Salon: "Bush admin. said it'd fire anyone involved in outing Plame."

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Smelling like a Rove
The Bush administration said it would fire anyone involved in outing Valerie Plame. Even Karl Rove?

By Farhad Manjoo



Is Karl Rove going to jail? Don't know yet. It's clear from recent reports in Newsweek and the Washington Post that Rove was involved in, and possibly headed, a White House effort to discredit Wilson. What's not clear is whether Rove committed a crime, either by leaking Plame's identity, or by lying to investigators who are trying to determine whether he leaked Plame's identity. Even if Rove did violate the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which prohibits divulging an intelligence agent's identity, investigators may lack the necessary evidence to charge him. Rove continues to deny any wrongdoing.

What do we know about Rove's involvement? We know that on July 11, 2003 -- the Friday after Wilson's article, What I Didn't Find in Africa," was published in the Sunday New York Times -- Matthew Cooper, who'd just started covering the White House for Time magazine, called Rove to ask what he made of Wilson's story. After the conversation, Cooper sent his editor an e-mail describing what Rove had said. Cooper, who moonlights as stand-up comedian in Washington, labeled the e-mail "double super secret background." Newsweek obtained it after Time decided to hand it to prosecutors.

The e-mail suggests that Rove gave Cooper an earful. Rove warned the reporter not to "get too far out on Wilson" -- that is, not to put too much stock in what Wilson had written -- because Wilson's trip to Africa, Rove attested, had not been authorized either by George Tenet, the director of the CIA, nor Vice President Dick Cheney. Wilson had only been sent to Niger to check out claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium there because, Rove told Cooper, "wilson's wife, who apparently works at the (Central Intelligence) agency on wmd (weapons of mass destruction) issues" had "authorized the trip." In other words, Rove was telling Cooper, Wilson only got the assignment because of nepotism, so there's no reason to believe what he's saying about Saddam.

Close readers will spot what Rove did not tell Cooper: Valerie Plame's name. It's not clear whether Rove went into detail about Plame's status at the CIA; she was an operative who often worked undercover and so needed her identity to remain cloaked. In the legal case against Rove, this omission is key, as Rove's attorney says that because Rove didn't name Plame, Rove didn't do anything wrong.

[jurassicpork]

1. O'Really?

I had always heard, including from Wilson himself, that Cheney's office had sent him to Niger to verify the document's authenticity, although it plainly wasn't in his job description. What's odd is that Wilson, to this day, had never seen the document, a strange withholding of information considering that he was sent by the administration to vet this document.

Obviously, he was sent on a fool's errand. He was set up to fail.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[XemaSab]

2. I'm waiting for it

with bated breath...

This is gonna be better than star wars!

On edit: I might even go out on a limb and say that I'm looking more forward to this than I am to Harry Potter.... I know it's a bold statement, but I'm makin' it.

[Erika]

3. Rove just pointed out Wilson's wife

Ah, duh. Rove is guilty as hell.

The laws to protect operatives exist to save their lives. Rove divulged Wilson's wife was an operative working on WMD's. He risked lives.

Bush has said anyone leaking such info in his WH would be fired. The ball is in his court. This is a national security issue.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. McClellan knows the subject will be unavoidable...

...and, as a result, I'm REALLY looking forward to his next press conference.

:toast:

[Erika]

5. The parsing will be interesting

I can hear it now. Well, of course, his majesty and my hero and our savior/president Bush would only consider legal breeches as worthy of firing, everything else is erroneous charges by those lying and treasonous Democratic citizens who exist only to hurt this savior/president and champion of the rich.