PlameGate, The File, just beginning, July 4, 2005

[skip fox]

PLAMEGATE: WHO LEAKED PLAME AS CIA OPERATIVE

Here is a very "quick and dirty" mock-up of the type of file I'd like to make to help all of us investigate this story (and it has potentially major consequences in terms of Republican credibility and, thus, future control of the government by a neo-con mentality--I know thee are bigger fish to fry, but this one is in the skillet now). Please send links and ideas to me or post here. I'll build the file to be useful.

To head off administrative defenses and obfuscations, we must anticipate all alngle of this story. Let's play the "Plame Game."






RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: ROVE NAMED AS SOURCE



---Editor and Publisher, E&P staff, "Rove 'Knowingly' Refusing Interviews on Plame Leak," July 4, 2005:


<snip>

Two days after his lawyer confirmed that his name turned up as a source in Matthew Cooper's notes on the Valerie Plame/CIA case, top White House adviser Karl Rove refused to answer questions about the development today.

<snip>
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972931

or

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972931



---Newseeek: Michael Isikoff: "The Rove Factor?: Time Magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story," July 11, 2005 issue :


<snip>

The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. . . . in an interview with Newsweek, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.

. . .

Luskin told Newsweek that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." Luskin declined, however, to discuss any other details. He did say that Rove himself had testified before the grand jury "two or three times" and signed a waiver authorizing reporters to testify about their conversations with him.

<snip>


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/




---Salon, Tim Grieve: "The Question of Karl Rove," 5 July, 2005:

Grieve urges caution. Mentions multiple sources and notes that in the LA Times article Rove's attorney goes far beyond claiming his client did not "knowingly disclose," since he did "not disclose any confidential information" (see below). He implies that Rove may have a strong case or, at least, that seems to be the way his attorneys will pitch it.

<snip>

What Newsweek actually reported Sunday is a little less than that : Newsweek says that the e-mail messages Time turned over to the federal prosecutor . . . reveal that Rove was one of Matthew Cooper's sources . . . but it's unclear what Rove told Cooper.

<snip>


http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/07/05/rove/index.html





---The Huffington Post: Lawrence O'Donnell: "Rove's 'I Did Not Inhale' Defense," July 4, 2005::


<snip>

Luskin confessed that, well, yes, Rove did talk to Cooper. It is a huge admission in a case where Rove and Luskin have never, before Friday, felt compelled to say a word about Rove's contact with Cooper or anyone else involved in the case.

. . .

To violate the law, Rove had to tell Cooper about a covert agent "knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States."
So, Rove's defense now hangs on one word—he "never knowingly disclosed classified information."
<snip>



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/lawrence-odonnell/roves-i-did-not-inhale_3637.html

also at Yahoo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/lawrence-odonnell/roves-i-did-not-inhale_3637.html





---LA Times: Richard B Schmitt: "Rove Talked but Did Not Tattle, Attorney Says," July 3, 2005:


<snip>

Luskin, Rove's attorney, acknowledged in an interview Saturday that Cooper and Rove had spoken days before Novak's column, in a conversation that was initiated by Cooper.

"What I can tell you is that Cooper called Rove during that week between the Wilson article and the Novak article, but that Karl absolutely did not identify Valerie Plame," Luskin said. "He did not disclose any confidential information about anybody to Cooper or to anybody else."

Luskin said he would not "characterize the substance of the conversation," which was covered in the testimony Rove provided to the grand jury investigating the leak. "The folks in Fitzgerald's office have asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say," Luskin said.

<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rove3jul03,1,2388418.story?coll=la-home-food&track=mostemailedlink




OTHER

REPORTERS' PLIGHT:

---Yahoo: Pete Yost: "Prosecutor Demands Time Reporter Testimony," July 5, 2005:

<snip>

A federal prosecutor on Tuesday demanded
the grand jury testimony of Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, even though
Time Inc. has surrendered e-mails and other documents to the investigation into the
leak of a CIA officer's identity.


Hogan has found the reporters in contempt of court for refusing to
divulge their sources.

<snip>


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050705/ap_on_re_us/reporters_contempt_7








CHENEY'S OFFICE AS LEAK (or Cheney himself)


And in an unattributed story form the same source, "Prosecutor: Jail for Journals in Leak Case," July 5, 2005:


<snip>

Although Time magazine on Friday handed over Cooper's notebooks, Fitzgerald and Cooper's testimony still remain necessary for his investigation.

<snip>


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050705/ts_nm/media_leak_dc_2






OTHER

An elaborate pdf file by Robert Paulsen, "American Judas," on why Cheney's office exposed Plame, August 8, 2004:

http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/AMERICANJUDAS.pdf

[skip fox]

1. Added a small but useful time line 2001-2003

TIMELINE:

ca. 2001

Wilson: "I was invited out to meet with a group of people at the CIA who were interested in this subject. None I knew more than casually. They asked me about my understanding of the uranium business and my familiarity with the people in the Niger government at the time. And they asked, 'what would you do?' We gamed it out what I would be looking for. Nothing was concluded at that time. I told them if they wanted me to go to Niger I would clear my schedule. Then they got back to me and said, 'yes, we want you to go=@:

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823



2002

February: Joseph C. Wilson is sent to Niger to investigate rumors of sales of yellow-cake uranium to Iraq. His trip lasts eight days: Adrinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place@ (from NY Times, 6 July 2003).

March 9: ACIA reportedly sends cable that does not name Wilson but says Nigerien officials denied the allegations,@ according to ABC News's timeline.



2003

January 28: George W. Bush=s State of the Union Address.

June 12: Walter Pincus reports in the _The Washington Post_ that an unnamed retired diplomat had given the CIA a negative report concerning uranium sales from Niger to Iraq.

July 6: Joseph Wilson publishes his Op-Ed in _The New York Times_ , criticizing the administration for allowing Bush to make the Niger-uranium claim in the State of the Union Address. (Link #4 for the Op-Ed.) Richard Leiby and Walter Pincus write an article discussing Wilson=s work in Niger and quoting his unfavorable administration comments.

July 13: Robert Novak publishes his column in _The Chicago Sun-Times_ in which Valerie Plame is identified as a CIA agent. Novak writes: AWilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."

July 17: Time magazine publishes the same basic story, also attributing it to "government officials."

July 22, Newsday also confirms "that Valerie Plame ... works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity." Link:

Sept. 14: Dick Cheney on Meet the Press denies knowing Wilson and seemingly goes out of his way to say AI don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea wh hired him and it never came...@ Russert interposes: AThe CIA did.@ And Cheney responds, AWho in the CIA, I don't know.@ (Why is Cheney going out of his way to volunteer this information? Wilson seems similarly perplexed; in an interview with Ann Goodman, after Goodman says AHe also said that he didn't know who had sent you, raising questions about the whole legitimacy of your mission to Niger,@ Wilson says, AI heard that. I don't know what the Vice President was trying to get at in that. )

Oct. 1: Robert Novak publishes his column in _The Chicago Sun-Times_ recounting the entire story from his vantage.


* * * * * * Laws * * * * *

1917: Espionage Act (thrice amended since).

1982: The Intelligence Identities and Protection Act

Both are discussed by John Dean at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030815.html

[Peace Patriot]

2. Here's a quote from Porter Goss on the unimportance of the Plame case

back in Aug 04.

RebelYell (1000+ posts)
Tue Aug-10-04 01:46 PM
Response to Original message


308. Porter Goss on Plame

(from 10/3/03)

Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee action

BY CORY REISS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.

Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure.

~~~~~~~~

"Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said.

-------------------

Found it at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2178477#2180220

The article that it's from is now in the pay-per-view archives of the Herald Tribune. It is linked at the DU thread but doesn't go there.

The above DU thread is a fascinating read on Cheney/Halliburton arms deals and what Plame may have been in the middle of, when she was outed.

Another interesting thread, below (dailykos)---explores the connections among the Plame outing, Judith Miller and David Kelly (Brit weapons inspector found dead in July 03, under highly suspicious circumstances--whitewashed by Brit gov't as "suicide"--after Kelly whistleblew on Blair "sexing up" intel docs on Iraq WMDs; Kelly's last email about "dark actors playing games" was to...Judith Miller! --a fact that Miller omitted in her NYT article on Kelly's death.)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/3/17138/30618

And see my post at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x137023

My little plot-line has to do with a Bush Cartel plan to plant WMDs in Iraq. Surely they had one! Is this why Kelly was offed? Did he stumble upon it? Is this why Plame was outed? She was in a position to stumble upon it? It's the thing Bush/Blair most needed, politically, in summer '03. It's the thing Judith Miller's little heart most desired--FINDING WMDs in Iraq. Big stakes, politically. Bad, bad news, if uncovered. Mine is all speculation, but a plausible story. Should investigators be looking in this direction: Plame, Miller, Kelly--and what all Cheney-Rove-Chalabi-Miller might have been trying to cook up?

One of my premises is that the motive of punishing Wilson was a cover story. Real motive was to disable Plame. And it's interesting that Porter Goss, above, says that the whole thing (Plame outing) "appears largely political." Was he spouting Rovian lines? (Make it seem political.) And then Porter gets rewarded for this crap by being made CIA director! I hope Plame and Fitzgerald have their backs well covered.

------

One other item: Didn't Rove tell some lapdog in the press that "Plame was now fair game"? Anybody have a cite for that? It speaks to this Cheney/Rove primary motive of outing Plame and blinding the CIA to Bush Cartel WMD activities.

[Peace Patriot]

3. The answer to the stink in Washington DC is state/local election reform!

We must restore our right to vote! We must throw Diebold, ES&S and brethren out of the election business NOW! The only place where we can get that done is in state/local jurisdictions, where ordinary people still have some say. See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

[dmr]

4. Inadvertent disclosure?

Goss you are an ass.

Thanks for the good posts.

[snickersnee]

5. hi there!

i applaud your efforts. one small contribution (i am working on others) is that the "lapdog" you refer to was chris matthews, according to this dKos piece:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/191334/0754

i'll likely have more to say after a bit more thinking.