A good summary of points.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/opinion/l13rove.htmlWhy Is the White House Silent? (7 Letters)
Published: July 13, 2005
To the Editor:
"At White House, a Day of Silence on Role of Rove" (front page, July 12) reveals another example of the despicable conduct of high officials in the Bush White House.
First, they fixed the intelligence and facts to further their agenda for war. Then they punished patriotic public servants who disagreed with them, including Gen. Eric K. Shinseki; Paul H. O'Neill, the former Treasury secretary; and Richard A. Clarke, a former counterterrorism official.
Then they attacked Iraq without provocation, killing tens of thousands of people who did us no harm and posed us no danger.
Finally, in violation of signed treaties and contrary to long-held values, they besmirched the moral authority of our country by approving, justifying and carrying out torture.
Not since the days of Richard M. Nixon has the White House been in the hands of such dishonorable people.
Kenneth J. Kahn
Long Beach, N.Y., July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
President Bush has said he wants to know if anyone in his administration leaked classified information in the Valerie Plame matter. Now he knows. Karl Rove apparently revealed potentially classified information to a reporter for Time. Will President Bush do the right thing and dismiss Mr. Rove?
Quite simply, Karl Rove cannot be trusted with classified information. It's time to see if President Bush meant what he said.
Mark Cashman
Yonkers, July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
Citing the fact that a criminal investigation is under way, the White House considers it inappropriate to comment on new evidence that Karl Rove may have been involved in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson as an undercover C.I.A. officer. This is probably as it should be.
But the administration had no trouble whatsoever commenting pointedly that Mr. Rove had nothing to do with this potential crime before the new evidence came to light - also while the criminal investigation was under way.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that what the White House says or refuses to say has nothing to do with legal propriety. Instead, it seems to be a matter of self-serving protectionism or obstruction of truth - or both.
Susan Wunder
Bloomington, Ind., July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
In sharp contrast to the Bush administration's efforts to keep valuable information about the workings of our government secret, we now learn that Karl Rove, a key presidential adviser, apparently shared potentially classified information about a C.I.A. operative with the press.
What motivates the administration to withhold some information it claims to be vital to national security yet to share other, seemingly dangerous, information with the press?
If the withholding of details of the vice president's task force on energy, the classification of underlying documents that shaped the 9/11 commission's report, and the endangering of a C.I.A. officer are not evidence enough of the administration's wholesale politicizing of valuable information, I don't know what is.
Louis Flores
Astoria, Queens, July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
At last, reporters at a White House news briefing are demanding answers from the Bush administration. Several reporters are finally doing their jobs by not passively accepting the prevarications.
We need to know about Karl Rove's role in the leaking of the identity of the C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame. We need the press to be noisy and impolite about obtaining the truth.
Pamela Goldberg Kuby
Cincinnati, July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
I am having Watergate déjà vu. I have just two questions:
What did the president know? When did he know it?
Richard Neil Snyder
Belvedere, Calif., July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
Do I even live in the United States of America anymore? This sad chapter in our nation's history has gone from scary to surreal to sickening.
Brett Wilder
Brooklyn, July 12, 2005