Scorecard for 2-Year CIA Leak Probe: Indictments: 0, Reporters Jailed: 1

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB25LG82BE.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - A prosecutor's hunt for Bush administration leakers of classified information has produced no indictments after almost two years, and legal experts say it's very possible the only person jailed will be a reporter who never wrote a story.

In pursuit of the officials who revealed a CIA officer's identity to reporters, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has gone to the highest reaches of the White House, interviewing President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their closest aides, including deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove.

Rove's name resurfaced in the past week, with his lawyer saying that Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper spoke to him in the days before the name of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame was first revealed by columnist Robert Novak. The Bush White House has denied since the issue first came up in 2003 that Rove was involved.

The outcome of Fitzgerald's investigation could depend on what Cooper tells prosecutors, who already have the Time reporter's notes and e-mails identifying a source.

[krkaufman]

1. Which, of course, is a major victory for Rovian politics

The end result of the Plame leak, then, was a cowed intelligence community (taught that offering any information conflicting with the Administration's Iraq WMD themes would jeopardize their livelihoods) and a further-cowed press with fewer potential sources.

Well done, (C)arl.

[farmbo]

2. Au contraire...His principal accomplishment: Getting Bush Reelected.

Fitzgerald accomplished his primary objective...keeping Rove's name out of the papers as the prime suspect until Bush was reelected in November.

Any second year APA would have obtained a Grand Jury indictment four months into the investigation-- and well before the 2004 election. Alas, Fitzgerald HAD to go after some small-potato journalists, knowing full well that their Publishers would appeal every subpoena literally to the US Supreme court, thereby running out the clock on the November election.

Rove and Bush were therefore free to run on their "We'll keep you secure" platform...one which would have dissolved under their feet if it were revealed that the President's principal political aide had, in fact, committed high treason.

So while your adding up Fitzgerald's accomplishments, please don't overlook this one.