Salon on Plamegate

[LeftNYC]

There is no doubt in my mind that this thing goes higher than Rove.
The evidence is mounting. The press is waking up. You can only conceal and lie for so long before it catches up to you. "Plamegate" will be the wound that keeps bleeding for this administration. It ties in everything that is wrong with Bush crime family and the silly war in Iraq.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

First Rove, then Libby. Who's next?

At press briefings in the fall of 2003, White House press secretary Scott McClellan dismissed questions about the role administration officials played in the outing of Valerie Plame as if they were the tinfoil-hat fantasies of partisan conspiracy theorists. "Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C., at a time like this, there are a lot of rumors and innuendo," McClellan complained to reporters at a briefing on Oct. 7, 2003. "There are unsubstantiated accusations that are made. And that's exactly what happened in the case of these three individuals."

Those "three individuals" were Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Elliott Abrams. McClellan said he had "no doubt" that they weren't involved in the Plame leak, but that he'd checked with each of them personally because "I like to check my information to make sure it's accurate before I report back to you." But with respect to at least two of the three, McClellan's information wasn't "accurate." It was that other thing: inaccurate -- not true, false, maybe a lie.

Last week, we learned that Rove spread the Plame story to at least two reporters: He told Time's Matthew Cooper that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and he confirmed that fact for Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bob Novak. Over the weekend, we learned that Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, engaged in similar handiwork: The day after Cooper spoke with Rove, the Time reporter says, Libby confirmed for him the story that Rove had spun.

If McClellan is surprised by these revelations, he shouldn't be. As the Los Angeles Times reports today, top aides to both the president and the vice president were "intensely focused" on discrediting Wilson after he wrote an Op-Ed piece in which he criticized the administration for its misuse of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. "A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove's interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House," the Times says. "When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: 'He's a Democrat.'"

It wasn't just Rove, of course. As Newsweek lays it out, the White House counterattack against Wilson came from all corners of the administration: Then press secretary Ari Fleischer trashed the Wilson Op-Ed; Fleischer and Dan Bartlett "prompted clusters of reporters to look into the bureaucratic origins" of Wilson's trip to Niger; on "transatlantic secure phone calls," made while Bush, Fleischer, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials were in Africa, "the message machinery focused on a crucial topic: Who should carry the freight on the following Sunday's talk shows?" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice got the job, and White House officials assembled and then faxed to the Bush entourage a "top secret" briefing book so that Rice would be prepared to speak when she returned to the United States. As Newsweek's Howard Fineman notes, "No one in the administration seems to have noticed the irony -- or the legal danger -- in assembling a "top secret" briefing book as guidance for the Sunday talk shows."

As for McClellan, well, if you believe what he says, you've got to conclude that he didn't notice much of anything. Everyone around him was involved in the work of discrediting Joseph Wilson. Two of the three administration officials who he said were "not involved" in outing Plame had in fact been deeply involved in just that. And yet at that Oct. 7 press briefing -- the one at which he said, "I speak for the president" -- McClellan left reporters with the impression that the White House knew nothing at all. Asked if the president, McClellan or someone else in the administration told senior staff members "to find out who the leaker is," McClellan told reporters that they should "keep in mind that there has been no information brought to our attention, beyond what's in the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement."

That wasn't true, either. It's now clear beyond any doubt that there was plainly "White House involvement." As a new week begins, the question is, "How much?"

[Village Idiot]

1. Interesting that all of Rove's defenders say:

That attacks on Rove are all just Democratic "partisan politics," when taken in light of his statement:

"When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: 'He's a Democrat.'"

They are ALL SO FULL OF SHIT!!!

[maddezmom]

2. my bets are on Bolton being the creator of the memo

And looks like Ari shared it with reporters....

~snip~

The memo, prepared by the State Department on July 7, 2003, informed top administration officials that the wife of ex-diplomat and Bush critic Joseph Wilson was a CIA agent. Seven days later, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

On the same day the memo was prepared, White House phone logs show Novak placed a call to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, according to lawyers familiar with the case and a witness who has testified before the grand jury. Those people say it isn't clear whether Fleischer returned the call, and Fleischer has refused to comment.

The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=awaBbp4fMlgg

[mzteris]

3. maybe we should start calling

Scotty - Sgt. Schultz! (From the old Stalag 17 sitcom....)

I know nothing, nothing, nothing!!!!!!!

[I Have A Dream]

5. That's good!

:rofl:

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Let's not pick on McClellan

He may be like the rest of the Bushies and would lie out of his teeth to his mother in service to neoconservative tyranny. However, it is just possible that he is repeating the information he is given. That wouldn't make him much different that previous WH press secretaries. His job is to present the WH point of view.

Yes, it was awfully lame of him to just ask Rove and Company if they were involved and take their word for it that they weren't, but what did any one expect him to say? It isn't his job to investigate the facts; that falls on the WH press corps. I agree they've done little better in this respect than McClellan or Ari Fleischer before him; it is against the press and media that we, the people, have a legitimate grievance. McClellan gave the very answer that would be expected of him. It was silly to ask McClellan that question in the first place.

It is when the press secretary starts talking like McClellan that we should know something is terribly wrong. After two years of proclaiming the innocence of all in the White House, to hide behind the "ongoing investigation" mantra smacks of the infamous "This is the operative statement; the others are inoperative."

However, in those days, when Ron Ziegler give such a lame answer as that, members of the White House press corps got off their aardvarks and started looking for better explanations. Nowadays, most of them are content to rewrite the press release, put their by-line on it and call it news. Jeff Gannon did only slightly less than that.

We shouldn't expect more of McClellan than what his is doing. We should expect more of the White House press corps than what they have given us.

[I Have A Dream]

11. Jack Rabbit, my inclination is normally to do as you say.

I don't like to kick a person when they're down. However, he has bullied the press for so long and kept important information from us for so long that I say that he has whatever we give to him coming. I know that he doesn't make the decisions himself, but he chose to work for this administration.

I'm not going to let my compassion interfere this time. None of them is worthy of compassion anymore, in my opinion.

[DubyaSux]

6. My goofy theory...

....is it possible that Bush changed his stance and won't fire Rove because it's pretty tough to fire someone for something you're equally guilty of?

If this memo we're hearing about floated around Air Force One and Bush did nothing about it, could he be part of a conspiracy? Could he have approved the smear campaign? Is that who Judith Miller is protecting?

Just a wacky idea...it may not be plausible at all...

[I Have A Dream]

9. I think that ANYTHING's possible at this point.

I personally wouldn't put anything past any of them.

Another thing that would make Bush really reluctant to fire Rove is that I really don't think that he can function without Rove. He would be totally incapacitated if Rove wasn't around. As has been said before, Bush is really just a spokesperson who's reading the script put in front of him in reference to not only the words but the actual decisions themselves.

[skip fox]

10. very possible. My guessed scenario (below) is just an outline.

Sure, W. could be one of the leakers as well as helping direct the porcess of leaks and confirmations as well as cover-ups &c.

[KoKo]

7. Who is the "former White House Official" who implicated Ari Fleisher?

"On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip."

Sounds to me like one of the "former Bushies" is going after Ari. I wonder who it could be. And, are they still loyal to Bush/Rove have an axe to grind with Fleisher, or is this someone who really did see Ari reading the memo? :shrug: My bet is that it's someone who wants to take heat off Rove/Libby and so is passing the buck to Ari.

[skip fox]

8. Everything we know, learn, and think, points to multiple indictments

for "high administration officials" in Fitzgerald's final report including at least two for Rove.

I say this simply because in learning about multiple leakers for the six reported contacts and multiple confirming sources, it becomes apparent what occurred. One administrative official discovered the Plame-Wilson-Niger relationship, took it to the White House Iraq Group, turned it over to Rove, who on the spot assigned tasks to different primary leakers/sources assuring no source called another source's contact (so as not to appear too eager), that no source's "pitch" was exactly the same but that their information was all given in an "off hand" manner (e.g., "Don't go too far out on this Wilson thing, I don't want you burnt").

Simply "doing the numbers" has told me this all along, but as new information comes out my analysis is being confirmed. We knew there were at least 6 initial leaks/contacts. Now we know that there were at least three different initial leakers (Fleicher Rove, Libby) and of the 6 reporters 4 are confirmed as Miller, Novak, Cooper, and Pincus. We also realize that there must have been a number of other confirming sources (because you cannot assure who the reporter will call for confirmation).

A master-mind would have been necessary to coordinate all these calls by different people AND would have to insure that a number of other officials were ready and willing to confirm the initial leaks.

They would have gone to Rove immediately and he, probably in an emergency of the White House Iraq Group, assigned the roles, the stories and the stances, etc.

So he not only leaked by was the mastermind of a conspiracy to leak.

We can only hope he lead a cover-up and committed perjury as well.