National Ledger: "Karl Rove MAY not be in legal trouble, but...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

...there's no question this will get very interesting soon."

Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame Leak

By CK Rairden

July 10, 2005


http://www.nationalledger.com/scribe/archives/2005/07/karl_rove_and_t.shtml

Newsweek reports that Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper sent an e-mail at 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003 to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential)

"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 ove or even WH " and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.

David Corn warns the Bush haters to be cautious: To be clear, this new evidence does not necessarily mean slammer-time for Rove. Under the relevant law, it's only a crime for a government official to identify a covert intelligence official if the government official knows the intelligence officer is under cover, and this documentary evidence, I'm told, does not address this particular point. But this new evidence does show that Rove -- despite his lawyers claim that Rove "did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA" -- did reveal to Cooper in a deep-background conversation that Wilson's wife was in the CIA.

Also take note: To constitute a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, 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 United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States.

[patdem]

1. This seems to be a Catch-22 since Rove/bush* IS the US Government

"the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States.

Not in this case...the US Government was taking affirmative measures to OUT the covert agent's ......bla bla bla..

I find this very disgusting. Just like Hitler, if you are in power you can change the laws to make anything you do legal. Like DeLay taking bribes..they weren't bribes, they were campaign contributions and just because wifey and baby girl got direct funds from those campaing contributions does not mean I pocketed the cash! :grr:

[ok_cpu]

2. Framing the discussions

I think it's very important to make sure talk on this topic is not framed around Rove doing something illegal but extremely unethical and dangerous to national security. As well as how it ties to Wilson's report and the run up to the war.
Rove technically may not have broken the law in what he told Cooper, et al. and if that's what all of the discussions lead to, it's more easily spun.
It's the motivations behind Rove leaking and how it ties into everything else that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Plame was outed for payback, her husband was targeted for not fixing the intelligence around the policy and we have a right to know if it stops at Rove or moves up the ladder.

[WearyOne]

4. 'unethical and dangerous to national security"..it was and that's the way

to treat this. The scumbag should be revealed as the traitor he is.

[C_U_L8R]

6. No matter what.. it's a cover-up

Bush's big fat brain has been sitting in this info for a couple of years now.
Certainly any honest public servant would have come forward with the truth.
That's enough reason for him to be ejected from the white house...
though I'd love to see this case taken all the way .. putting Rove behind bars
where he belongs. Serious abuse of power.

[gratuitous]

3. Here's my question

On February 11, 2004, CNN reported that George W. Bush said, "If there's a leak in my administration, I want to know about it," in regard to the ongoing investigation into the Plame leak. Bush went on to say that he had ordered his staff to cooperate fully with the investigation.

Here we are, 17 months later, and it appears that his chief of staff may have material information in regard to this leak. Does Bush have such ineffectual control over his staff that he can't get them to cooperate with investigators? I've heard that Mr. Bush is a good Christian man. Why does he abide a liar and a traitor in his administration's inner circle?

Perhaps one of Bush's supporters on one of the talking chucklehead shows could enlighten all of us?

[justgamma]

5. As a presidential advisor,

was Rove considered to be in the administration at the time?

[kodi]

7. if Plame was a NOC at CIA, how'd Rove find out she was at CIA?

someone had to tell him she worked at CIA, whoever did this must have known she was a NOC because her affiliation with CIA was a secret, unless we are to believe that rove knows the identity of secret agents as a normal part of his job.