Rove Source of Plame Leak?

[Duff McCartney]

He'll get away with it. I don't care what any "liberal" says...he'll get off scot-free.

That's the way the wheel turns in this day and age.

[Nbadan]

It's not looking good for Rove and his companions as Fitzgerald seems unintimided by WH power moves to try and protect the source of the confidential leak...

The Bush Administration is scrambling behind the scenes to stop a criminal indictment against Presidential advisor Karl Rove for disclosing classified information to reporters in an attempt to discredit a White House critic.

Time Magazine emails turned over to a grand jury show Rove leaked CIA Operative Valerie Plame’s name to journalists after her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, went public with claims the Bush Administration knowing used false information to justify the invasion of Iraq. Plame, until the disclosure, worked as a covert operative for the intelligence agency.

“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,” Time reporter Matthew Cooper wrote in the magazine in July, 2003.

Emails recently turned over to a federal grand jury investigating the leak show Cooper told his editors that Rove was the source of the information. In addition, Rove attorney Karl Luskin confirms that Cooper interviewed Rove for the article but claims that his client “never knowingly disclosed classified information.”

However, a producer for MSNBC’s Hardball program testified before the grand jury that in July, 2003, Rove called the show’s host, Chris Matthews, and said Plame was “fair game.”

*snip*

As a top White House aide, Rove has "code level" clearance on security matters and would easily have had access to Plame's status at the CIA. White House sources say he requested additional information on both Plame and Wilson before talking to reporters.

If Rove knowingly disclosed classified information he could face federal felony indictments. Sources within the investigation say special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is pursuing such an indictment against Rove but that the White House is pressuring the Justice Department to put the brakes on such a move.

“It’s a power game,” says one Justice Department attorney familiar with the investigation. “The White House is very, very worried that this will come back down on Rove and them.”

*snip*

“Rove once described himself as a die-hard Nixonite; he is, like the former president, both student and master of plausible deniability,” Israel says. “Consequently, when former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson challenged President Bush’s embrace of the British notion that Saddam Hussein imported uranium from Niger to produce nuclear weapons, retaliation by Rove was never in doubt.”

Capital Hill Blue

[The Ressurrected One]

Isn't this like the eleventy-millionth thing that was going to bring down the "Bush Junta?"

[JoeChalupa]

I think this may just be much ado about nothing.

'Wash Post' Wonders if Leaker of Plame's Iden y Was a Reporter

By E&P Staff

Published: July 05, 2005 11:00 PM ET

NEW YORK The Washington Post, declaring Wednesday an "historic" day in the history of the press in America, suggested that perhaps the "leaker" of Valerie Plame's iden y as a covert CIA operative was not a Bush administration official but a reporter (or reporters).

In a Wednesday A3 story, Carol Leonnig writes, "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee."

She also revealed that colleagues of Matt Cooper, the Time reporter who may be sent to jail Wednesday if he continues to refuse to testify to a grand jury, say "he is still struggling with his decision. For practical purposes, he cannot protect his sources because his publication has already turned over notes that identify them. But if Cooper cooperates, friends say, he fears his journalistic reputation will be tarnished. Time editors have told him they will respect whatever decision he makes, they said."

Leonnig also observed that at a lunch meeting on Tuesday with Washington Post reporters and editors, Karl Rove, who turned up as a source in Cooper's notes, declined to answer questions about the Plame case.

Washington Post thinks if may have been a reporter who leaked....

I may not be a Bush supporter but even I don't think Rove would make such a juvenille mistake.

[The Ressurrected One]

I still don't think it's been determined that she was, in fact, a "secret" CIA operative.

[ClintSquint]

I still don't think it's been determined that she was, in fact, a "secret" CIA operative.

How hard is that really? Doesn't the CIA even know who they are?

[The Ressurrected One]

How hard is that really? Doesn't the CIA even know who they are?

Well, it's not that it's hard. It's just that she had a very public position at the CIA in Washington which was common knowledge; and now, apparently, we find out she was also a covert agent. Dual responsibilities it's called.

The original Novak article referred to her as a CIA "operative" on WMD's. Her public position was as an expert on WMD's at the CIA. It is still unknown what her "covert" responsibilities were. But, at the time of the writing of the article, Plame had been at a desk in Washington for some time -- over 3 years, I believe.

The whole nonsense started over Novak's use of the term "operative," I believe. Had he just said she was employed by the CIA as a WMD expert, it probably would have never raised an eyebrow.

That's how complicated the issue is. It's not that she wasn't a covert CIA agent; we don't know that for sure -- the CIA doesn't discuss such issues, It's just that Novak "outed" her public position with the agency and all the carping by the Left turned her into a "spy" (which she still could be but, that wasn't the effect of the article -- just the effect of the Left's response). At least, that's the way I understood it at the time...and, by the way, still do.

In the interceding 2 years since Novak "outed" here, the Left has managed to turn her into a deep cover spy that was exposed and had to be extracted from some infiltration; probably in Osama bin Laden's cave or something.

[exstatic]

I may not be a Bush supporter but even I don't think Rove would make such a juvenille mistake.

It's not a matter of making a mistake, it's being so power drunk that you don't care. In that respect Rove is totally "Nixonian".

[Nbadan]

Well, it's not that it's hard. It's just that she had a very public position at the CIA in Washington which was common knowledge; and now, apparently, we find out she was also a covert agent. Dual responsibilities it's called.

It seems that Yoni, as well as most NeoCon supporters and their corporate media shills are trying to rewrite history...

Wilsons' wife is named Valerie Plame, formerly Valerie Wilson, and she has worked for the CIA for years. Plame is not an analyst or a secretary as Republican shills claim. Plame is what the CIA calls a NOC, which stands for "non-official cover." A NOC designation means that Valerie Plame was working under such deep cover that she could not be associated with the American intelligence community in any way, shape or form. Plame worked out of a CIA front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates while she performed her service to America's defense. Her service? Valerie Plame ran a clandestine global network designed to track any person, group or nation that might try to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

Not long after Wilson's editorial ran in the Times, a individual, or individuals within the Bush administration cold-called several journalists and informed them that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. One of these calls went to Robert Novak, who wrote about it in his column. "Wilson never worked for the CIA," wrote Novak on July 14, 2003 "but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

This revelation, and the subsequent firestorm that followed, had a number of effects. Most prominently, it annihilated an intelligence network dedicated to keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. It destroyed the viability of Brewster Jennings & Associates as a front company, thus wrecking the work of every other agent who worked from there. It put the lives of Plame's informants within her network in mortal peril; when an agent gets blown, foreign intelligence agencies - especially ones in unfriendly countries - tend to erase the people that agent associated with as a matter of national security. It put Plame's life in peril as well; those same foreign intelligence services would prefer Plame be dead for revealing sensitive data about their activities.

"They couldn't resist letting Novak and those others know my wife worked with CIA," said Wilson on Monday. "Did they know she was a clandestine operator? The number of people in the administration who knew what my wife did for a living is very small. Only those who had means and motive could have done this, someone who has keys to our most precious national security secrets along with a political agenda. It occurred right at that nexus of policy and politics."

Why do this? Agents within the Bush administration destroyed a network dedicated to what is roundly broadcast as this administration's main mission: Keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. According to the rhetoric, this was why we invaded Iraq.

[Nbadan]

So what law may have been broken in the Plame case?

U.S. Code as of: 01/02/01 Section 421. Protection of iden ies of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources

(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under le 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(b) Disclosure of information by persons who learn iden y of covert agents as result of having access to classified information Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identify of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under le 18 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual's classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under le 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(d) Imposition of consecutive sentences A term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment.

Case Law

[Nbadan]

What's really so sad is that Rove and his media shills are trying to hide behind the First Amendment, but SCOTUS set the precedent for these types of cases in 1972

Finally, if the confidential information relates to criminal activity, the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1972 (in Branzburg vs. Hayes) that should a grand jury investigating the crime need the information, the journalist must turn it over — despite the freedom of the press guaranteed under the 1st Amendment.

No reporter can enter into an agreement that violates that law. Rather, an agreement of confidentiality is subject to it. The so-called news person's privilege, just like the attorney-client privilege or a president's executive privilege, is a qualified privilege. When a judge holds a reporter in contempt for violating the law, that judge is merely upholding the law of the land.

LA Times

No presedent is being set by jailing Judith Miller. Miller is in jail because she is breaking the law.

[Nbadan]

In a Wednesday A3 story, Carol Leonnig writes, "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee."

Judith Miller? Not quite.

This is a very interesting quote because of the rampant blogoshere speculation that Gannon/Guckert/Yonivore (male pros ute impersonating a WH reporter) may have been having a, how should I say this, a much 'closer' relationship with Karl Rove than anyone would ever care to admit publicly. One has to speculate if it was pillow-talk between Gannon-Rove that got the Machiavellian ball rolling in the Plame outing.

[The Ressurrected One]

Wilsons' wife is named Valerie Plame, formerly Valerie Wilson, and she has worked for the CIA for years. Plame is not an analyst or a secretary as Republican shills claim. Plame is what the CIA calls a NOC, which stands for "non-official cover." A NOC designation means that Valerie Plame was working under such deep cover that she could not be associated with the American intelligence community in any way, shape or form. Plame worked out of a CIA front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates while she performed her service to America's defense. Her service? Valerie Plame ran a clandestine global network designed to track any person, group or nation that might try to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

Where did you get this information and why aren't you in jail? Jeeze!

[Vashner]

Ok but is the reporter not liable for breaking the law too?
If someone gives you classifed info you call the FBI to report it in private.
They will interview you and take a record.
If you KNOW it's classified info and you blair your mouth on TV you are breaking
the law too. There was no public need to know that she was an agent .. as
far as media ethics.

It could of been someone on the left that is the source too.. don't be too suprised.

[JoeChalupa]

The attention, not that the damn liberal media was paying much, has shifted to London and this is mute.

[Nbadan]

If anything, I hope the attacks in London forces our own Government to more closely examine it's own policies, foreign and domestic, and whether someone revealed the name of a clandestine operation led by Mrs. Plame designed to keep weapons out of the hands of International terrorists..

The NY Times and Editor and Publisher is reporting that Karl Rove was likely the source that waivered a confidentiality agreement allowing Cooper to testify before members of the Fitgerald Commission..

By E&P Staff

Published: July 07, 2005 8:45 AM ET

NEW YORK "A short time ago, in somewhat dramatic fashion, I received an express, personal release from my source," Matt Cooper of Time magazine told a federal judge yesterday, in dramatic fashion, just before being sentenced to jail. "It's with a bit of surprise and no small amount of relief that I will comply with this subpoena."

But who was this source? According to The New York Times today, "Cooper's decision to drop his refusal to testify followed discussions on Wednesday morning among lawyers representing Mr. Cooper and Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case."

Rove's lawyer had confirmed over the weekend that his client had turned up as a source in Cooper's do ents, which Time turned over to the special prosecutor on Friday, but that did not mean that he was the key source in question.

Recent discussions, the Times reported, "centered on whether a legal release signed by Mr. Rove last year was meant to apply specifically to Mr. Cooper, who by its terms would be released from any pledge of confidentiality he had made to Mr. Rove, the person said. Mr. Cooper said in court that he had agreed to testify only after he had received an explicit waiver from his source.

[Nbadan]

Prehaps, Miller has her own reasons for not talking to federal investigators...

(CBS/AP) A federal judge on Wednesday jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to divulge the name of a source to a grand jury investigating the leak of the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame.

"There is still a realistic possibility that confinement might cause her to testify," said U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan of the showdown in a case that has had both President Bush and Vice President Cheney interviewed by investigators. "If we give her a pass this time... then we are on a very slippery slope that leads to anarchy."

CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports Miller said: "I won't testify. The risks are too great. The government is too powerful."

CBS News

Shades of David Kelley perhaps?

Thanks to news articles written by others we know more about Kelly's e-mails than Judith Miller revealed to readers of The New York Times... and more importantly, we know that Kelly wrote at least one e-mail that Miller failed to write about.

SUICIDE scientist Dr David Kelly warned a friend that "dark actors" were working against him just hours before his death.

Dr Kelly revealed his fears shortly before killing himself after being dragged into the row over the Government's justification for war in Iraq.

In an email to American author Judy Miller, sent just before he left his home for the last time, he referred to "many dark actors playing games".

But, according to Miller, Dr Kelly gave no indication he was depressed or planning to take his own life.

He told her he would wait "until the end of the week" before deciding his next move following his traumatic appearance before a House of Commons select committee...

Thanks to: Daily Kos

[JohnnyMarzetti]

Rove's Lawyer Sees the Light.

As pointed out on Keith Olberman's show the other night, Karl Rove's lawyer tried to enter into a "non-denial denial" by saying that rove did not "knowingly" give out the name of an undercover agent to the press.

He's dead.

[NameDropper]

Rumor has it that Rove gave bits and pieces to different individuals and then they put the pieces together. It's not his fault that they came together and got the information.

Plausible deniability is definitely a Karl Rove technique.

[Nbadan]

Newsweak Nails Karl Rove...

July 18 issue - It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]" and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.

MSNBC

[Nbadan]

Rove's lawyer issues another denial-non-denial...

Rove Told Reporter About CIA Role But Gave No Name, Attorney Says

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 11, 2005; Page A01

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified as a covert agent in a newspaper column two years ago, but Rove's lawyer said yesterday that his client did not identify her by name.

<snip>

To be considered a violation of the law, a disclosure by a government official must have been deliberate, the person doing it must have known that the CIA officer was a covert agent, and he or she must have known that the government was actively concealing the covert agent's iden y.
<snip>

Rove's conversation with Cooper could be significant because it indicates a White House official was discussing Plame prior to her being publicly named and could lead to evidence of how Novak learned her name.
<snip>

"Rove did not mention her name to Cooper," Luskin said. "This was not an effort to encourage Time to disclose her iden y. What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren't true."

Washinton Post

Wasn't it just last week that Luskin was claiming that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information". Their story seems to keep changing.

[Nbadan]

David Korn of The Nation posted this article that argues that W has little choice but to fire Rove if he want's to maintain the WH's standard of conduct image it alleges to possess.

The email--which Time had turned over to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the Plame/CIA leak--may not be enough to prompt Fitzgerald to indict Rove. Under the narrowly written Intelligence Iden ies Protect Act, Fitzgerald would have to show that Rove knew Valerie Wilson (a.k.a. Valerie Plame) was working at the CIA under cover--that is, as a secret employee--which she was. But Fitzgerald still could build such a case upon other evidence. And Rove also could be in legal peril if his previous testimony to Fitzgerald is contradicted by this email--or the other material Time surrendered, over Cooper's objections, to Fitzgerald or by Cooper's forthcoming testimony to Fitzgerald's grand jury. (Last week, Cooper declared his source, presumably Rove, had given him permission to testify before the grand jury.)

But let's put aside the legal issues for a moment. This email demonstrates that Rove committed a firing offense. He leaked national security information as part of a fierce campaign to undermine Wilson, who had criticized the White House on the war on
Iraq. Rove's overworked attorney, Robert Luskin, defends his client by arguing that Rove never revealed the name of Valerie Plame/Wilson to Cooper and that he only referred to her as Wilson's wife. This is not much of a defense. If Cooper or any other journalist had written that "Wilson's wife works for the CIA"--without mentioning her name--such a disclosure could have been expected to have the same effect as if her name had been used: Valerie Wilson would have been compromised, her anti-WMD work placed at risk, and national security potentially harmed. Either Rove knew that he was revealing an undercover officer to a reporter or he was identifying a CIA officer without bothering to check on her status and without considering the consequences of outing her. Take your pick: in both scenarios Rove is acting in a reckless and cavalier fashion, ignoring the national security interests of the nation to score a political point against a policy foe.

This ought to get Rove fired--unless he resigns first.

Can George W. Bush countenance such conduct within the White House? Consider what White House press secretary Scott McClellan said on September 29, 2003, after the news broke that the Justice Department was investigating the leak. McClellan declared of the Plame/CIA leak, "That is not the way this White House operates. The president expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. No one would be authorized to do such a thing."

The Nation

[EasilyAmused]

I can't believe this is getting so little coverage.

[Guru of Nothing]

I'm so confused.

[MannyIsGod]

The coverage is actually picking up, and I think that it's going to get rolling quite hard very soon. The media isn't exactly happy with this whole situation and I have a feeling they are going to fry this er. Serves him right.