Was Ari the Other Leaker?

[Cassandra]

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/13/ari-leaker/

"So what about Fleischer piqued the Special Prosecutor’s interest? Details are still uncertain, but news reports suggest one theory for what might have occurred. In the days after Wilson’s NYT column was published but before Novak’s article appeared, Ari Fleischer was among the White House officials aboard Air Force One on a presidential trip to Africa, where he might have had access to the classified State Department document brought aboard by Secretary of State Colin Powell that likely tipped administration officials off to Plame’s true identity."

Also, Ari stepped down the day Novak's column appeared.
http://www.mydd.com/comments/2005/7/13/162410/908/4#4

Hmmmmmmm...
It would certainly make Scottie happy if it wasn't only his ass on the line as press secretary.

[mmonk]

1. I thought the same thing

since he was part of the Whitehouse Iraq Group Wilson has mentioned. I've realized coincidences in this administration are not really coincidences.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Somehow, I doubt Ari did it on his own

that is, if it were proved to be true. He did a good job (much better than Scottie McStiffypants) in being the voice of the WH/President. He could spin faster than a swirling dervish and shut down questions with a snap. But he never seemed to me as an originator which is exactly what the cover blower was.

Nah, he took orders from someone else if that's the case. And that means that someone else is the cover blower who gave him the push.

[mmonk]

4. I don't think he did it on his own either

but multiple leakers I believe were used by the administration.

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. Yes, leakers led by

one or two masterminds. Hmmmmm....

[underpants]

3. Rove isn't going to get caught as THE leak-Ari, Elliot Abrams, Scooter

one of those three takes the fall.

ON EDIT-TWO two of them have to take the fall-WE STILL NEED TWO NAMES

[Cassandra]

5. I love the "Cooper coaxed it out of Rove" spin...

considering that the slimeballs were carefully shopping around the information to six different reporters.

[1932]

7. If this were a book or movie, Ari looks like the kind of character who

would beg for immunity in exchange for blowing in someone else. Ari doesn't look like the kind of guy who wants to go to jail and he'd protect himself even if it meant that it would put him on the eternal shit list of very powerful people.

However, I suspect that the Press Secretary does not have clearance to know spies' identitities, so the person who told Ari would be in trouble, and Ari probably isn't even a potential defendant.

The question then is, did he blow someone else in? Did Bush or Cheney tell him the ID? Did Rove tell him the ID?

BTW, what was the timing for Ari's resignation? Was it before the shit hit the fan over this thing. If he resigned immediately, it might suggest that he knew what happened was dangerously illegal and he wanted to get out of the WH fast.

Also, didn't he marry someone from the white house staff shortly after this? I wonder if he was playing an "Adriana De Cerva" to his wife's "Christopher Moltisanti," and trying to create a spousal privilege situation with someone to whom he had confessed a crime before they were married!

Man, this would make a great novel!

[Cassandra]

8. Apparently, he had announced his resignation...

a couple of months before, but actually left on that day.