Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.
Sun Jul 10, 2005 21:58
64.140.158.35
Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
The Rove Factor?
Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
July 11 issue - Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed
last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and
computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an
undercover CIA agent's identity. The case has been the subject of
press controversy for two years. Saying "we are not above the law,"
Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine decided to comply with a
grand-jury subpoena to turn over documents related to the leak. But
Cooper (and a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller) is still
refusing to testify and faces jail this week.
At issue is the story of a CIA-sponsored trip taken by former
ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson to investigate
reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African
country of Niger. "Some government officials have noted to Time in
interviews... that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official
who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said
Cooper's July 2003 Time online article.
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.
The controversy began three days before the Time piece appeared,
when columnist Robert Novak, writing about Wilson's trip, reported
that Wilson had been sent at the suggestion of his wife, who was
identified by name as a CIA operative. The leak to Novak, apparently
intended to discredit Wilson's mission, caused a furor when it
turned out that Plame was an undercover agent. It is a crime to
knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official. A
special prosecutor was appointed and began subpoenaing reporters to
find the source of the leak.
Novak appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special
prosecutor, and other journalists who reported on the Plame story
have talked to prosecutors with the permission of their sources.
Cooper agreed to discuss his contact with Lewis (Scooter) Libby,
Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, after Libby gave him
permission to do so. But Cooper drew the line when special
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked about other sources.
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."
*****
July 5, 2005
Fight Ignorance:
Read BuzzFlash
BuzzFlash.com
In Plain Sight: Why the Betrayal of Our National Security by the
Bush White House Matters
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
"In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by
political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to
move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this
fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would
expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House --
in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove,
perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered
the national security of the United States."
It is two years since PlameGate broke open as a national story, but
its implications have long been underplayed by the White House and
the Press.
In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by
political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to
move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this
fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would
expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House --
in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove,
perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered
the national security of the United States.
As a warning to those who would expose Bush lies about WMDs -- or
any of the daily Bush deceptions -- in July of 2003 the White House
revealed to their newspaper water boy, Bob Novak, that Valerie
Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, was a CIA operative, and
she specialized in the illicit trafficking of Weapons of Mass
Destruction. It is befitting the morally corrupt Bush Administration
that they would neutralize an American asset in the war against the
proliferation of WMDs, while fighting a war allegedly launched
against WMDs, in order to make an example of a man, Joe Wilson, who
had written a commentary in the New York Times arguing that the Bush
Administration claim of WMD evidence regarding a transaction between
Niger and Saddam Hussein was false.
In short, the Bush Administration doesn't care if it endangers our
national security by undercutting our efforts to curtail the very
weapons that they claim they were saving us from. That is how
dangerous the Bush Administration is to our national security -- and
it is has been before us in plain sight for two years. But the
mainstream media has focused on periodic reports that emerge about
the "investigation" of the Chicago U.S. Attorney, Patrick
Fitzgerald, who was appointed by John Ashcroft, then Attorney
General, to see if any laws were broken.
Fitzgerald, who works now for AG and highly possible Supreme Court
nominee Gonzales, must be under enormous pressure to find a way to
avoid legally charging any senior Bush Administration officials,
particularly Karl Rove. Most speculation is that he doesn't have
enough "evidence" to charge Rove or others with violating the law in
regards to exposing a CIA operative. The conventional wisdom is that
Fitzgerald is now focussing on the possibility of perjury. But that
is only speculation. And it's not over until the bald Benedict
Arnold (Rove) sings.
Rove is our acting president on domestic policy, and if he can get
Gonzales to sit on Fitzgerald (who -- for other reasons unrelated to
PlameGate -- both political parties in Illinois want "promoted" to
Washington), the endgame of PlameGate will be politically motivated,
not legally accountable. If there are no indictments against Rove or
other senior White House officials, Bush will declare that his staff
got a clean bill of health and the mainstream media will consider
the case closed.
Or Rove may have Gonzales, through Fitzgerald, indict a "little
fish" to take the heat off, and Godfather style, the victim will be
promised to have his family taken care of and a job waiting for him
when he gets out of a federal "country club" prison.
Of course, there is another possibility, that Fitzgerald is the rare
bird in the Bush Administration, a man who actually upholds the rule
of law. In that case he would indeed be unique as he forges ahead
despite withering pressure to find legal reasons NOT to indict Rove
or any senior Bush/Cheney officials. But, although Fitzgerald has a
reputation for relative integrity, we aren't holding our breath.
But here is what we know even without legal indictments and what is
getting lost in the latest round of speculation about a two-year old
act of betrayal against the citizens of the United States by the
Bush Administration: the Bush White House committed brazen treason
by deliberately undercutting our national efforts to keep WMDs out
of the hands of "bad guys." Why did they do this? Because Karl Rove
wanted to prevent future whistleblowers from coming forward to
expose Bush lies, in this case the courageous proof by Joe Wilson
that another lie had been used to bolster the false claim that Iraq
had WMDs.
The PlameGate affair is symbolic of how the Bush Administration puts
its own interests of preserving power before the interests of the
American people -- and in unbelievable irony, on the one issue that
they have trumpeted their "expertise" at: national security.
How the Democrats have apologetically bolstered Bush's "national
security credentials" when he has put -- and PlameGate is just the
tip of the iceberg -- our nation at greater risk than before 9/11,
and used his bumbling efforts to further consolidate power into a
shadow, secret government run by Cheney and Rove, is what is in
plain sight.
But the mainstream media -- and most of the Democrats in Congress --
can't even see it staring them in the face.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
BuzzFlash Afternote: BuzzFlash was proud to play a role in exposing
PlameGate two years ago. We had read the original Novak column and
thought the Valerie Plame comment was peculiar to say the least, but
it took David Corn of "The Nation" to note its significance as an
act of betrayal. We then championed Corn's column and wrote several
pieces in quick succession.
*****
Rove's I-did-not-inhale Defense Lawrence O'Donnell
Mon Jul 4, 2005
HuffingtonPost.com
Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, had his holiday weekend ruined on
Friday when I broke the story that the e-mails that Time delivered
to the special prosecutor that afternoon reveal that Karl Rove is
the source Matt Cooper has been protecting for two years. The next
day, Luskin was forced to open the first hole in the Rove two-year
wall of silence about the case. In a huge admission to Newsweek and
the Los Angeles Times, 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.
Luskin then launched what sounds like an I-did-not-inhale defense.
He told Newsweek that his client "never knowingly disclosed
classified information." Knowingly. That is the most important word
Luskin said in what has now become his public version of the Rove
defense.
Not coincidentally, the word 'knowing' is the most important word in
the controlling statute ( U.S. Code: Title 50: Section 421). 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." Does that mean Rove simply didn't
know Valerie Plame was a covert agent? Or does it just mean that
Rove did not know that the CIA was "taking affirmative measures" to
hide her identity?
In Luskin's next damage control session with the press, let's see if
any reporter can get him to drop the word 'knowingly' from the never-
disclosed-classified-information bit.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
The Rove Factor?
Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
July 11 issue - Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed
last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and
computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an
undercover CIA agent's identity. The case has been the subject of
press controversy for two years. Saying "we are not above the law,"
Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine decided to comply with a
grand-jury subpoena to turn over documents related to the leak. But
Cooper (and a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller) is still
refusing to testify and faces jail this week.
At issue is the story of a CIA-sponsored trip taken by former
ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson to investigate
reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African
country of Niger. "Some government officials have noted to Time in
interviews... that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official
who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said
Cooper's July 2003 Time online article.
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.
The controversy began three days before the Time piece appeared,
when columnist Robert Novak, writing about Wilson's trip, reported
that Wilson had been sent at the suggestion of his wife, who was
identified by name as a CIA operative. The leak to Novak, apparently
intended to discredit Wilson's mission, caused a furor when it
turned out that Plame was an undercover agent. It is a crime to
knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official. A
special prosecutor was appointed and began subpoenaing reporters to
find the source of the leak.
Novak appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special
prosecutor, and other journalists who reported on the Plame story
have talked to prosecutors with the permission of their sources.
Cooper agreed to discuss his contact with Lewis (Scooter) Libby,
Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, after Libby gave him
permission to do so. But Cooper drew the line when special
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked about other sources.
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."
*****
July 5, 2005
Fight Ignorance:
Read BuzzFlash
BuzzFlash.com
In Plain Sight: Why the Betrayal of Our National Security by the
Bush White House Matters
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
"In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by
political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to
move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this
fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would
expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House --
in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove,
perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered
the national security of the United States."
It is two years since PlameGate broke open as a national story, but
its implications have long been underplayed by the White House and
the Press.
In essence, whatever the legal outcome (which has been driven by
political considerations -- that is why it has taken two years to
move the "investigation" forward, if it is moving forward), this
fact remains clear: In order to send a message to anyone who would
expose that the White House lied America into war, the White House --
in an action that could have only been authorized by Karl Rove,
perhaps with a nod and a wink from Bush -- deliberately endangered
the national security of the United States.
As a warning to those who would expose Bush lies about WMDs -- or
any of the daily Bush deceptions -- in July of 2003 the White House
revealed to their newspaper water boy, Bob Novak, that Valerie
Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, was a CIA operative, and
she specialized in the illicit trafficking of Weapons of Mass
Destruction. It is befitting the morally corrupt Bush Administration
that they would neutralize an American asset in the war against the
proliferation of WMDs, while fighting a war allegedly launched
against WMDs, in order to make an example of a man, Joe Wilson, who
had written a commentary in the New York Times arguing that the Bush
Administration claim of WMD evidence regarding a transaction between
Niger and Saddam Hussein was false.
In short, the Bush Administration doesn't care if it endangers our
national security by undercutting our efforts to curtail the very
weapons that they claim they were saving us from. That is how
dangerous the Bush Administration is to our national security -- and
it is has been before us in plain sight for two years. But the
mainstream media has focused on periodic reports that emerge about
the "investigation" of the Chicago U.S. Attorney, Patrick
Fitzgerald, who was appointed by John Ashcroft, then Attorney
General, to see if any laws were broken.
Fitzgerald, who works now for AG and highly possible Supreme Court
nominee Gonzales, must be under enormous pressure to find a way to
avoid legally charging any senior Bush Administration officials,
particularly Karl Rove. Most speculation is that he doesn't have
enough "evidence" to charge Rove or others with violating the law in
regards to exposing a CIA operative. The conventional wisdom is that
Fitzgerald is now focussing on the possibility of perjury. But that
is only speculation. And it's not over until the bald Benedict
Arnold (Rove) sings.
Rove is our acting president on domestic policy, and if he can get
Gonzales to sit on Fitzgerald (who -- for other reasons unrelated to
PlameGate -- both political parties in Illinois want "promoted" to
Washington), the endgame of PlameGate will be politically motivated,
not legally accountable. If there are no indictments against Rove or
other senior White House officials, Bush will declare that his staff
got a clean bill of health and the mainstream media will consider
the case closed.
Or Rove may have Gonzales, through Fitzgerald, indict a "little
fish" to take the heat off, and Godfather style, the victim will be
promised to have his family taken care of and a job waiting for him
when he gets out of a federal "country club" prison.
Of course, there is another possibility, that Fitzgerald is the rare
bird in the Bush Administration, a man who actually upholds the rule
of law. In that case he would indeed be unique as he forges ahead
despite withering pressure to find legal reasons NOT to indict Rove
or any senior Bush/Cheney officials. But, although Fitzgerald has a
reputation for relative integrity, we aren't holding our breath.
But here is what we know even without legal indictments and what is
getting lost in the latest round of speculation about a two-year old
act of betrayal against the citizens of the United States by the
Bush Administration: the Bush White House committed brazen treason
by deliberately undercutting our national efforts to keep WMDs out
of the hands of "bad guys." Why did they do this? Because Karl Rove
wanted to prevent future whistleblowers from coming forward to
expose Bush lies, in this case the courageous proof by Joe Wilson
that another lie had been used to bolster the false claim that Iraq
had WMDs.
The PlameGate affair is symbolic of how the Bush Administration puts
its own interests of preserving power before the interests of the
American people -- and in unbelievable irony, on the one issue that
they have trumpeted their "expertise" at: national security.
How the Democrats have apologetically bolstered Bush's "national
security credentials" when he has put -- and PlameGate is just the
tip of the iceberg -- our nation at greater risk than before 9/11,
and used his bumbling efforts to further consolidate power into a
shadow, secret government run by Cheney and Rove, is what is in
plain sight.
But the mainstream media -- and most of the Democrats in Congress --
can't even see it staring them in the face.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
BuzzFlash Afternote: BuzzFlash was proud to play a role in exposing
PlameGate two years ago. We had read the original Novak column and
thought the Valerie Plame comment was peculiar to say the least, but
it took David Corn of "The Nation" to note its significance as an
act of betrayal. We then championed Corn's column and wrote several
pieces in quick succession.
*****
Rove's I-did-not-inhale Defense Lawrence O'Donnell
Mon Jul 4, 2005
HuffingtonPost.com
Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, had his holiday weekend ruined on
Friday when I broke the story that the e-mails that Time delivered
to the special prosecutor that afternoon reveal that Karl Rove is
the source Matt Cooper has been protecting for two years. The next
day, Luskin was forced to open the first hole in the Rove two-year
wall of silence about the case. In a huge admission to Newsweek and
the Los Angeles Times, 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.
Luskin then launched what sounds like an I-did-not-inhale defense.
He told Newsweek that his client "never knowingly disclosed
classified information." Knowingly. That is the most important word
Luskin said in what has now become his public version of the Rove
defense.
Not coincidentally, the word 'knowing' is the most important word in
the controlling statute ( U.S. Code: Title 50: Section 421). 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." Does that mean Rove simply didn't
know Valerie Plame was a covert agent? Or does it just mean that
Rove did not know that the CIA was "taking affirmative measures" to
hide her identity?
In Luskin's next damage control session with the press, let's see if
any reporter can get him to drop the word 'knowingly' from the never-
disclosed-classified-information bit.
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
