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NEWSWEEK: Matt Cooper's Source
Newsweek ^ | July 18 issue | Michael Isikoff

Posted on 07/10/2005 12:12:27 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative

It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]" and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.

Last week, after Time turned over that e-mail, among other notes and e-mails, Cooper agreed to testify before a grand jury in the Valerie Plame case. Explaining that he had obtained last-minute "personal consent" from his source, Cooper was able to avoid a jail sentence for contempt of court. Another reporter, Judith Miller of The New York Times, refused to identify her source and chose to go to jail instead.

For two years, a federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has been investigating the leak of Plame's identity as an undercover CIA agent. The leak was first reported by columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak apparently made some arrangement with the prosecutor, but Fitzgerald continued to press other reporters for their sources, possibly to show a pattern (to prove intent) or to make a perjury case. (It is illegal to knowingly identify an undercover CIA officer.) Rove's words on the Plame case have always been carefully chosen. "I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name," Rove told CNN last year when asked if he had anything to do with the Plame leak. Rove has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cia; cialeak; cooper; iraq; isikoff; michaelisikoff; miller; plame; plamegate; rove; wilson
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From the article:

NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger... "

Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative.

1 posted on 07/10/2005 12:12:29 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
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To: West Coast Conservative

Rove was warning Cooper not to trust Wilson. Rove was entirely correct.


2 posted on 07/10/2005 12:15:54 AM PDT by M. Thatcher
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To: West Coast Conservative

Faulty Sources Isikoff & MSM previously used: Karen Kwiatkowski & Patrick Lang
NRO and Iraq News ^ | 5-17-05 | Michael Rubin
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1406272/posts


3 posted on 07/10/2005 12:20:34 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
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To: M. Thatcher; West Coast Conservative

<< Rove was warning Cooper not to trust Wilson.

Rove was entirely correct. >>

Absolutely.


4 posted on 07/10/2005 12:27:09 AM PDT by Brian Allen (All that is required to ensure the triumph [of evil] is that Good Men do nothing -- Edmund Burke)
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To: West Coast Conservative
Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative.

Hair-splitting on whether or not he actually used her name seems pretty pointless to me; "Wilson's wife" is clear enough about who was meant.

I think he's on safer ground when it comes to whether or not he knew she was a covert operative. Cooper's version of what Rove said gives no indication that Rove was aware of that.

5 posted on 07/10/2005 12:28:18 AM PDT by SpringheelJack
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To: West Coast Conservative

Don't we wish the media were as diligent in searching for other information, like Hillary's college thesis or Kerry's military records? I guess they can't do everything so they just concentrate on conservative Republicans.


6 posted on 07/10/2005 12:31:52 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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To: West Coast Conservative
"Spoke to Rove on double super secret background..."

Jeez, sound like dialog from an old "Get Smart" show.

7 posted on 07/10/2005 12:33:13 AM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson

I know what you mean. That choice of words is suspiciously odd and doesn't sound like something a professional journalist would use.


8 posted on 07/10/2005 12:35:29 AM PDT by carl in alaska (Hey John Kerry...we don't do this just for "entertainment.")
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: CWOJackson

I wouldn't be surprised if this claim about Rove ends up in a deadlock with Cooper saying "he identified Wilson's wife" and Rove saying "no, I did not identify Wilson's wife." In that case, I would certainly believe Rove instead of Cooper. I won't express any opinions about anyone's motives in this case, but you know all about their motives anyway.


10 posted on 07/10/2005 12:38:50 AM PDT by carl in alaska (Hey John Kerry...we don't do this just for "entertainment.")
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To: misspetunia
"Sounds like Rove did blow cover which is a violation of the law. I trust ir will be a big story next week. Our people must obey the law too."

Take a hike Troll. I believe Rove's earlier statements and I don't believe some troll who signed up for FR just this morning. Buzz off, you liberal fool.

11 posted on 07/10/2005 12:40:37 AM PDT by carl in alaska (Hey John Kerry...we don't do this just for "entertainment.")
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To: carl in alaska
Yep, it's may boil down to who to believe. Karl Rove or the guy who spoke to him under the double dipped chocolate super sized secret cone of silence.

Hmmmmmm?

12 posted on 07/10/2005 12:41:29 AM PDT by CWOJackson
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Admin Moderator

I smell a troll at post #9. Just signed up this morning.


14 posted on 07/10/2005 12:45:06 AM PDT by defenderSD (Suddenly the raven on Scalia's shoulder stirred and spoke. Quoth the raven...."Nevergore.")
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To: carl in alaska; misspetunia; Admin Moderator
I don't believe some troll who signed up for FR just this morning.

Ditto!


15 posted on 07/10/2005 12:45:48 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle ("As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-G-d, PRO-LIFE..." -- FR founder Jim Robinson)
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To: Bratch

LOL! The editorial staff of NEWSWEEK discussing the latest! Perfect photo.


16 posted on 07/10/2005 12:45:51 AM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: Bratch; CWOJackson

Yeah, that phrase "double super secret background" is very strange and doesn't sound like something a real journalist would actually use in an email. Do we have another journalistic fabrication here, similar to the phony Bush national guard papers? We'll just have to wait and see. We all know how desperately liberals want to take down Karl Rove.


17 posted on 07/10/2005 12:50:19 AM PDT by defenderSD (Suddenly the raven on Scalia's shoulder stirred and spoke. Quoth the raven...."Nevergore.")
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To: piasa

of all the reporters at Newsweek .. why is Michael Isikoff
covering this?

Didn't he write a piece last week also?


18 posted on 07/10/2005 12:51:36 AM PDT by Mo1 (We will stay in the fight until the fight is won ~~~ President G.W. Bush)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: CWOJackson


Where ON EARTH have you been?


20 posted on 07/10/2005 12:57:45 AM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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