Did Rove Blow a Spook's Cover? - The White House won't say

[Hamel]

WTF?

By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2003, at 4:59 PM PT

A minor flap has been brewing since syndicated columnist Robert Novak, citing "two senior administration officials," reported in July that Joseph C. Wilson IV was married to a Central Intelligence Agency specialist on "weapons of mass destruction" named Valerie Plame. Wilson is the former diplomat sent by the CIA last year to check out allegations that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. He caused the Bush administration no small embarrassment by stating, in a July 6 op-ed, that he'd reported "it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place." Novak hasn't particularly supported the Iraq war, and his column essentially took Wilson's side. But the fact that Novak blew Plame's cover (in the course of relating that Wilson was sent at Plame's suggestion) gave The Nation's David Corn the opportunity to accuse the Bush administration of compromising national security, in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. Wilson wouldn't confirm that his wife works for the CIA, but he told Corn that if she did, then

Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.

The question of whether to investigate who in the Bush administration blew Plame's cover surfaced Aug. 21 at a forum about intelligence failures on Iraq held by Rep. Jay Inslee, a fervently anti-war Democrat. Wilson, who was present, had this to say:

It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.

This appeared to be an unsubtle hint that Wilson knew one of the leakers to be Rove. Taking the bait, someone asked White House press spokesman Scott McClellan about it today:

Q: On the Robert Novak-Joseph Wilson situation, Novak reported earlier this year quoting "anonymous government sources" telling him that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative. Now, this is apparently a federal offense, to burn the cover [of] a CIA operative. Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove. He's quoted from a speech last month as saying, "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." Did Karl Rove tell that—

A: I haven't heard that. That's just totally ridiculous. But we've already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it's totally ridiculous.

Q: But did Karl Rove do it?

A: I said, it's totally ridiculous.

Now, on one level, Chatterbox feels mildly sympathetic toward McClellan. White House etiquette prevented him from saying, "How the hell should I know? If Rove blew the cover of a CIA agent, do you suppose he'd be stupid enough to tell me about it?" And McClellan deserves points for not taking a leaf from his predecessor Ari Fleischer's playbook, which says that you should always deny damaging stuff well before you know whether it's true.

But on another level, it's pretty unsettling that McClellan refuses to answer the question at all. Rove is, after all, the president's principal political adviser, a man so influential that a recent book about him was titled Bush's Brain. McClellan could have said something like, "I have a very hard time imagining that to be true, but if you like I'll ask him." But McClellan didn't say that. Maybe he finds all speculation about wacky national-security skullduggery repellant in light of his father's embarrassing new book alleging that Lyndon Johnson murdered John F. Kennedy. Or maybe—just maybe—McClellan wonders himself whether Rove got a little overzealous.

Wilson, for his part, denied today that he ever accused Rove. He told Chatterbox "Karl Rove" was simply a handy metonym for whatever two "senior administration officials" fingered Plame (correctly or falsely, Wilson still won't say). But Wilson's "I measure my words" comment at the Inslee forum suggests to Chatterbox that Wilson is now being coy about what he knows, or at least suspects, regarding Rove. Maybe it's time for somebody to ask Rove himself whether he risked 10 years in jail in order to suggest that Wilson got his Niger assignment based on nepotism. And, perhaps, deliberately to punish Wilson by destroying his wife's career at the CIA. Rove is ruthless enough to have done so. The only real question is whether Bush's Brain is stupid enough.

I found it at Libertypost, which is a bit saner than FraudRepublic

[Sea Skimmer]

I don't feel like reading that. But if someone's cover was blown, of course the White House isn't going to say so. That could only make things worse.

[Vympel]

From MSNBC, CIA asks Justice Department to investigate White House over the matter

he CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman?s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush?s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned.

Can't wait for Asscroft to white wash.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I wont hold my breath for Aschroft's dept. to perform a proper investigation.

[Xenophobe3691]

No offense, that article is hell confusing...

But if what I read was true, then someone's gonna burn for leaking the name of a CIA operative, it's a federal offense...

[Worlds Spanner]

No offense, that article is hell confusing...

But if what I read was true, then someone's gonna burn for leaking the name of a CIA operative, it's a federal offense...

REALLY.

[Xenophobe3691]

No offense, that article is hell confusing...

But if what I read was true, then someone's gonna burn for leaking the name of a CIA operative, it's a federal offense...

REALLY.

Die. That article mentions first a statement from a syndicated cartoonist, and then jumps on a mysterious man named "Karl Rove" out of nowhere. If you want to know what I really think, I think that Ashcroft's handling of the entire Justice department has been fundamentally destroyed. His hard on for stripping the rights of Americans who really don't know what the fuck is going on is disgusting.

[Xenophobe3691]

Um...should say fundamentally "Fucked up", not destroyed, sorry

[Vympel]

Karl Rove isn't mysterious. He's El Shrubo's speechwriter, dude.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Today on the radio, the news reported that the Administration says anyone who leaked the story should be fired. Um...how about jailed?

[Natorgator]

Kinda funny how this administration which is normally very harsh on people that leak don't even care to investigate themselves.

[Alex Moon]

It wasn't Rove. Even the washington post has admitted that Wilson's charge was overeager. Mrs. Wilson for the record, was an analyst, and so there is a question as to whether or not a law was broken, since it refers to covert agents. Robert Novak went to the CIA, and their response was to ask that her name not be printed, but even that didn't seem very strong. If she had truely been a covert agent, then why didn't the CIA not tell him straight out that he couldn't name her. Bob Novak doesn't seem the type to oust a covert agent simply to get a story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Sep27.html

When Novak told a CIA spokesman he was going to write a column about Wilson's wife, the spokesman urged him not to print her name "for security reasons," according to one CIA official. Intelligence officials said they believed Novak understood there were reasons other than Plame's personal security not to use her name, even though the CIA has declined to confirm whether she was undercover.

Novak said in an interview last night that the request came at the end of a conversation about Wilson's trip to Niger and his wife's role in it. "They said it's doubtful she'll ever again have a foreign assignment," he said. "They said if her name was printed, it might be difficult if she was traveling abroad, and they said they would prefer I didn't use her name. It was a very weak request. If it was put on a stronger basis, I would have considered it."

[theski]

NOVAK RESPONDS: 'NOBODY IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CALLED ME TO LEAK THIS'
Mon Sep 29 2003 16:44:51 ET

"Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

"Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson's involvement in the mission for her husband -- he is a former Clinton administration official -- they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.

"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives."

Rove is just a target for Wilson

[Vympel]

So because Novak says it wasn't the White House, it wasn't? Come on. Six other journalists had this leaked to them as well. They weren't stupid enough to put it on paper though.

Novak has been Rove's bitch before, though:

"Sources close to the former president (Bush) say Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted."

As for the "we don't know if she was covert or not" that's just bullshit. I think Ms Plame, her husband, the CIA, and the Justice Department should know enough about such matters that this thing would never have started if it wasn't even illegal.

And don't you just love the changing story?

Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

But then there's this passage in a July 22nd article in Newsday ...

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

His article sourced 'two senior administration officials'. Whether it was Rove or not, who cares suffice to say that Rove controls what goes in and out of the White House and he has a history of this shit- but something stinks. The man discredited a bullshit claim that went on to embarass the president, and someone sought fit to leak his wife's background to make it look like nepotism.

[Vympel]

On Rove:

he Truth is Puttin? on its Shoes: An Inquiry Into the "Innocent" Mr. Rove

James C. Moore, Co-Author of "Bush?s Brain," The Political History of Karl Rove

"A lie can travel around the world
while the truth is just putting on its shoes."
Mark Twain

I am very tired of writing about Karl Rove. Lately, though, I have felt a kind of moral obligation, and almost a patriotic duty to remind people of the man who really runs the White House. Politically, and strategically, nothing has happened in the Bush Administration without Rove?s imprimatur. Reporters have discovered Rove?s steely control in the form of what they call a "leak proof" White House. Nothing comes out of the Bush White House without Rove?s approval. Generally, that means nothing comes out of the White House.

Until Karl Rove wants something to leak.

Rove?s temper has always been his weak spot. He cannot seem to control his anger. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote in the New York Times that there was no truth to the allegations that Iraq had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger, Rove is said to have gone "ballistic." No one who has known Rove for any period of time doubts that Rove was the one who orchestrated the leak, which "outed" Ambassador Wilson?s wife as a CIA agent. Rove has always made sure that his enemies knew he will strike back, and swing with deadly power.

Rove wasn?t just trying to intimidate Ambassador Wilson. If, as many believe, he is responsible for the leak, Rove wanted to send a message to everyone in the intelligence community that they all needed to keep their mouths shut. As the war was being sold, intelligence cooked, and the media spun, Rove and the White House had informed intelligence operatives and scientists that they were not to publicly repudiate the phony claims about aluminum tubes, which the White House falsely argued were part of an Iraqi gas centrifuge to make enriched uranium. One national reporter told me that calls to scientists and intelligence operatives to ask about the aluminum tubes, which turned out to be rocket bodies, yielded the confession the scientists and intelligence agents had been ordered to say nothing.

"We are not having this conversation," the reporter was told.

But if he leaked Ambassador Wilson?s wife?s name, Rove was clearly trying to tell everyone in the intelligence community that they needed to toe the line, or they might also end up living at risk. This, of course, is a scurrilous, cowardly, and unpatriotic act. To believe that Karl Rove had no knowledge of this leak, or that he was not involved, it is necessary to ignore his absolute control of all things political in the White House, his Machiavellian nature, and attention to every sparrow flying under the Bush sun.

But how did it happen?

There are a few ways Rove might have planned to exact his revenge. He could have made calls himself, to high profile reporters, or ordered staffers and political intermediaries to contact journalists with the authorization that they were speaking for "senior White House officials." Not surprisingly, "senior White House official" is Rove?s nickname among many reporters because Rove asks that the description be used virtually every time he talks to a reporter. It enables him to get out his perspective, and White House spin, without giving away his identity, and self-serving agenda. Historically, Rove has been very adept at keeping a layer of denial, and other operatives, between himself and his political misdeeds. This means there is a strong possibility that a lower-level staffer will end up taking the blame for the leak.

In this case, though, there are some telltale signs that Rove was still at the controls. Because Robert Novak wrote the original story about Ambassador Wilson?s wife, those of us who know how Rove has leaked to Novak for years became immediately suspicious. Novak has denied that "White House officials called me with a leak." When this language is parsed, it becomes clear that Rove may have managed to get a tip to his friend Novak through an intermediary, and then the columnist called Rove for confirmation. According to the Washington Post, a half dozen reporters got phone calls about the Ambassador?s wife, and, yet, it was only Rove?s friend, Robert Novak, who wrote a story. The rationale for the story, a specious motivation, was that Ambassador Wilson got the assignment to go to Niger because his wife was a CIA agent, and she made the recommendation. Is that an important enough piece of information to justify blowing the cover of a CIA agent?

Rove?s relationship with Novak is widely known in the Washington press corps. During the presidential campaign, when the chorus of questions was being asked about Mr. Bush, and the Texas Air National Guard, reporters wanted to know where Mr. Bush went during his time on assignment in Alabama. His commander said the future president had never shown up for duty. Rove told the campaign reporters that they were "making too much of a few missed meetings." In 48 hours, the exact language was used on network television by Novak, who described the controversy of Mr. Bush?s missing years as "a few missed meetings." Novak was not on the press plane to hear Rove?s original comments.

An uncontrolled temper may be Rove?s only weakness as a political counsel. In Ron Susskind?s Esquire Magazine article on Rove, he described sitting outside the presidential advisor?s White House office hearing Rove scream into the phone, "Tell him we?ll f**k him. We?ll f**k him like nobody ever has." During the presidential campaign, Rove lost his cool in front of a few hundred people on the tarmac in Manchester, New Hampshire, as I stood and watched while Rove screamed at my colleague Wayne Slater about an innocuous story of mostly recycled information.

No one, though, knows Rove?s vindictiveness better than John Weaver. Were it not for Karl Rove, Weaver might still be a leading Republican political consultant. In Texas, Rove and Weaver had been successful partners, until Weaver chose to go out on his own and build a client list. A few months later, Weaver hired an employee away from Rove. Before too long, as competition grew between Rove and Weaver, disgusting rumors began to circulate about Weaver?s personal life, and reporters and potential clients wondered about Weaver?s judgment. The stories, which many reporters have said originated with Rove, dried up Weaver?s business, and he left Texas. Eventually, Weaver became the lead political strategist to Senator John McCain?s presidential campaign. After McCain lost the bitter primary battle, Weaver discovered he was squeezed out of party work by Rove, who was now in charge of all things Republican. Weaver became a Democrat, an advisor to the Democratic National Committee, simply because Rove was never content to leave him alone.

Similar stories are innumerable in Rove?s political march to power. Anyone who has watched Rove?s rise in presidential politics, and has reported on his machinations, is not surprised to learn that Ambassador Wilson suspects Rove as being the source of the leak, or, as a minimum, a senior administration official who condoned the leak. Washington reporters, who have learned of Rove?s political discipline, are also immediately suspicious of the presidential advisor. It fits his historical pattern of behavior.

The circumstantial evidence is already in. And it points at Karl Rove.

And if the Bush Administration is serious about protecting this country, if Rove committed this treasonous act, he needs to be prosecuted under the Patriot Act he has so ardently supported.

[theski]

From the NRO online...

THE LEAK "SCANDAL" [Jonah Goldberg]

I need to see more than what's out there to think this is anything like the big deal the press and the Democrats are making it out to be. I'm all in favor of having the Justice Department investigate. I'm all in favor of firing whoever did the leaking, if he or she did as the reports suggest. But it sounds like the leaker is dropping in rank and importance as is the transgression. Wilson's wife is a desk jockey and much of the Washington cocktail circuit knew that already.

It seems to me that the energy driving this is A) Obvious Democratic opportunism and scandal-hunger B) Media opportunism as this is the first Bush "scandal" that isn't manufactured outside the White House (could someone explain what Bush did wrong on Enron again?) C) A burning desire to flesh out a fleshless storyline that the Bush White House clamps down on "dissenters" D) An even more burning desire to make Karl Rove into the Sid Blumenthal of this administration.

Which brings us to another issue: comparisons between this administration and the last. First of all, Rove is not Blumenthal for several reasons but the most important is that Rove's got real power. Blumenthal was a Tolkieneque Wormtongue at best and more likely a slipper-carrier. On the larger front, I will be able to take only so much sermonizing from liberals over this scandal considering the fact that the last White House knowingly filed false criminal charges against inconvenient employees (the Travel Office), invented new privileges and abused old ones to stonewall at ever turn (Bush is commanding full cooperating), and generally accused critics of every form of bad faith imaginable.

So yes, by all means investigate what I predict will be a very minor story. But let's not pretend the Republic is in danger.

Wilson even lists her name in his book ,,,(his wife) sorry.. so how can she be "undercover"

[Vympel]

Wilson even lists her name in his book ,,,(his wife) sorry.. so how can she be "undercover"

LOL! You do realise that she's allowed to tell people her name, right? It's her *job* that's the issue, not her name.

[theski]

Yes... she was a desk jockey.....

[Stravo]

Desk Jockey or not, common knowldge or not, does this NOT stink of some form of petty revenge?

[Symmetry]

My position too: http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/004405.html

Sorry, but I think its a bit too long to reasonably copy here.

[theski]

Stravo wrote:

Desk Jockey or not, common knowldge or not, does this NOT stink of some form of petty revenge?

If you saw Good Morning America... It might be the other way around from what you think..

Monday Sept. 29, 2003; 2:16 p.m. EDT
Wilson: I Made Up Rove Leak Allegation

Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Joseph Wilson admitted Monday morning that he fabricated a key part of his allegation that the White House deliberately blew his wife's cover as a CIA weapons analyst.

Wilson has accused top Bush political strategist Karl Rove of leaking the name to columnist Robert Novak, telling a Seattle audience last month that he wanted "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

But he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday that he got "carried away" and made up the Rove allegation out of thin air.

"In one speech I gave out in Seattle not too long ago, I mentioned the name Karl Rove," Wilson told GMA. "I think I was probably carried away by the spirit of the moment."

Wilson then confessed, "I don't have any knowledge that Karl Rove himself was either the leaker or the authorizer of the leak."

Wilson insisted, however, "I have great confidence that, at a minimum, [Rove] condoned it and certainly did nothing to shut it down."

[Hamel]

Damn. I wanted to see Rove fry

[Keevan_Colton]

Stravo wrote:

Desk Jockey or not, common knowldge or not, does this NOT stink of some form of petty revenge?

If you saw Good Morning America... It might be the other way around from what you think..

There is the matter, he is saying that they dont know if it was Rove for certain. That doesnt alter the fact, it fucking happened and Rove is still right at the top of the list of assholes who might do this....

[Vympel]

Yes... she was a desk jockey.....

No, that's what the apologists are saying. I think a probe from the Justice Department indicates this is a weeeeeee bit more serious. But I guess the fact that the Justice Department has recommended a full investigation doesn?t mean anything. The CIA?s demand for an investigation . . uh. . doesn?t exist. These aren?t the scandals you?re looking for. Move along.

[theski]

Vympel.... Much to do about nothing if you believe Robert Novack
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robe ... 1001.shtml

The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.

and

How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.

and

The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor.