>>The opposition researcher claimed the source was a 'retired military officer.'<<
Probably the same one who gave them the Abu Grabe photos. The Republicans figured out who the mole was and allowed him to 'steal' the documents, which were passed along to the rats, perhaps through Seymore Hersch.
The Republicans knew that the Old Media rats, blinded by their hatred of Bush and confused from years of drug use, would be sloppy in vetting the docs, so they could make them obviously fake and the rats would still run with them.
Now the rats are stuck. They have to brazen it out, because they can't admit the docs were stolen. What could they say, "B**** set me up"?
Now it's total war, New Media vs Old Media.
There is no way Rove could know that CBS or DNC would not hold on to the documents and release them just before the election, before they could be exposed as fraudulent.
There is no way he could take that risk.
We know CBS producer Mary Mapes was involved in both these stories. Some folks and even I immediately thought of Hackworth when mulling who the retired military officer was, but then I discovered that Hackworth had had a problem with CBS a while back over their claiming that he had medals listed on his website that he hadn't earned. It appears to be pay-back by someone, for Hackworth's involvement in the Boorda affair. Rather was involved in this attack on Hackworth as well. Interesting how he went after Hackworth, but shys away from pursuing the medal hoax perpetrated by Kerry. Here's a link to a copy of the letter CBS sent Hackworth about it: