Any chance Colin Powell will be the fall guy on Plame?...

[SidDithers]

Spikey Isikoff has talked about a classified State Department report that contained information about Plame, as being the potential source for Rove's information.

MyDD had a post about it a while ago...
http://cogitator.mydd.com/story/2005/7/12/4339/08983

I thought, and my memory isn't what it once was, that the criminal act of exposing a covert operative is committed by the person who is authorized to have the information, and gives it to someone without authorization.

Any chance that the leak could actually be from Powell (who apparently was authorized to know Plame's identity) to Rove (who might not have had clearance - he was a political advisor only at the time)?

Idle musings on a Friday morning.

Sid

[Walt Starr]

1. I'd say it's remote, but the possibility is there. n/t

[tk2kewl]

2. I would guess he knows way to much for BushCo too pin it on him

without him taking them all down with him. But you never know. He has always been a good soldier. Whould he take it?

[dogday]

3. They were all on Air Force 1

Yes Powell had it in his briefcase/portfolio folder. The theory is either someone knowingly or willingly had the information and shared with the others or one of the others took a peek at it. The transcript of calls from Air Force 1 were asked for by GJ....

[SidDithers]

4. Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking...

I'm just wondering if Powell was the only one, or maybe the primary one, who had authorization to have the info. If he was, then maybe that's the step where Plame's identity crossed the line from classified to leaked.

Pretty far fetched, I know, but Powell didn't exactly leave as a favourite son of the administration.

Sid

[kestrel91316]

5. They have transcripts???

They have ACTUAL TRANSCRIPTS of those calls?? Whoopeeeeeeeee!
I assumed they just had date, time, duration, number called. So that anybody could claim they said any BS and there would be no proof of otherwise.

[Zen Democrat]

10. Condi -- I think Condi told Rove. She's pure political operative.

[warrens]

6. Not a chance

I would think it was totally legal to give Smirk the Plame file. It's leaking it to the press that is the crime. But this shows that Smirk knew about it and may have approved it.

[Alpharetta]

7. No. He's their reserve if Jeb polls poorly in early 2008 primaries

Powell has demonstrated ability to stick to Republican agenda. For Americans ignorant of his false WMD testimony to the UN and his Vietnam atrocities whitewash, Powell holds a lot of political capital.

[sleipnir]

8. By the end of this thing, Powell is going to get some mud on him.

He's not going down in flames like Scooter and Karl, but I bet he ends up being implicated in the whole thing. At best, he may get slap-on-the-wrist fine or congressional censure, but not anything more.

They may try to pin in on him, his political career is in the shitter.

And no, he's not going to run for President, because one reason, in 2008 he will be 71. He's too old, he'd beat Raygun for the record by 2 years.

[Sapphire Blue]

9. They wouldn't risk alienating Powell's many supporters by such a move

Gotta be someone easily sacrificed, whose loss won't damage the party. Powell brings slightly more sane, or moderate, members to the party. Without them, the party will be Frist/Santorum/DeLay types... RW extremists... not the majority of Americans.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. holy crapola......I was just thinking exactly that at the same instant

[SidDithers]

12. Shameless self-promoting kick...but with more info...

just saw a post in LBN bout this NYTimes article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/politics/16memo.html

Thoughts from the night crew?

Sid