said he learned of her role from a reporter. Several legal sources said the prosecution has shown strong interest in the State Department memo, which circulated on Air Force One during the Africa trip -- just days before Plame's name was made public in a column by Robert D. Novak.

Prosecutors are investigating whether administration officials leaked Plame's name to retaliate against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, an ex-diplomat who had accused Bush of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Wilson, on a mission authorized by the CIA, went to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was seeking uranium for nuclear bombs. He reported that there was no evidence to support that suspicion.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who was on the Africa trip with Bush, carried with him a memo containing information on Plame, as well as other intelligence about allegations made by Wilson.

According to people involved in the case, prosecutors believe that a printout of memo was in the front of Air Force One during a July 7-12 trip Bush took to Africa, but investigators are unsure who reviewed or obtained copies of it. One of the earliest moves by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, signaling his aggressive stance, was to get the grand jury to subpoena Air Force One phone logs from the trip, the sources said. Newsweek reported in August 2004 that Powell's testimony before the grand jury focused, in part, on the memo.

The memo "identifies her as having selected or recommended her husband" for the Niger assignment, according to a person who has seen it. Administration officials circulated this information as a way of discrediting the reliability of Wilson's charges.

Lawyers involved in the probe said prosecutors are interested in whether anyone called back to Washington to talk about information in the memo. Prosecutors have asked numerous questions about then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who was on the trip and aboard Air Force One, according to the lawyers. Fleischer has declined to comment.

Rove said of the memo that he "had never seen it, had never heard about it and had never heard anybody else talk about it," according to a lawyer familiar with his testimony. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said he can say "categorically" that Rove did not obtain any information about Plame from any confidential source, such as a classified document.

The memo was first reported by the New York Times, but several sources had described its content to The Washington Post in interviews this week.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Top Aides Reportedly Set Sights on Wilson</font size></center>
<font size="4"><center>Rove and Cheney chief of staff were intent
on discrediting CIA agent's husband, prosecutors have been told.</font size></center>

Los Angeles Times
By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writers
July 17, 2005

WASHINGTON — Top aides to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were intensely focused on discrediting former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV in the days after he wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times suggesting the administration manipulated intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq, federal investigators have been told.

Prosecutors investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, a CIA officer who had worked undercover, have been told that Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove, and Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were especially intent on undercutting Wilson's credibility, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Although lower-level White House staffers typically handle most contacts with the media, Rove and Libby began personally communicating with reporters about Wilson, prosecutors were told.

A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove's interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: "He's a Democrat." Rove then cited Wilson's campaign donations, which leaned toward Democrats, the person familiar with the case said.

The disclosures about the officials' roles illustrate White House concern about Wilson's July 6, 2003, article, which challenged the administration's assertion that Iraq had sought to purchase nuclear materials. Wilson's article appeared as Rove and other Bush aides were preparing the 2004 reelection campaign strategy, which was built largely around the president's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

It is not surprising that White House officials would be upset by an attack like Wilson's or seek to respond aggressively. But special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is examining whether they or others crossed the legal line by improperly disclosing classified information, or whether they perjured themselves in testifying later about their actions. Both Rove and Libby have testified.

News of the high-level interest in discrediting Wilson comes as White House defenders, most notably officials at the Republican National Committee, argue that Rove has been vindicated of suspicion that he was a primary source of the leak. Knowingly revealing the identity of a covert operative is a federal crime.

Regardless of Rove's legal liability, the description of his role runs contrary to earlier White House statements that Rove and Libby were not involved in the unmasking of Wilson's wife, and it suggests they were part of a campaign to discredit Wilson.

Wilson, a career Foreign Service officer who served in Iraq and several African nations, was sent by the CIA in 2002 to investigate whether Iraq had attempted to purchase nuclear materials from Niger. His New York Times article declaring that he had found no credible evidence of such an attempt despite the administration's continued claims that there had been one unleashed charges from White House officials that he was a partisan.

White House officials contended that he had wrongly indicated that he was sent on his mission by Cheney. In fact, Wilson had said in the article that the trip was inspired by questions raised by Cheney's office.

Eight days after Wilson's article was published, a syndicated column by Robert Novak questioned the credibility of Wilson's trip, suggesting that it had been arranged with the help of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, at the CIA.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has cited recent news reports that Rove heard about Wilson's wife from reporters and that he was not an original source. Those reports said that Rove in fact sought to dissuade Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper — one of the journalists with whom he discussed Wilson's wife — from writing a piece about Wilson's charge.

"Based on the information that has come out over the last several days, the one thing that's absolutely clear is that Karl was not the source for the leak and there's no basis for any additional speculation," Luskin said.

A White House spokesman, David Almacy, declined to comment Sunday. "This is an ongoing investigation, and we will be happy to talk about this once it is completed, but not until then," he said.

Prosecutors' intense questioning of witnesses about Rove and Libby casts doubt on assertions that the president's longtime political guru was not — at least at some point — in Fitzgerald's sights.

Fitzgerald is expected to conclude his investigation this year with a detailed report.

Bush said he would fire anyone responsible for any illegal leaks. Democrats have called on Bush to fire Rove, now a deputy White House chief of staff, or at least to revoke Rove's security clearance.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Rove and the White House deserved credit for cooperating with Fitzgerald. "Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate" was the policy, said Mehlman, who once was Rove's deputy at the White House.

Cooper, who testified last week before Fitzgerald's grand jury concerning his conversations with White House officials about Wilson, confirmed Sunday that prosecutors showed intense interest in the roles played by Rove and Libby in discussing Wilson's wife.

In an article in the latest issue of Time magazine titled "What I Told the Grand Jury," Cooper writes that the grand jurors investigated his interactions with Rove in "microscopic, excruciating detail."

He says he called Rove after Wilson's article appeared and asked about it. "I recall saying something like, 'I'm writing about Wilson,' before he interjected," Cooper writes. " 'Don't get too far out on Wilson,' he told me."

Cooper writes that his first knowledge of Wilson's wife came when Rove disclosed on "deep background" that she worked for the CIA, but that he did not learn her name until he read it in Novak's column several days later.

Novak was the first journalist to identify Plame by name, along with her role as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." He wrote that two senior administration officials told him Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger.

"As for Wilson's wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak's column or Googled her, I can't recall which," Cooper writes. "Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the 'agency' — by that, I told the grand jury, I inferred that he obviously meant the CIA and not, say, the Environmental Protection Agency. Rove added that she worked on 'WMD' (the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction)issues and that she was responsible for sending Wilson. This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife."

In his article, Cooper also recalls that Rove ended their conversation with a cryptic caution: "I've already said too much."

"This could have meant he was worried about being indiscreet, or it could have meant he was late for a meeting or something else," Cooper writes.

As for Libby, Cooper writes that he told investigators in 2004 about a conversation in which the Cheney advisor seemed to confirm the identity of Wilson's wife. But the conversation was "on background." It is not clear from Cooper's account whether Libby's response was based on original information or gossip he picked up from other journalists.

"On background, I asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger," Cooper writes. "Libby replied, 'Yeah, I've heard that too,' or words to that effect. Like Rove, Libby never used Valerie Plame's name."

Based on what he was asked in the grand jury, Cooper speculates in his personal account that Fitzgerald might be pursuing Rove — or, perhaps just as likely, the person or document that provided the information to Rove and other administration officials.

Fitzgerald, Cooper writes, "asked me several different ways if Rove indicated how he had heard that Plame worked at the CIA. (He did not, I told the grand jury.)"

The intensity of Fitzgerald's inquiry has picked up in recent weeks, particularly since Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller lost a court battle over shielding confidential sources. Cooper agreed to testify, but Miller refused to reveal her source and has been jailed for contempt of court.

Activities aboard Air Force One are also of interest to prosecutors — including the possible distribution of a State Department memo that mentioned Wilson's wife. Prosecutors are seeking to find out whether anyone who saw the memo learned Plame's identity and passed the information to journalists. Telephone logs from the presidential aircraft have been subpoenaed. Among those aboard was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who has testified.

One of the sources familiar with the investigation said Saturday that prosecutors had obtained a White House call sheet showing that Novak left a message for Fleischer the day after Wilson's op-ed article appeared and the day Fleischer left with the president for Africa. Fleischer declined to comment for this article but has flatly denied being the source of the leak.

Wilson said in an interview Saturday he had known that Novak was interested in him a week or so before the column appeared. He said a friend who saw Novak on the street reported that Novak told him, "Wilson is an asshole and his wife works for the CIA."

As for the intensity of White House interest in him after the column, Wilson said: "I am sorry that 6,900 American soldiers have been injured and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and injured all because these guys sent us to war under false pretenses."

Wilson speculated in a book he wrote last year that it was Libby who was "responsible for exposing my wife's identity." Libby has indicated to investigators that he learned the identity of Plame from journalists.

Rove has told investigators the same, although a person familiar with his testimony said that the possibility that Rove learned the information from the journalists indirectly — possibly even through Libby — could not be ruled out. The person said Rove simply had no firm recollection.

There have been other indications of a concerted White House action against Wilson. Two days before Novak's column, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus was told by an "administration official" that the White House was not putting much stock in the Wilson trip to Africa because it was "set up as a boondoggle by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction," according to an account of the conversation Pincus wrote for this summer's Nieman Reports, published by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Pincus discussed the substance of the conversation with prosecutor Fitzgerald last fall under an arrangement where Pincus did not have to tell Fitzgerald who the administration source was.

And Fleischer also seemed attuned to a strategy of discrediting Wilson. Two days before Novak revealed Plame's identity, Fleischer questioned the former envoy's findings in remarks to reporters during a trip with Bush in Africa.

The transcript of that press gaggle (the term for an informal question-and-answer between reporters and the White House spokesman), which took place in the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, has been requested by the prosecutors.

*


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Richard B. Schmitt contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...8,0,1271980,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

 

[Dolemite]

Funny how American media has not portrayed Wilson as a hero for telling pre-invasion America what it found out post-invasion was true, that the proof used to go to war was bullshit.

How does the left-wing media not use this guy as a poster boy? Soap opera politics. Republican blood must be shed to satisfy all the blatant wrongs done in the past years. Offer up the most hated in a way that he won't really be hurt. Rove is offered up to satisfy the crowd's bloodlust while everything else stays status quo.
Nixon took a fall but who paid for Vietnam? lol

Washington is a circus, full of performers.

 

[Makkonnen]

katrina to the rescue?

 

[Andre Nickatina]

katrina to the rescue?

very much so.

anything to keep the headlines away from Rove's skullduggery and Iraq's rising body count.

it could very easily backfire though. the price tag on all that stuff he just claimed in the presidential address is gonna have a very high price tag.

we'll spend more money in our Gulf than in that other Gulf and the conservatives will be up in arms.

he's burning the bridge on both ends...

 

[Makkonnen]

speaking of body count - fuckin 1000 people died on that bridge - bombers killed hundreds and injured like 600 yesterday

and at guantanamo there's been a 200+ prisoner hunger strike for more than 2 months and they're feeding prisoners through fuckin tubes now

 

[QueEx]

<font size="6"><center>N.Y. Times Reporter Released From Jail</font size></center>
<font size="4"><center>Miller to Testify In CIA Leak Probe</font size></center>

<center>

Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, testifies
on Capitol Hill in Washington in this March 1, 2001 file photo.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released Thursday
Sept. 29, 2005 after agreeing to testify in the investigation
into the disclosure of the identity of a covert CIA officer
after securing an unconditional release from Libby, two people
familiar with the case said. (AP Photo/Joe Marquette, File)
(Joe Marquette - AP) </center>

Washington Post
By Susan Schmidt and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 30, 2005; Page A01

New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from jail late yesterday and is scheduled to testify this morning before a federal grand jury investigating whether any government officials illegally leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media, according to lawyers involved in the case.

Miller, 57, has been jailed for contempt of court since July 6 for refusing to testify about conversations with news sources. She was released from the Alexandria Detention Center shortly after 4 p.m. yesterday after her attorney Robert S. Bennett reached an agreement on her testimony with special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, according to two lawyers familiar with the case.

Miller had refused to testify about information she received from confidential sources. But she said she changed her mind after I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, assured her in a telephone call last week that a waiver he gave prosecutors authorizing them to question reporters about their conversations with him was not coerced.

"It's good to be free," Miller said in a statement last night. "I went to jail to preserve the time-honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source. . . . I am leaving jail today because my source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter."

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a statement: "Judy refused to testify in this case because she gave her professional word that she would keep her interview with her source confidential. In recent days, several important things have changed that convinced Judy that she was released from her obligation."

But Joseph Tate, an attorney for Libby, said yesterday that he told Miller attorney Floyd Abrams a year ago that Libby's waiver was voluntary and that Miller was free to testify. He said last night that he was contacted by Bennett several weeks ago, and was surprised to learn that Miller had not accepted that representation as authorization to speak with prosecutors.

"We told her lawyers it was not coerced," Tate said. "We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration."

Tate said that he and Bennett then asked Fitzgerald whether their clients could talk without fear of being accused of obstructing the investigation, and were assured that Fitzgerald would not oppose them doing so. After the phone call from Libby on Sept. 19 or 20, Tate said, the lawyers wrote a letter to Fitzgerald indicating Miller accepted Libby's representation that the waiver was voluntary.

In July, when Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered Miller to jail, he told her she was mistaken in her belief that she was defending a free press, stressing that the government source she "alleges she is protecting" had released her from her promise of confidentiality.

Fitzgerald has been investigating whether senior Bush administration officials broke the law by knowingly leaking Plame's identity to reporters as retaliation for an opinion article written by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson accused the administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's attempt to obtain weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war.

Plame's name first appeared in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak in July 2003, eight days after Wilson's accusations.

According to a source familiar with Libby's account of his conversations with Miller in July 2003, the subject of Wilson's wife came up on two occasions. In the first, on July 8, Miller met with Libby to interview him about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the source said.

At that time, she asked him why Wilson had been chosen to investigate questions Cheney had posed about whether Iraq tried to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger. Libby, the source familiar with his account said, told her that the White House was working with the CIA to find out more about Wilson's trip and how he was selected.

Libby told Miller he heard that Wilson's wife had something to do with sending him but he did not know who she was or where she worked, the source said.

Libby had a second conversation with Miller on July 12 or July 13, the source said, in which he said he had learned that Wilson's wife had a role in sending him on the trip and that she worked for the CIA. Libby never knew Plame's name or that she was a covert operative, the source said.

Libby did not talk to Novak about the case, the source said.

One lawyer involved in the case said Miller's attorneys reached an agreement with Fitzgerald that may confine prosecutors' questions solely to Miller's conversations with Libby. Bennett, reached last night, said he could not discuss the terms of the agreement for Miller's testimony. Abrams did not return a call seeking comment.

One lawyer said it could become clear as early as next week whether Fitzgerald plans to indict anyone or has negotiated a plea bargain.

Other reporters, including Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post, have provided limited testimony about their conversations with Libby after receiving what they said were explicit waivers of their confidentiality agreements.

In July, on the day he was scheduled to be jailed along with Miller, Cooper agreed to be questioned by Fitzgerald. He said his source, who turned out to be Karl Rove, President Bush's close political adviser, had assured Cooper he had voluntarily provided a waiver of their confidentiality agreement. In recent months, Rove's role in the saga has become more clear. He testified that he discussed Wilson's wife with Cooper and Novak but that he never mentioned her by name.

Lawyers involved in the case believe today's testimony could mark the end of an investigation in which more than a dozen Bush administration officials have testified before a federal grand jury or have talked to FBI agents involved in the nearly two-year-old probe. Bush was interviewed as part of the investigation.

Fitzgerald cast a wide net, interviewing numerous State Department officials and some of Bush's closest advisers, to determine if anyone illegally revealed Plame's name.

Fitzgerald has made it clear for more than a year that Miller was the main obstacle to completing the case and that he was prepared to exert pressure on her to testify. People involved in the case said they began to hear earlier this week that Miller was looking for a way out of jail.

In recent weeks, people close to Miller said her attorneys grew anxious that Fitzgerald would extend her time behind bars. Fitzgerald has the authority to extend the grand jury investigating possible leaks for another 18 months, and he could ask the judge to hold Miller in jail for six more months, lawyers familiar with the case said.

Miller's role had been one of the great mysteries in the leak probe. It is unclear why she emerged as a central figure in the probe despite not writing a story about the case.

Staff writer Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/29/AR2005092901974.html

 

[QueEx]

[frame]http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/06/cialeak.rove.ap/index.html[/frame]

 

[QueEx]

From the Los Angeles Times

<font size="6"><center>Cheney said to have told aide of Plame</font size></center>

<font size="4"><center>The vice president reportedly discussed the CIA
operative with 'Scooter' Libby before her name was leaked</font size></center>

By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers
October 25, 2005

The account in today's editions of the New York Times, which cited unidentified lawyers connected with the case as sources, says that Cheney talked with his aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on June 12, 2003, nearly a month before the identity of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, was leaked to reporters. The leak occurred after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly criticized the Bush administration for "twisting" intelligence in making the case for war with Iraq.

A spokeswoman for Cheney declined Monday night to comment on the report, citing White House policy to refrain from discussing the investigation. Calls and e-mails to Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, were not returned.

But a senior Republican strategist familiar with White House thinking said that such a meeting between the vice president and his top advisor was not surprising, particularly because it occurred the same day that the Washington Post, in a front-page article, reported that the CIA had dispatched a former diplomat to investigate whether Iraq had sought to obtain nuclear materials from the African nation of Niger. The report added that the diplomat — subsequently identified as Wilson but not named in that article — had been sent after questions were raised by Cheney's office.

"Nobody should fall out of their chair if they hear that the vice president discussed classified information trying to determine facts with his national security advisor and chief of staff," the strategist said.

It is a felony to knowingly leak the identity of a covert operative, and special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has been investigating the possibility of a crime for nearly two years. He is expected to announce indictments this week.

Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, have been the White House officials most prominently mentioned in the case. Both have appeared before a grand jury.

Although prosecutors have focused on Cheney's office, interviewing at least half a dozen members of his staff, this is the first report that places the vice president in the chain of events that may have led up to the release of the operative's identity.

Libby's notes, obtained by prosecutors, indicated that Cheney got his information about Plame from George J. Tenet, then the director of the CIA, in response to questions asked by Cheney, the New York Times reported. It would not be a crime for Cheney and Tenet to have discussed a covert CIA operative's role.

A former CIA official said that Tenet declined to comment on the Times report, but the official noted that Tenet "has not been in touch" with investigators for more than 15 months, suggesting that this chain of events may not be of keen interest to Fitzgerald. As of last week, Cheney had not been interviewed by prosecutors since last year.


----
Times staff writer Richard B. Schmitt contributed to this report.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationw...6504.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

 

[QueEx]

<font size="3">Quick Thoughts:</font size>

- If Cheney told Libby about Plame back in June of 2003 (before she was outted);
and Libby has been telling the prosecutor that he learned of Plame from reporters
(as some media reports have suggested) -- Mr. Libby may have a Perjury problem
or an obstruction of justice problem;

- Tricky Dick Cheney could have a problem too. "The 2003 White House notes show
that, weeks before Ms Plame's cover was blown, Mr Cheney knew who she was and
that she had had something to do with the Niger trip. The notes suggest Mr Cheney
had got his information from the CIA director at the time, George Tenet.

According to lawyers involved in the case quoted in the New York Times, details of
the 2003 meeting emerged in the form of notes taken by Mr Libby, the vice-
president's chief of staff, and later handed over to the investigation

The two men were discussing Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador who had
travelled to Niger the previous year to check intelligence reports that Iraq was trying
to buy African uranium.

However, three months later, after the Plame row broke out, the vice-president told a
television interviewer: "I don't know Joe Wilson ... I have no idea who hired him."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1600652,00.html

Did Cheney not know who Joe Wilson was or did he ??? The answer could mean
obstruction of justice.

QueEx

 

[Greed]

can cheney be charged without ever testifying in front of the grand jury?

 

[QueEx]

<font size="6"><center>Fitzgerald Focuses Again on Rove</font size></center>

<font size="4"><center>Special prosecutor ... dispatched FBI agents
to comb the CIA officer's residential neighborhood ... asking
neighbors again whether they were aware — before her
name appeared in a syndicated column — that the agent,
Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA -- as Fitzgerald was
thought to be readying indictments in the long-running
inquiry into the leak of Plame's identity</font size></center>



The Los Angeles Times
By Tom Hamburger, Richard B. Schmitt
and Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writers
October 25, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity returned their attention to powerful White House advisor Karl Rove on Tuesday, questioning a former West Wing colleague about contacts Rove had with reporters in the days leading to the outing of a covert CIA officer.

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald also dispatched FBI agents to comb the CIA officer's residential neighborhood in Washington, asking neighbors again whether they were aware — before her name appeared in a syndicated column — that the agent, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.

The questioning, described by lawyers familiar with the case and by the neighbors, occurred as Fitzgerald was thought to be readying indictments in the long-running inquiry into the leak of Plame's identity.

The inquiry, which has reached deep into the White House and could come to an end this week, focused initially on determining who leaked the agent's name to reporters. More recent, Fitzgerald has appeared to turn his attention to possible perjury, obstruction of justice or conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting the distribution of classified secrets.

Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, were called before the grand jury hearing the case, along with numerous other senior White House staffers. Both Rove and Libby were described as intent on discrediting the CIA agent's husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, a critic of the war in Iraq.

In recent days, attention has centered on Libby and the vice president's office. On Tuesday, the focus appeared to shift again to Rove, who has been called four times before the grand jury. Fitzgerald's investigators asked the former colleague about any comments Rove may have made about his conversations with journalists in the days before Plame's name was made public by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

"It appeared to me the prosecutor was trying to button up any holes that were remaining," a lawyer familiar with the case said. The lawyer asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the ongoing inquiry.

Specifically, investigators asked about Rove's July 2003 conversations with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.

Cooper had contacted Rove and asked about Wilson, who angered the White House in mid-2003 when he publicly accused the administration of "twisting" intelligence information to justify going to war in Iraq.

The former diplomat had been dispatched by the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq sought uranium from the African nation of Niger — an allegation that President Bush referred to in his Jan. 28, 2003 State of the Union address as a justification for ousting Saddam Hussein. Wilson found little evidence to support the claims.

Cooper has told investigators that he called Rove to ask about Wilson's claims. Cooper, in an account of his testimony, later wrote that Rove had warned him, "Don't get too far out on Wilson." Rove also had told Cooper that the ambassador's wife worked at the CIA on weapons of mass destruction, though he did not mention her name.

Spokesmen for Fitzgerald and Rove declined Tuesday to comment.

White House officials have also declined to comment on the investigation and on recent reports that Fitzgerald was focusing at least in part on Cheney's office. "There is a lot of speculation that is going on right now. There are many facts that are not known," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. "The work of the special prosecutor continues, and we look forward to him successfully concluding his investigation."

The flurry of last-minute questioning struck some observers as a way for the prosecutor to test arguments that defense lawyers may have raised in the waning hours of the investigation to fend off charges.

Some of the questioning indicated that Fitzgerald may still be considering indictments on charges that some have viewed as too difficult to pursue, including a prosecution under a federal law that makes it a felony to reveal the name of a covert agent.

On Monday, two FBI agents, dressed in black, combed the northwest Washington neighborhood where Wilson and Plame live, flashing their badges and questioning neighbors about whether they knew about her affiliation with the CIA before she was exposed in an article by Novak in July 2003.

Critics of the leak investigation have argued that it was an open secret that Plame worked for the CIA; if many people knew that she worked for the agency, it would make prosecution under the 1982 law protecting covert agents impossible.

But neighbors contacted by The Times said they told the FBI agents that they had no idea of her agency life, and that they knew her only as a mother of twins who worked as an energy consultant.

The agents "made it clear they were part of the Fitzgerald investigation, and they were basically tying up loose ends," said David Tillotson, a Washington lawyer and neighbor, who was among those interviewed Monday.

"They really only had one interest, and that was to know whether Valerie's identity, on what she did for a living, was known prior to the Novak article. It seemed they were trying to establish clearly that prior to the Novak article she was not widely known on the cocktail circuit," Tillotson said.

"And I pointed out, we were good friends, we socialized with them, and we just had no idea" until her status was made public in the Novak column, Tillotson said. "To that moment, we had no idea whatsoever that Valerie did anything for the government."

Some people familiar with national security investigations said they found this week's questioning to be curious at a time when Fitzgerald appeared to be wrapping up his investigation. They said establishing her covert status should have been a priority at the outset of the case; if her employer was already well known, the prosecutor would not have a case to bring under the agent-protection law.

But others said they suspected that Fitzgerald was just being meticulous, and that he had previously made a judgment about her status and was, in an abundance of caution, looking to further corroborate that belief. The questioning seemed "confirmatory," said one person who was interviewed but who declined to be identified. Some neighbors said they had been interviewed previously by the FBI.

"They basically asked me if I knew what she did prior to the leak," said Marc Lefkowitz, another neighbor. The answer, he said, was an unambiguous "no."

"I knew he was a former ambassador. We had dinner at their house," Lefkowitz said. "She was just a normal mother of twins."

As anticipation swirled in Washington of potential indictments — and what it would mean for a Bush administration already beset by low approval ratings, the Iraq war and an embattled Supreme Court nomination — a related controversy was brewing in Italy over how the Niger allegations made their way into the intelligence stream.

Italian parliamentary officials announced Tuesday that the head of Italy's military secret service, the SISMI intelligence agency, would be questioned next month over allegations that his agency gave the disputed documents to the United States and Britain, according to an Associated Press report. A spokeswoman said Nicolo Pollari, the agency director, asked to be questioned after reports this week in Italy's La Republica newspaper claiming that SISMI sent the CIA and U.S. and British officials information that it knew to be forged.

The newspaper reported that Pollari met at the White House on Sept. 9, 2002 with then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The Niger claims surfaced shortly thereafter. A spokesman for Hadley, now the national security advisor, confirmed that the meeting took place, but declined to say what was discussed.

Hadley had played a prominent role in the controversy over Bush's claims in his State of the Union address — taking responsibility for the insertion of the 16 words that laid out the allegations.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Rome contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...ak_lat,0,7947383.story?coll=la-home-headlines

 

[Makkonnen]

From the washington post - cheney did testify under oath with fitzgerald

 

[Makkonnen]

can cheney be charged without ever testifying in front of the grand jury?

From the washington post - cheney did testify under oath with fitzgerald

 

[Greed]

thanks dolemite...i owe you

 

[QueEx]

can cheney be charged without ever testifying in front of the grand jury?

"Fitzgerald questioned Cheney under oath more than a year ago, but it is not
known what the vice president told the prosecutor.

Cheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he
told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to
check into intelligence _ some of it later deemed unreliable _ that Iraq may
have been seeking to buy uranium there.

"I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever
saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr.
Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."

The Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no
indication Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with a crime."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102500157_2.html

 

[QueEx]

<font size="6"><center>Husband Is Conspicuous in Leak Case</font size></center>
<font size="4"><center>Wilson's Credibility Debated as Charges In Probe Considered</font size></center>

By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Page A03

To his backers, Joseph C. Wilson IV is a brave whistle-blower wronged by the Bush administration. To his critics, he is a partisan who spouts unreliable information.

But nobody disputes this: Possessed of a flamboyant style and a love for the camera lens, Wilson helped propel the unmasking of his wife's identity as a CIA operative into a sprawling, two-year legal probe that climaxes this week with the possible indictment of key White House officials. He also turned an arcane matter involving the Intelligence Identities Protection Act into a proxy fight over the administration's credibility and its case for war in Iraq.

Also beyond dispute is the fact that the little-known diplomat took maximum advantage of his 15 minutes of fame. Wilson has been a fixture on the network and cable news circuit for two years -- from "Meet the Press" to "Imus in the Morning" to "The Daily Show." He traveled west and lunched with the likes of Norman Lear and Warren Beatty.

He published a book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity." He persuaded his wife, Valerie Plame, to appear with him in a January 2004 Vanity Fair photo spread, in which the two appeared in his Jaguar convertible.

Now, amid speculation that prosecutors could bring charges against White House officials this week, Republicans preparing a defense of the administration are reviving the debate about Wilson's credibility and integrity.

Wilson's central assertion -- disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger -- has been validated by postwar weapons inspections. And his charge that the administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq has proved potent.

At the same time, Wilson's publicity efforts -- and his work for Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign -- have complicated his efforts to portray himself as a whistle-blower and a husband angry about the treatment of his wife. The Vanity Fair photos, in particular, hurt Plame's reputation inside the CIA; both Wilson and Plame have said they now regret doing the photo shoot.

Wilson's critics in the administration said his 2002 trip to Niger for the CIA to probe reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium there was a boondoggle arranged by his wife to help his consulting business.

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page, defending the administration, wrote yesterday that, "Mr. Wilson became an antiwar celebrity who joined the Kerry for president campaign." Discussing his trip to Niger, the Journal judged: "Mr. Wilson's original claims about what he found on a CIA trip to Africa, what he told the CIA about it, and even why he was sent on the mission have since been discredited."

Wilson's defenders say he is a truth-teller who has been unfairly attacked. "[T]he White House responded to Ambassador Wilson in the worst possible way," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said at a Democratic gathering in July. "They did not present substantive evidence to justify the uranium claim. . . . Instead, it appears that the president's advisers launched a smear campaign, and Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, became collateral damage."

Before the Niger episode, Wilson was best known as the charg d'affaires in Baghdad, a diplomat commended by George H.W. Bush for protecting and securing the release of American "human shields" at the time of the Persian Gulf War. He was not known as a partisan figure -- he donated money to both Al Gore and George W. Bush in 1999 -- and says he was neither antiwar nor anti-Bush when he went to Niger in late February 2002.

But that changed when he went public with his criticism of the Niger affair in mid-2003. In August, he said at a forum that he would like to see Karl Rove "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." In the fall, he endorsed Democrat Kerry. He had given money to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) political action committee in 2002 and gave to Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003.

, Wilson became prominent in the antiwar movement. In June 2005, he participated in a mock congressional hearing held by Democrats criticizing the war in Iraq. "We are having this discussion today because we failed to have it three years ago when we went to war," he said at the time. The next month, he joined Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a news conference on the two-year anniversary of the unmasking of Plame.

Wilson has also armed his critics by misstating some aspects of the Niger affair. For example, Wilson told The Washington Post anonymouslyin June 2003 that he had concluded that the intelligence about the Niger uranium was based on forged documents because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong." The Senate intelligence committee, which examined pre-Iraq war intelligence, reported that Wilson "had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports." Wilson had to admit he had misspoken.

That inaccuracy was not central to Wilson's claims about Niger, but his critics have used it to cast doubt on his veracity about more important questions, such as whether his wife recommended him for the 2002 trip, as administration officials charged in the conversations with reporters that special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is now probing. Wilson has maintained that Plame was merely "a conduit," telling CNN last year that "her supervisors asked her to contact me."

But the Senate committee found that "interviews and documents provided to the committee indicate that his wife . . . suggested his name for the trip." The committee also noted a memorandum from Plame saying Wilson "has good relations" with Niger officials who "could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." In addition, notes on a State Department document surmised that Plame "had the idea to dispatch him" to Niger.

The CIA has always said, however, that Plame's superiors chose Wilson for the Niger trip and she only relayed their decision.

Wilson also mistakenly assumed that his report would get more widespread notice in the administration than it apparently did. He wrote that he believed "a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president" had probably taken place, perhaps orally.

But this apparently never occurred. Former CIA director George J. Tenet has said that "we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials." Instead his report, without identifying Wilson as the source, was sent in a routine intelligence paper that had wide circulation in the White House and the rest of the intelligence community but had little impact because it supported other, earlier refutations of the Niger intelligence.

Wilson also had charged that his report on Niger clearly debunked the claim about Iraqi uranium purchases. He told NBC in 2004: "This government knew that there was nothing to these allegations." But the Senate committee said his findings were ambiguous. Tenet said Wilson's report "did not resolve" the matter.

On another item of dispute -- whether Vice President Cheney's office inspired the Wilson trip to Niger -- Wilson had said the CIA told him he was being sent to Niger so they could "provide a response to the vice president's office," which wanted more information on the report that Iraq was seeking uranium there. Tenet said the CIA's counterproliferation experts sent Wilson "on their own initiative."

Wilson said in a recent interview: "I never said the vice president sent me or ordered me sent."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...5102401690.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

 

[Makkonnen]

What is up with Judith "The Shill" Miller? Steak and martinis with the publisher to "she can no longer work here"
http://www.democracynow.org/static/judithmiller.shtml



Why isn't anyone pushing the fact that there were no WMDs and Wilson tried to prevent the 2000+ American deaths we have now?

Is Wilson a hero for trying to stop it?







Judith Shiller is a house plant

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/02/1430256&mode=thread&tid=11







The Washington Post and NY Times have basically admitted they were pure government propaganda when it came down to attacking Iraq. These muthafuckas have the nerve to talk about journalistic integrity? LMAO jokes shit might as well be the Luftwaffa Times or Third Reich Herald



http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/13/1413248&mode=thread&tid=25




wow imagine if all those liberals at the Post and Times were conservative war hawks

 

[Makkonnen]

oh yeah and while everyone is waiting for indictments Iran was extended an olive branch on the lowlow and Bush is pushing for expanding the conflict into Syria

funny shit - imperialism marketed as self-defense, spreading democracy and global policing muthafuckas are creative

these people could sell americans shit and tell em its ice cream and america would be full of morons with shit on their breath