Washington Post: "What Rove said"

[Broken Acorn]

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified as a covert agent in a newspaper column two years ago, but Rove's lawyer said yesterday that his client did not identify her by name.

What?

So how did he identify her by?

Morose code, Etch a sketch drawing, or maybe a 'double'-secret decoder ring?

Please tell me this guy will frog-march.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8504290/

[mirandapriestly]

1. He'll get away with it, I can tell by the way media is handling it. nt

[jerryster]

8. Sadly, I agree n/t

[emulatorloo]

11. fitzgerald and grand jury do not care what media say

EOM

[Sydnie]

2. He will say that

he referred to her as "Wilson's wife" without actually giving her name. Slippery slope, none the less.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

3. yeah, Rove is killer at Charades!

[pgh_dem]

7. hmm...Cooper *did* mention he was released from confidentiality

in a 'dramatic' fashion...

[smartvoter]

4. Hair splitting. Why did he talk about her, period?

[ltfranklin]

6. Absolutely...

First rule, you don't talk about ANYTHING involved with the CIA without talking to the CIA about it first. Not even if you read it in the paper, or somebody else tells you first. Hell, even their internal employee phone directory is classified, I beleive. Maybe even the Menu in the CIA cafeteria.......

[pgh_dem]

5. I know it was a typo, but I really enjoyed imagining what 'morose code'

would be...

dot dot bleh

:)

[Pirate Smile]

9. The only article I've seen which actually analyzes this somewhat is

this one from the Wall Street Journal which was posted by Bumblebee on another thread:

"Mr. Rove hasn't denied speaking to Mr. Cooper but has said all along that he never named Ms. Plame, who is Mr. Wilson's wife. If he did -- before Mr. Novak's article appeared and her name became public -- he could be in violation of a 1982 law prohibiting the leaking of CIA agents' names. It isn't clear whether Mr. Rove mentioned Ms. Plame by name to Mr. Cooper or even knew she was undercover, which special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald would need to know to prove Mr. Rove violated the law, known as the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. That law says it is a crime to knowingly expose the status of an active-duty CIA agent, and it is unclear whether "naming" would literally have to be the person's name.

The unmasking of Mr. Rove marks an important milestone in the case. On the one hand, the details of Mr. Rove's discussion with Mr. Cooper -- especially if he didn't name Ms. Plame -- may exculpate him of the intentional, illegal disclosure of the identity of a covert CIA operative. Much will depend on whether Mr. Rove truthfully described any conversations in testimony before the grand jury. If he did, that would clear him of even a perjury charge and any criminal liability.

That said, the disclosure that Mr. Bush's top political strategist discussed the CIA employment of Mr. Wilson's wife amounts to a political embarrassment for Mr. Rove and the White House. A presidential spokesman had previously given what appeared to be an unequivocal public assurance that Mr. Rove hadn't been involved in the disclosure of Ms. Plame as a CIA operative. Discovery that earlier denials may have been carefully parsed would represent another blow to the administration's credibility, compounding damage from the underlying issue that initially brought Mr. Wilson into the spotlight."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1617161&mesg_id=1617289

[Broken Acorn]

10. This whole case seems to be set up to fail

I feel like Rove has a hand in the judge, jury or both. It's almost as if they have figured out a 'defense' that the court will accept.

[emulatorloo]

13. prosecutor will not fall for Rove/Bush BS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55560-2005Feb1?language=printer

Here's a snip, but read the whole thing:

The Prosecutor Never Rests
Whether Probing a Leak or Trying Terrorists, Patrick Fitzgerald Is Relentless
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 2, 2005; Page C01

<snip>


The Untouchable

Fitzgerald frequently makes crime-fighting headlines in Chicago, where he took over the U.S. attorney's office just 10 days before 9/11. What's surprising is that he got the job at all. A New Yorker born and bred, Fitzgerald knew hardly a soul in Chicago, which was precisely the idea. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (no relation) was looking for an outsider to battle the state's notoriously corrupt political apparatus.

The recently retired Illinois Republican tells a story about back in Al Capone's day, when Col. Robert McCormick, the imperious publisher of the Chicago Tribune, called FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and demanded that he send someone to Chicago who could not be bought.

Hoover sent the untouchable Eliot Ness.

Now, as then, the U.S. attorney's job has the gloss of patronage. The late Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley used to say the U.S. attorney in Chicago is one of the three most important people in the state, and Peter Fitzgerald said he wanted "someone who couldn't be influenced either to prosecute someone unfairly or protect someone from being prosecuted unjustly."

So the senator, who as the state's senior Republican had the right to recommend a candidate to the White House, went to one of Hoover's successors for advice.

"I called Louis Freeh and said, 'Who's the best assistant U.S. attorney you know of in the country?' He said, 'Patrick Fitzgerald in the Southern District of New York.' " The senator then called Mary Jo White, who ran the New York office. Same question. Same answer.

At the time, Patrick Fitzgerald was trying suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He thought the call from a senatorial aide was a practical joke by one of his buddies. But as soon as their interview was over, the senator knew he had his man.

"I thought, 'He is the original Untouchable,' " Peter Fitzgerald says. "You could just see it in his eyes that he was a straight shooter. There were no levers that anyone had over him. He had no desire to become a partner in a private law firm. He has no interest in electoral politics. He wanted to be a prosecutor."

<snip>

[skip fox]

12. I see indictments (plural) with Rove's name on them . . .

One or more indictments for Rove is nearly certain. One or more indictments for one or more high-ranking administrative official is likely.

The logic is very simple:

If Rove acted alone he made at least SIX calls (six reporters were contacted). Repeatedly and deliberately telling national reporters at the least that the Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and "arranged" his trip to Niger shows he KNOWINGLY exposed her identity (it was far from a slip or even a lapse), whether or not he used her name or knew she was covert. In addition, if he was the only primary caller, he would have had to arrange for confirmation by at least one other administration official at least THREE times (for Novak, Cooper, and Miller). Therefore he CONSPIRED to expose a CIA official (since he knew the result of his leak would lead to exposure).

If Rove was the only primary source, however, that means he released Matt Cooper from his confidentiality agreement but he did not Judith Miller from hers. The logical reason is that his leak to her included a much more obvious case of illegal activity. Rove's hope, then, is that such a case will never be known. But with the national attention on the Plame matter and, especially, a tenacious and objective prosecutor tracking him down, Rove has little hope (especially with the fact that he had to have done this SIX times and arranged for at least one other to support his story THREE times).

But if Rove was one of at least two or more sources (which would explain why Cooper's released him but Miller's did not release hers), then it's far worse for him since he probably coordinated the entire leak with both planning and foresight (two elements which again indicate that he KNOWINGLY leaked Plame's identity).

Any administrative official originally realizing the Wilson-Plame-CIA link would immediately realize it could discredit Wilson, but much more importantly he would have known who to take the information to, the master of such discreditations (among so much else), Karl Rove. Rove would then insure that the leaks did not overlap and that at least FEW other officials could be counted upon who would readily confirm the information of the original sources (perhaps each having different details or a different slant to make it sound realistic and not a set-up), since he could not insure who the reporter would call for a confirmation.

How do you do ANY of this UNKNOWINGLY?????

Think of the possibilities! At least two indictments for Rove (leaking Plame and leading a conspiracy to leak) and likely indictments (leaking Plame) for other high administrative officials: Rice, Cheney, Libby, etc. Maybe even W.

[w13rd0]

14. Gee, this one is almost too easy...

...Rove didn't say, "Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson's wife, set him up to go on that Niger trip, and by the way, she's a covert CIA agent." He said something more like: "Did you know that Joe Wilson's wife works for "the Company" as covert op on the WMD non-proliferation program? I heard she got him the gig going to Niger." See, Rove didn't mention her by name.

Still blew her fuckin cover though, knowingly. See, he's now not trying the "not knowingly" angle, and trying for the "didn't actually identify her by her full name and SS number..."

[oxbow]

15. Judith Miller must testify for Rove to be indicted

too bad she's terrified. CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports Miller said: "I won't testify. The risks are too great. The government is too powerful."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/07/national/main707048.shtml


Unless she gets protection from someone powerful enough to make her feel safe, Rove will get off Scotfree.

Where's the DNC when you need em? We must tell them to get on this:

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

[applegrove]

16. Wilson's Wife is a covert CIA operative. Is this what he means?

[Boo Boo]

17. It doesn't matter if he used her name or not.

What a pathetic attempt!

Both Rove and his reporter friends knew who they were discussing: Wilson's wife. Wilson's wife is a CIA operative, is functionally the same as saying Valerie Plame is a CIA operative, end of story. The law is that you cannot reveal the identity of an undercover operative, and Rove did that whether he said her name or not.

If this is his best defense, he's screwed.