Newsweek now has published the story about the possible Plame/Rove nexus that was previously mentioned by Lawrence O’Donnell. The story was penned by none other than Michael Isikoff, who no doubtedly will be served a fresh new heap of shit sandwich for being a ‘liberal hack:’
Now the story may be about to take another turn. 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. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But 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…
Initially, Fitzgerald’s focus was on Novak’s sourcing, since Novak was the first to out Plame. But according to Luskin, Rove’s lawyer, Rove spoke to Cooper three or four days before Novak’s column appeared. 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. “He has answered every question that has been put to him about his conversations with Cooper and anybody else,” Luskin said. But one of the two lawyers representing a witness sympathetic to the White House told NEWSWEEK that there was growing “concern” in the White House that the prosecutor is interested in Rove. Fitzgerald declined to comment.
In early October 2003, NEWSWEEK reported that immediately after Novak’s column appeared in July, Rove called MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews and told him that Wilson’s wife was “fair game.” But White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at the time that any suggestion that Rove had played a role in outing Plame was “totally ridiculous.” On Oct. 10, McClellan was asked directly if Rove and two other White House aides had ever discussed Valerie Plame with any reporters. McClellan said he had spoken with all three, and “those individuals assured me they were not involved in this.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Jimmy Jazz
The more things change…..
well, Woodward has become a pod person, so there’s that.
Tim F
If the Cooper docs provide enough info to wrap things up then Fitz could announce indictments on tuedsay. Treason, exposure of vital intelligence assets in a time of war, perjury. That’ll frame the whole SCOTUS fight nicely.
Jimmy Jazz
A nice Gore Vidal quote from 2003, via Americablog via Digby:
John Cole
And those who accuse me of rhetorical over-reach should take note of the previous two comments.
If Rove is found guilty of anything, it will be perjury.
If even that.
KC
It is time to see how this plays out. This episode has always concerned me more than other stuff (with the exception of the lousy post-war preparations) because it seems so stupid. Maybe Rove or whoever it was that leaked didn’t break the law in the action of outing Wilson’s wife, but they sure did something pretty goddamned unwarranted. We can attempt to reason away the actual effect of the leak, it may or may not have fubbed our intelligence gathering capabilities, but it’s still something that shouldn’t have been done. Clearly, the CIA was concerned about it. More to the point, it was also a pretty malicious thing to do.
Tim F
You’re not supposed to overreach John. Christ, if you overreached the average liberal poster then you might as well hand in your GOP card and pick up your MoveOn brain chip at our convenient Morgantown outlet.
KC
Isikoff’s piece seems straight up to me–nothing in it I can find to quibble with–so it’d be funny to see him hand back that shit sandwich to its maker/s.
JWeidner
You’re probably right. We’ll see how it plays out, but I wonder how loudly the Repubs would have been howling if it were a Dem who was suspected of the leak. They call liberals traitors now just for voicing displeasure with the course of the war…just imagine if it had been someone on Sen. Clinton’s staff…
Tim F
Who remembers the ’16 words’ excuse-making by the right when it turned out that president Christ’s 2002 SOTU speech lied about Niger uranium? It seems that you might hear from our friends in the Fitzgerald jury about that case as well.
Perjury will be nice of course, but you’re optimistic if you think that’s it or Rove is the only one involved.
Rick
Treason, exposure of vital intelligence assets in a time of war, perjury.
Vital assets. Now there is overreach. Like at FreeRepublic in 1998.
Cordially…
Profbacon
He can only be guilty if he got the information. I don’t see how the Presidents Senior Political Advisor could have gotten EXTREMELY sensitive national security information.
This story doesn’t make any sense. Rove couldn’t have known the identities of our spys. I feel much less safe knowing Karl Rove knows the identities of our agents.
Whoever told Karl about Valerie Plame is truely to Blame.
Oh, he made the the call from Air Force One. Well, that’s certainly interesting…
Jimmy Jazz
It’s not the crime John, it’s the coverup. It all gets back to the Original Sin, the Big Lie: using a domestic psyops campaign to sell a war that couldn’t have been sold for the “real reasons” and which is now resembling a gigantic clusterfuck. I think Vidal’s point is, and it’s the right one: these things tend to snowball when there is general dissatisfaction with the administration and the direction of the country.
Bob
Lest we forget, we’ve got a male prostitute twisting slowly in the wind… He’s got Rove’s fingerprints on him too. There’s more there, too.
Somewhere in the bowels of National Security there are people who don’t like BushCo, and the fall will come. The skids are greased. Rove and his puppet weren’t half as smart as they thought they were.
Hopefully, it’ll take down a whole shitload of them.
Mike S
If Rove is found guilty of anything, it will be perjury.
Now if he committed perjury about a blowjob we might be able to get congress to do something about it. Anyone know if Matt Cooper has a blue dress?
AL Maviva
Listen to yourselves.
The pack of you sound more hysterical and paranoid than the average Clinton hater in the Summer of ’97. Jeebus. It’s pathetic. For a bunch of people who are awfully quick on the draw to call the other guys paranoid, y’all are a sight.
Why don’t you ask the Vince Foster theorists. They can probably give you some insight. They probably have a few paranoid, grandiose Unified Theory of All Conspiracies blueprints lying around you could borrow for a week or two.
Next Week In Liberal Fantasies All Over America: Bush Jaywalks, Gets Impeached.
Pathetic.
p.lukasiak
The real question is: What did the President know, and when did he know it?
Mike S
Why don’t you ask the Vince Foster theorists.
The comical thing about this comment is that the Foster “theorists” were taken so seriously that Kenneth Starr had to investigate it. I’m sure Al was in the forefront of the Republican attempt to stop the rediculous attacks on the Clintons.
miscreant
What else in mentioned in the memos between Cooper and his editors? Who were his other sources on the Wilston trip to Niger. It’s conceivable the memos make no specific reference to Plame but only that Cooper spoke with Rove on 3-4 occasions. If they’re going to leak one name, leak them all.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
That would be funny, especially since both a Senate Committee and a British report both have already investigated and concluded that the 16 words were well-founded. Remember, the 16 words only said that the British government thought that Iraq sought to broker deals for Niger uranium… not that the US knew that Saddam had uranium in his pants pockets. Nice try, though.
Sojourner
Let’s not forget the Downing Street memos, which, interestingly enough, are consistent with the observations of Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill.
Imagine that.
Jimmy Jazz
Yes, because those huge caches of WMD removed all suspicion of the motivations for the war.
Oh, oh wait, the in depth investigations as to the bad intelligence and firing of those responsible removed all suspicion of the motivations for the war.
Oh, oh wait, the indisputable links between Al Queda and Saddam removed all suspicion of the motivations for the war.
Oh, oh wait…
Yeah, gee, it’s really a stretch to connect the outing of one of the CIA’s top WMD experts to the fact that the CIA wasn’t on board with an invasion of a country that turned out not to have WMDs.
Crazy liberals.
Rick
I’m sure Al was in the forefront of the Republican attempt to stop the rediculous attacks on the Clintons.
Yeah, Al was there. I saw him–he was riding a unicycle and had on one of those giant puppet heads.
Cordially…
HH
So one reporter having so recently wiped egg off his face begins the apparent rowback from the claims of a pundit who wipes egg off his face as a matter of course.
Mike S
Rick
You need to work on your snark.
Cordially
Tim F
We’re past that dear heart. The question now is who forged those documents for Italian intelligence and why. Neither Senate nor British got nearly that far in their inquiry.
BTW, for our glib friend ‘Ricky,’ connecting the Plame crime with ‘treason’ comes not from me but from Bush 41. Poppy had a very low opinion of people who expose vital US intelligence assets. It’s unlikely that the prosecutor will find for treason itself, but poppy did see enacted a law that should make it easier to prosecute the case.
Rick
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. I’ve received other well-meant left wing self-help advice urging me to chill, now I’m told to work on it. I like the latter.
But what say you all to the comment above proclaiming Valerie Plame as a “vital US intelligence asset(s)?” Just being droll? She was no Emma Peel, after all, having been retired from fieldcraft for some years.
Cordially…
Sojourner
Good one, Rick!
Krusty Krab
Bob says:
Bob, you’re getting just a bit too creepy here. Could you take your meds, please?
Rick
I understand Jeff Gannon was seen off-loading cocaine at the Mena, AR airport, and transferring it to Vince Foster’s trunk.
By all means, let’s investigate.
Cordially…
Sinequanon
and here I thought this was an intelligent moderate blog…
Rick
Never was, never will be.
Cordially…
Cliff
It was an “intelligent moderate blog” for a bit, then it seemed too true – so the mudslinging begins and the intelligent minds move on, leaving only the apologists.
The people who “outed” Valerie Plame violated a law which protects our agents abroad. Novack wrote the article and should now be penning “Letters from Leavenworth”, yet we are here yapping about everyon else. Get him on the truck to a federal pen and I’m sure we’ll hear who told him.
If Rove told him, they can share a cell, if he didn’t, we can all just shut up about it – hell’s got a hole waiting for him anyway.
Cliff
It was an “intelligent moderate blog” for a bit, then it seemed too true – so the mudslinging begins and the intelligent minds move on, leaving only the apologists.
The people who “outed” Valerie Plame violated a law which protects our agents abroad. Novack wrote the article and should now be penning “Letters from Leavenworth”, yet we are here yapping about everyon else. Get him on the truck to a federal pen and I’m sure we’ll hear who told him.
If Rove told him, they can share a cell, if he didn’t, we can all just shut up about it – hell’s got a hole waiting for him anyway.