Rove Told Reporter About CIA Role But Gave No Name, Attorney Says (W Post)

[dooner]

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 identity.
<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 identity. What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren't true."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/10/AR2005071001000.html

[NYC Liberal]

1. Like his attorney would admit that anyway. nt

[NVMojo]

2. What? We are supposed believe this is true cuz WaPo says so?

Give me a break!

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. So...is the attorney backtracking?

What does he think this is? A public discovery process?

Yo, Luskin. This is no dress rehearsal. You are in the court of public opinion.

[TomClash]

11. You bet

Remember he previously claimed Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" but now he admits Rove told Cooper that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent.

[mom cat]

20. But he did not say which of Joe Wilson's 80 wives he meant!

[cap]

4. so let's see...

any CIA/NSA/DIA/FBI employee can go "You know who" and give out identities.

[grytpype]

5. Oh, my goodness.

"What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren't true."

What a lie. What a fucking lie. We already know the WHIG (White House Iraq Group) resolved to smear Wilson personally. This was not about correcting a minor fact in the story (how exactly did this trip get organized). What a fucking liar this guy is. If this is what Rove told the grand jury under oath, I see handcuffs in his future.

[Bumblebee]

9. Earlier attempts to discredit Wilson by disclosing his wife's "role"

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/10/95928/2698

"Athough most of us have been following the Cooper revelations with regard to Karl Rove, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post has also spilled some beans. And the beans he spilled strongly suggest that the effort to discredit Wilson via his wife was not the result of Wilson's disclosing his trip in a NY Times column, but was being done in 2002 in order to discredit his reporting, and 'fix the facts and intelligence' around the policy."

[mom cat]

21. Welcome to DU Bumblebee, and thanks for the stinging post!

:hi:

[Bumblebee]

39. Daily Kos is discussing Pincus' article right now as well

and thank you!

[mom cat]

42. Great. I will post it and credit you.

[grytpype]

32. In other words...

... this was not originally intended to be payback for the NYT article by Wilson, it predates the article and is intended to discredit his report that there was nothing to the Niger Connection.

Wow, just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse.

[Gregorian]

6. But isn't it malicious intent?

Just the proximity to Wilson's Niger trip, implies strongly a malice aforethought.

[Cha]

26. Yes, why would rove even

bring it up if he didn't have "Malicious Intent"?

[aquart]

7. "Wilson's wife" was a really big clue, though.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Not your cousin, but your mother's brother's son

Never said cousin! Never said cousin!

What is this, third fucking grade with these people? That's his defense? As I understand it, he already testified to the grand jury that he didn't say shit about it until after Novak's column. If he did say shit about it before Novak's column, then it is an open and shut case for perjury and he should be indicted post haste. Put the heat on the motherfucker and ask him when and where he got the information that "Wilson's wife" was in the CIA. End of story. He's guilty of felony perjury off the bat. Jail time, motherfucker.

[antonialee839]

25. Jail time!! Will Bush dare to pardon a perjurer, not to

mention a traitor? What will Merica think?

[aquart]

35. They'll think it was Clinton's fault.

I'm possessed by evil today.

[thinkingwoman]

41. The Clenis made him do it!

The Clenis MUST be obeyed! :eyes:

[mom cat]

22. He did not say which wife

:evilgrin:

[RobinA]

60. Or Which Joe Wilson

I have five Joe Wilsons in my phonebook right here at my desk. It could have been any one of those Joe Wilsons, or any of their wives for that matter.

[mom cat]

64. A very Rovian comment

:evilgrin:

[leesa]

51. Amazingly enough though I am already hearing even progressives

like Stacy Taylor at KLSD in San Diego going, "Well, that's plausible deniability! He didn't say her name." WTF?? Unless Wilson has multiple wives, Rove outed her.

I'm so amazed at the willful ignorance of Americans!

[sattahipdeep]

52. Karl Rove's treasonous outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame

As I sit in my office today, I hear the whispers of co-workers now utterly convinced our
war on terror must continue. Despite American and British involvement in the Middle
East birthing wave after wave of rebel forces, the Bush doctrine is now justified in the
minds of millions. Petty grievances such as the Downing Street Minutes, the President's
flagging support and Karl Rove's treasonous outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame are
unimportant. A shadowy conglomeration is out to kill us.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m13528&l=i&size=1&hd=0

[KansDem]

72. "Well, that's plausible deniability! He didn't say her name."

LOL! And I can say "Laura's husband had better watch out..!" but the Secret Service will never visit me to ask me what I meant by that statement, because I could always say "I didn't say 'George'!"

Yeah, right...:eyes:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

66. It's a whole number between three and five.

See if you can figure it out...

[newscott]

8. This is a distinction without a difference.

He still outed her to a reporter.

[dooner]

10. sounds more like a confession of guilt

than a good excuse. Once you say "wilson's wife works for the CIA" you don't really need to say her actual name to be guilty of exposing her.

I actually think this article is quite an indictment of Mr. Rove... you may need to read the entire thing. I don't really understand how the Tenet disclaimer ties into Rove's defense, or the timeline:


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


"In particular, Rove was urging caution because CIA director George J. Tenet was about to issue a statement regarding Iraq's alleged interest in African uranium and its inaccurate inclusion in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address. Tenet took the blame for allowing a misleading paragraph into the speech, but Tenet also said that the president, vice president and other senior officials were never briefed on Wilson's report."

[LiberalFighter]

55. Tenet never briefed gw* or other officials? WTF???

That has to be a lie!!!

[6000eliot]

12. These will be the right-wing talking points for the next few weeks.

[ltfranklin]

13. Oh, bullsh*t!

He didn't mention her name...just called her "Wilson's wife". Why should he suspect that a simple man like a nationally-known political reporter could possibly connect the dots and come up with the name "Valerie Plame"! Why, he might possibly have to, oh say, use the Internet or maybe ask around the office! Rove couldn't be expected to have anticipated that, could he?

Let me take a guess about something. I would be willing to bet that the simple internal employee list at the CIA is a Classified document. And I would guess that as some point Rove, as a top-level White House employee, was given the standard lecture about secrecy. I don't care what he says, he WAS instructed, at some time, that you don't release ANY information about the CIA without checking with them first, even if you see it on the EVENING NEWS! He should be going to jail, but I doubt Bush will let that happen. But if nothing else, the CIA should pull his security clearance. Not sure how much good he'll be to the WH with no security clearance, though.

[mom cat]

23. Very well stated!

[antonialee839]

29. Coming from the most secretive White House in history

Rove's lawyer's bullshit story is just that! These snakes know how to keep a secret, they don't need lectures on it.

[LiberalFighter]

57. Could Rove had a newspaper article or pic with Wilson and Plame...

laying on his desk? Or some other information laying on his desk that would put the pieces together for the reporter? Or told the reporter about a source he should check out?

[ltfranklin]

61. Naw...I think he had a couple hand puppets...

and while he was talking to the Reporter, the puppets, just coincidentally of course, who looked just like Wilson and Plume (even to the little name tags saying, "Hi, my name is Big Fat Liar Wilson" and "Hi, my name is CIA Operative Valerie Plame, Wilson's Wife") did a little play to the side showing their duplicity and juggling yellow cake balls.

As I said, regardless of whether he actually said her name or just her position as Wilson's wife, he had to have known that talking about any CIA employee without checking with the CIA first is a big No-No, and at the minimum, should get his security clearance pulled. If it actually caused them a problem, as it did, he should be prosecuted.

[Eloriel]

69. He didn't have to mention her name -- she was well known in D.C.

As was discussed at the time this all happened, she was known by her name Valerie Plame, and she was known as Joe Wilson's wife. They had a lot of friends and were very social. She was also known as an executive for an "energy company," I believe it was (can't remember the name), which was a CIA front company -- ALSO outed when they outed Valerie.

So, Rove didn't HAVE to mention her name. All he had to do was refer to Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA agent. Poof! Job done.

[arwalden]

14. Liar, Liar, Liar, Get Your Big-Lies Here!

[1monster]

15. Sophistry. If both parties know who John Doe is and I say John Doe's

wife is a covert intelligence agent, then I have identified and outed the undercover agent. Except in the event that John Doe had more than one wife. Then I would have narrowed down the field significantly.

But that exception does not apply in the Plame case.

[brentspeak]

16. How come his attorney didn't say this last week?

No jury's going to believe that Rove, a political operative for over 30 years, didn't know what he was doing when he told Cooper about Wilson's wife.

[antonialee839]

27. He can't lie that fast.

[LiberalFighter]

58. But that scumbag is good at weaseling his way out of situations

[txindy]

53. Because the attorney was too busy claiming something else, I believe.

That it wasn't Rove who spoke to Cooper and gave him an explicit waiver to testify. That turned out to be truth enough - someone else contacted Cooper or Cooper's people FOR Rove. Although the result was precisely the same. Cooper got his explicit waiver. From Rove.

Hairs. Splitting.

I have to wonder if KKKarl wasn't holding up a picture of Plame while saying, "Wilson's wife" to Cooper and doing all sorts of miming gestures. Maybe spelling out her name using sign language. It sounds like his kind of hairs to split. Judging by the amount left on his head, that lump has been splitting his own hairs for oh, so many years.

[lancdem]

18. So ....

Do you think some WH reporter will finally ask Scotty McClellan about this after ignoring it all last week?

[Hamsta1]

59. Probaby, but...

Scotty doesn't 'answer' questions. He hears them and identifies which predetermined response to offer. If there was a way to track what % of questions the WH Press Secretary "answered satisfactorily" I have a feeling he'd be in the low 20's, and that's being generous.

[Oversea Visitor]

19. Gee what a bunch of

crap
I bet the Judge will kill many brain cells trying to figure that out.

[lfairban]

24. . . . But they were true!

What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren't true.

No one to my knowledge, and please correct me if I am wrong, has disputed the finding of Joseph Wilson.

No matter what happens, it boldly underlined Rove's role as what analysts in the 1960s used to call a "political hatchet man," a hands-on operative who will seek to overtly and, even moreso, covertly discredit and destroy anyone who stands in the way of his boss' objectives.

Newest Rove Revelation: Legally Harmful Smoking Gun?



What seems to have been lost in the analysis of whether Rove did something illegal is that what has been confirmed by the content of the recently revealed e-mails; that Rove used the office of the President to stifle criticism of the administration and their rational for going to war in Iraq in the press, is so obviously reprehensible that Newsweek should be attacking the White House with both guns blazing, not complaining because one of their reporters was jailed for protecting them.

[hollowdweller]

28. So he's saying he did it but he didn't inhale :-)

[jumptheshadow]

46. Yes, and he didn't have sex with that woman (nt)

[lovuian]

30. Perjury is definitely in the works here and the motive is there too

To harm a woman who was (wife to Wilson) thats line is significant cause it shows he was out to hurt Wilson's family for him telling the truth!!!

Rove is scary and gives ya goose bumps!!!

[DeepModem Mom]

31. LAME excuse, Karl. It's treason, honey. nt

[rocktivity]

33. I call this kind of thing "pre-trial jury tampering"

Are they serious, trying to plant this drivel about Rove "speaking with at least one reporter...about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA" but he "did not identify her by name" and therefore did not violate the law?

As for the stuff about "a government official must have been deliberate, (and)...must have known that the CIA officer was a covert agent," remember that Rove was NOT an government official at the time, just an "advisor." And as for the "he or she must have known that the government was actively concealing the covert agent's identity," why WOULDN'T the government actively conceal a covert agent's identity? Hellooooo--THAT'S WHAT "COVERT" MEANS!!!

Nice try, though.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Kagemusha]

34. Let me put this concisely.

This was the outing of a CIA agent (specifically, one working wmd, in Rove's own words) in order to discredit the questioning of falsified intelligence so that this false intelligence could be employed to influence the White House through back door pseudo-"intelligence" channels and influence the public as propaganda presented as reliable truth.

In other words, psyops against the US of A, with reckless disregard for who or what got in the way.

[FormerRepublican]

36. I see all this as the administration trying to wiggle out of a crime, but

I think, after reading the court documents, Fitzpatrick is taking this thing very seriously. If a crime was committed, then nothing the administration spins in the press will make a lick of difference. And I don't know of any judges in either party who would be willing to look the other way when this level of crime is committed - because it would undermine trust in the judiciary, if nothing else. I think they have a clear idea of why the Constitution put them in place to counter the power of the President.

I'm just waiting for the other shoe to fall. Sometimes I think Fitzpatrick doesn't have anything, but then I go and re-read the court documents ...

Someone is going to fry. What I don't know yet is who. But I'm sure that will become clear to us all soon.

[grytpype]

37. Good catch dooner. RECOMMENDED!!!

[Pryderi]

38. Does Rove give a reason as to why he waited so long in "fessing up"?

If he didn't think he did anything wrong, why would he remain silent for so long? I wonder if he was asked that question in his grand jury testimony....

[JawJaw]

40. Lame Lame Lame

"I can't tell you the President's PIN for his swiss bank account, but, you know - if you subtract 1 from 273384 - bingo - only I didn't tell you the actual number, right?"

Time to put those vile webbed feet in shackles & fogmarch the MF across the WH lawn!!

[Justice]

43. Did Iraq Committee Deliberately Take Advantage of Reporters and CIA -

Everyone knows CIA can't talk publicly about what they knew and didn't know. The CIA wound up being blamed for bad intelligence - yet we have heard hints of battles between the WH and the CIA over what intelligence was provided by the CIA and what intelligence was fixed by the WH. So the WH - the Iraq Committee - knew that it would fix the intelligence, but that the CIA could not publicly defend itself.

Everyone knows reporters keep sources confidential. Did they deliberately use reporters to get the word out about Plame (and other stories - WMD etc) b/c they knew the reporters were likely to keep source confidential? They didn't use just any reporter - they used reporters already sympathetic to Republicans who would feel like they were in the inner circle and would feel some loyalty.

So the WH/Iraq Committee used/took advantage of the CIA and reporters in a very cold calculating way. These people are not idiots, they know how it works.

[MadisonProgressive]

44. I don't think a violation of law requires giving the name

If you say "so and so's wife" is a CIA agent, it already lets the cat out of the bag. It's pretty easy at that point to find out who she is.

[sendero]

45. Oh gee...

.... look at the Rovians hoping to try this case "in the media".

I sincerely hope they are hanging their hat on that "he didn't NAME her" bit, because I don't think that is going to work.

If I say "Rove's wife's husband is a turd", it's pretty clear what that means, given that we know what "is" is. :)

[Eurobabe]

47. this smells like a pile of

And they had the balls to go after Clinton for "depends on what the meaning of is, is?"

[natrat]

48. KKKarl gonna be someones bitch

first time is probably worse you'll get used to it bitch

[unblock]

49. so the excuse is the he didn't want her name PUBLISHED?

they're admitting that he uniquely identified plame to the reporters, but it claim it's ok because he didn't want her name publish, he only wanted to kill a story about how wilson got selected?

WHO CARES?

none of the reporters have security clearances, so it was a crime and in any event manifestly STUPID to reveal this information to these reporters anyway. even if no story was ever published, divulging classified information to 6 non-cleared people is STILL criminal and STILL stupid and STILL undermines national security.

[spooky3]

50. Were they playing Pictionary at the time?

[Logansquare]

54. Didn't give her name because he didn't know that she was covert

Riiiiight...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

56. Sounds suspiciously like...

"It depends on the meaning of 'is'." :eyes:

Rove, you lying sack of shit.

[AlCzervik]

62. Looks like his lawyer is changing the story now

Karl must be getting nervous, he's gone from total denials to ---"Ok so maybe i slipped"

[skip fox]

63. Not to worry. Rove going down in Plames. Prob. two indictments.

One or more indictments for Rove is nearly certain. One or more indictments for one or more high-ranking administrative official is likely.

The logic is very simple:

If Rove acted alone he made at least SIX calls (six reporters were contacted). Repeatedly and deliberately telling national reporters at the least that the Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and "arranged" his trip to Niger shows he KNOWINGLY exposed her identity (it was far from a slip or even a lapse), whether or not he used her name or knew she was covert. In addition, if he was the only primary caller, he would have had to arrange for confirmation by at least one other administration official at least THREE times (for Novak, Cooper, and Miller). Therefore he CONSPIRED to expose a CIA official (since he knew the result of his leak would lead to exposure).

If Rove was the only primary source, however, that means he released Matt Cooper from his confidentiality agreement but he did not Judith Miller from hers. The logical reason is that his leak to her included a much more obvious case of illegal activity. Rove's hope, then, is that such a case will never be known. But with the national attention on the Plame matter and, especially, a tenacious and objective prosecutor tracking him down, Rove has little hope (especially with the fact that he had to have done this SIX times and arranged for at least one other to support his story THREE times).

But if Rove was one of at least two or more sources (which would explain why Cooper's released him but Miller's did not release hers), then it's far worse for him since he probably coordinated the entire leak with both planning and foresight (two elements which again indicate that he KNOWINGLY leaked Plame's identity).

Any administrative official originally realizing the Wilson-Plame-CIA link would immediately realize it could discredit Wilson, but much more importantly he would have known who to take the information to, the master of such discreditations (among so much else), Karl Rove. Rove would then insure that the leaks did not overlap and that at least FEW other officials could be counted upon who would readily confirm the information of the original sources (perhaps each having different details or a different slant to make it sound realistic and not a set-up), since he could not insure who the reporter would call for a confirmation.

How do you do ANY of this UNKNOWINGLY?????

Think of the possibilities! At least two indictments for Rove (leaking Plame and leading a conspiracy to leak) and likely indictments (leaking Plame) for other high administrative officials: Rice, Cheney, Libby, etc. Maybe even W.

[DebbieCDC]

65. Indictments

I've had my hopes dashed too many times to raise them up anymore, but if this flies, no one but Joe Wilson will be happier than me to see Rove in handcuffs.

[zara]

67. well, I can't tell you her name, but alerievay lamepay is a clue...

more proof that the deciding judge will matter a whole lot.

[stickdog]

68. Lynne Cheney's husband is traitorous war profiteer.

Note that I, like Rove, never mentioned his name.

[dissent1977]

70. This may just be the lamest excuse this administration of excuses has...

put out yet. It doesn't matter if he gave her name or not, simply saying "Wilson's wife" gives her identity away. It is not to difficult for an ordinary person to figure out the name of the woman Joseph Wilson is married to. KKKarl Rove is a criminal, and he should be treated as such.

[fujiyama]

71. It wouldn't be too difficult

for someone to figure out a name based on someone saying "Joe Wilson's wife is a CIA operative". That basically gives it away.