OK, let's talk about this 'Rove heard it from the media' crap...

[FormerRepublican]

First they say:

"The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050715/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_rove;_ylt=AqiuRPKtMzrdtK04Jw33is2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

(edited to add above hyperlink)

OK, so we know right off the bat that whoever THIS leak source is couldn't have been in the Grand Jury because a Grand Jury doesn't allow lawyers. I KNOW Fitzgerald didn't leak this to AP and the NYT.

So, the source is someone legal in BushCo. That could be Gonzales, Rove's attorney (more spin), or the WH Counsel (I forget who that is at the moment).

They say they've been briefed, and the only one who can be briefed about a Grand Jury investigation is the AG. A leak from the Justice Dept? That's not very likely.

Of course, justice could brief the President, but that leads us back to another Rove leak and spin ...

Next, we already know that Powell had the Plame brief on the plane with him to Africa and that he discussed things with Bush. I find it HIGHLY unlikely that Rove could be on the plane with them, along with the brief, but he doesn't know anything about Plame.

In short, I find this latest spiel to be a bunch of nonsense. Based on what we've already seen about questions the Grand Jury has been asking, I think Novak and Rove are in deep doo doo. This latest leak isn't going to help them off the hook.

I don't know if the public or the press will buy it either.

I think Fitzgerald will nail them on perjury and obstruction of justice.

[Erika]

1. Watergate was much the same.

Blame anyone other than the operatives. Novak has disappointed me completely. I thought he had more integrity than he is showing.

[oldtime dfl_er]

7. Novak disappointed you?

are we talking about the same Novak?

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/702950

[mattclearing]

23. You did? n/t

[LSK]

28. your talking about George Novak of Vermont right??? n/t

[A-Schwarzenegger]

2. Maybe Rove time-traveled forward a few months,

read about it, and then time-traveled back & told Cooper.
It's possible.

[Bluebear]

3. Only for superheroes and robots. n/t

[ProudDad]

4. Could the source be

Rove???

Probably...

[Kagemusha]

5. I think they'll just cite the imperial presidency principle.

Basically, there is no such thing as illegality in support of a president in war because the presidency supercedes the law in a time of war. Combatting sedition by a rogue CIA agent and her husband through public humiliation is just another act in furtherance of the war effort, so highly pardon-worthy.

If they can really do that then, I don't understand why they just didn't present the situation as such from the start, rather than use the law just not mattering anymore as a fall-back position.

[eleny]

6. I'm not buying it either

But if it were true, then Rove confirmed her identity. Bad news for him. And if this is a bogus leak, it's lame.

[caligirl]

8. Gannon impersonates a lawyer now?

[The Doctor.]

9. No... Novak has already squealed.

He won't be under indictment.

[skids]

10. Please add this link to the main article.

(If you can do so within the editing deadline)

Originally (at least for me) linked by DUer Sydnie

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0507/S00227.htm

...otherwise we'll have threads upon threads upon threads in this. Heck we probably will anyway, but it's worth a try.

[aquart]

11. At the same time, someone who was "briefed" spoke to the NYT.

CYA in overdrive.

[kenny blankenship]

12. Luskin trying to seed Rover's story to the media

so they will prejudice the jury pool for him.

[writes2000]

13. New Washington Post Story Claims: Rove's First Source Was Not Novak

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/15/AR2005071500036.html

[pmbryant]

15. Rove claims he can't recall who his first source was

Pathetically convenient.

:eyes:

From the Washington Post story:

"I don't think that he has a clear recollection," the lawyer said. "He's told them that he believes he may have heard it from a journalist." Asked who it was, the lawyer said, "I don't think he's able to identify that, or to identify precisely when he may have heard it."

--Peter

[Writer]

18. No. Rove heard this from Dick Cheney.

That's his first source. This entire crap piece on the media will only make the media more angry about this douche.

[Dawgs]

21. Well, he obviously had to hear it from somebody...

Maybe it was person he called at the CIA to find out her identity. Again, this doesn't matter. If he heard it from Bush's dog, he still outed her to the media.

[Uncle Joe]

29. Some journalist tells you that the wife

of one the main critics of your boss works for the CIA and you cannot remember the name of the journalist? And to top it all,this is supposed to be Bush's Brain? This calls for a :wtf:


"Rove has said he does not recall who the journalist was who first told him that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, or when the conversation occurred, the lawyer said."

[93ncsu]

14. It was Judith Miller

Why else would she go to jail to protect a source that has given his consent to be uncovered ?

[PurityOfEssence]

16. Because she'd have to answer OTHER questions about her skulduggery

This issue alone is not the worst of her duplicity. She's been a conduit for the neo-cons' message, and she knows that the attack on Iraq was ginned up from the get-go. THAT'S why she can't allow herself to be called in front of a grand jury. To be sworn in and sit there makes her vulnerable to so many inquiries about deliberate misleading by the administration to get Congress to give up its say-so on declaring war.

To paraphrase Randy Newman, she's dead, but she doesn't know it.

Anyone with a brain knows that she's sinned against the soul of journalism: to report what's really going on. She has been a willing tool of power blocs that want to overthrow governments with great loss of life just for financial and religious gain. The deep betrayal of what was ostensibly her life's work is obvious now.
She's lied and distorted for personal reasons, and she needs to be pilloried for her abuse.

She hasn't gone to jail to protect someone who's already released her from an oath of confidence, she's gone to jail to avoid having to expose herself as in league with pure evil.

[newyawker99]

25. Hi 93ncsu!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LizW]

17. Don't forget what Wilson himself has said about this

Quoting from Wilson's book, The Politics of Truth, pp. 441-442:

"After my appearance on CNN in early March 2003, when I first asserted that the U.S. government knew more about the Niger uranium matter than it was letting on, I am told by a source close to the House Judiciary Committee that the Office of the Vice President - either the vice president himself or, more likely, his chief of staff, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby - chaired a meeting at which a decision was made to do a 'workup' on me. As I understand it, this meant they were going to take a close look at who I was and what my agenda might be."

(snip)

"The immediate effect of the workup, I am told by a member of the press, citing White House sources, was a long harangue against the two of us withing the White House walls. Over a period of several months, Libby evidently seized opportunities to rail openly against me as an 'asshole playboy' who went on a boondoggle 'arranged by his CIA wife' - and was a Democratic Gore supporter to boot." Emphasis mine.

If Wilson's sources are correct, Libby was openly talking about Ms. Wilson being CIA in the White house before Wilson ever published his article in the NYT.

[kentuck]

19. Or former Atty-General ?

Since Gonzalez did not take the position until the first of this year? Ashcroft? Nah?

[underpants]

20. Isn't it illegal to leak grand jury testimony?

I thought it was.

[pmbryant]

22. Apparently only for the prosecutors

Witnesses can say whatever they want. That's what I've read, at least. And it does make some sense.

--Peter

[Hell Hath No Fury]

24. Link? Does anyone...

have a link to the thread here that had the stories about Colin Polwell having Plame's CIA folder when in Africa and Buish being there at the same time? I can't for the life of me remember who started that thread.

Thanks!

[Norquist Nemesis]

26. Bush hired his own lawyer on this one, too

Jim Sharp. AND Bush was NOT under oath when he "testified" in the Oval Office.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/cia.leak/

Bush interviewed in CIA leak probe
President joined by Jim Sharp, his personal attorney
From Dana Bash
CNN Washington Bureau
Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 9:18 PM EDT (0118 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush was interviewed Thursday morning by a special prosecutor investigating whether anyone in the administration disclosed the classified identity of a CIA officer, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

This is the first time Bush has been questioned in a criminal investigation involving his administration.

Bush was not under oath for the interview, which took place in the Oval Office for about an hour and 10 minutes and was conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald and "members of his team," according to the White House.

The president was joined by Jim Sharp, a personal attorney whom he retained for this case.

The White House would not say when the president hired Sharp, saying only that it was "recently."

[Norquist Nemesis]

27. So what??? Rove confirmed it at the very least!

So, Karl Rove's involvement blew the cover of a CIA operation.