[West Coast Conservative]

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.

[M. Thatcher]

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

[piasa]

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

[SpringheelJack]

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.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

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.

[CWOJackson]

"Spoke to Rove on double super secret background..."

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

[YaYa123]

From the headline, I thought Rove was toast. But that's clearly not the case. Isikoff doesn't even tell us who called who. Maybe it doesn't matter if Rove called Cooper because Rove's obvious intent was to set Cooper straight on Cheney's non-existent role in sending Wilson to Niger.

"Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative. (From Isikoff's mouth to the prosecutor's ear.)

"A fair reading of the e-mail makes clear that the information conveyed was not part of an organized effort to disclose Plame's identity, but was an effort to discourage Time from publishing things that turned out to be false," the source said, referring to claims in circulation at the time that Cheney and high-level CIA officials arranged for Wilson's trip to Africa"(There you have it...."nothing" wrapped up neatly by Isikoff)

[Jaysun]

"Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..."

This line and this article is a classic example of what many call "bullshit".

[Lancey Howard]

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

This whole story is nothing but a rehash. The tale will be told when Mr. Mandy Grunwald testifies and if he tells the truth (big "if"). The way I read it, Rove pointed Miller in Plame's direction and Miller took it from there. Somebody else gave him Plame's name and background as a CIA seret agent.

[Fedora]

An ironic sidelight to this article is that Michael Isikoff previously coauthored an article about the Plame leak with Mark Hosenball, who should know all about blowing CIA agents' covers, since Hosenball's other coauthor Philip Agee got CIA agents killed by leaking their names, while Hosenball himself was kicked out of Britain as a security risk for helping Agee compromise state secrets. (Incidentally, Hosenball also did a nice job of helping Newsweek cover (up) TWA 800.) Isikoff and Hosenball even had the gall to allude to Agee while opining on Plame:

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, "Criminal or Just Plain Stupid?", 10/08/2003

As former CIA director James Woolsey points out, the 1982 law that makes it a federal crime to disclose the identify of an undercover CIA agent was carefully written to target witting perpetrators. Congress had in mind actors such as ex-CIA agent turned left-wing critic Philip Agee who, for political reasons, wrote a book “outing” many of his former colleagues, leading to considerable and justifiable concern about their safety.

[hershey]

Reporters are not your friend. Repeat that every hour on the hour.

[leadpenny]

Discussing this piece on Washington Journal now.

[KC_Conspirator]

Plame was not an "undercover CIA agent".

[Elathan]

Reading it literally sounds like Rove knew the reporter ALREADY had her name and everything else for his article...I'm betting the reporter asked Rove to comment on her actions or something.

[festus]

Well this is from newsweek ( the same folks who brought us Koran flushing @ Gitmo ).

I'm fully expecting the internal memo's to implicate Karl Rove as being the one who not only flushed the Koran but also "leaked" on it over by the fan.

[Wuli]

Forgotten in all of this is a basic question that has never been adequately answered, as far as I know.

In spite of the fact that someone in the Justice Department is pursuing this, was there really a violation of the law?

It was my understanding that while it's true the public does not know the names of everyone who works for the CIA, not everyone working for the CIA is an undercover operative and Mr. Wlison's wife was, at the time, no longer working as an undercover operative. She had a desk job as an analyst.

It was always my understanding that Joe and Mrs. Wilson were very well known in Washington, D.C. - the state dept/foreign affairs/think tank/congress political cocktail circuit - and that Mrs. Wilson's employment was very well known, around Washington. In other words, while no newspaper had printed the facts of her employment, it apparently was "public information" to much of Washington D.C., Georgetown. etc.

So was the law actually broken?

If I am right, then GWB's people should have just said so a long time ago, had someone apologize and move on. The media shelf life of this nonsense would have been over.

[NathanBookman]

If the email Newsweek describes in this article is the key email, then I think this is nothing more than a government official giving background on a story. And if it is doubtful that Plame was a covert agent to begin with, then maybe Fitzgerald is focusing on some sort of perjury aspect.
If Cooper's testimony is consistent with his own email and consistent with Rove's testimony, then there is no perjury. The article quotes an 'unnamed source': "...that there was "absolutely no inconsistency" between Cooper's e-mail and what Rove has testified to during his three grand-jury appearances in the case."
I think Fitzgerald had to push so hard on the reporters to ensure what Rove and the other sources testified to match what the reports say (beyond just their notes). Fitzgerald is striving to tie down every loose end before he can close this case out.
My guess is the final report will say there was no violation of outting a covert op (and testimony was consistent).
As a side benefit, all reporters will think twice before illegally obtaining documents. They will now have to actually work to get their supporting information.

[Petronski]

Here's a fresh splash of goofiness from that barking moonbat left-wing fever swamp known as the DUmpster:

leveymg <1000+ nutball screeds>

Sun Jul-10-05 07:47 AM
Response to Reply #2

34. People will see through to the fact that Bush-Cheney broke the law, Big

Time. This is a really bad breach of security by Rove. Treasonous. But, in strictly legal terms -- if this is all that Rove said about Plame -- it might be difficult to nail Karl with violation of the Covert Agent Identities Protection Act (CAIPA). That would require a showing that Rove knew Plame was an undercover agent. Plame's covert role was sourced from a second person in the know. That may have been Miller, who has been covering the WMD beat for years. They might well have known each other, personally, in which case Miller would have a pretty good idea what Plame's job was. Anyway, in the end, if Rove lied to the Grand Jury about telling Cooper that Wilson's wife was CIA, that's perjury. It wouldn't be hard for Fitzgerald to convince a jury that Rove directed journalists to other sources so that they would easily discover Plame's covert job, thus outing her. That's conspiracy. The American people won't put up with this. No way. Karl's going to jail, but Bush-Cheney are out the door -- at the very least. I'll settle for that. This is the last chapter for Bush-Cheney.

[NathanBookman]

It would have been nice if Newsweek posted a copy of the original email as opposed to just select snippets.

[cyncooper]

Robert Luskin, confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Rove did—and that Rove was the secret source who, at the request of both Cooper's lawyer and the prosecutor, gave Cooper permission to testify.

Many WH connected people, including Rove, signed waivers and did not fight doing so. The fact that Rove long ago, as did the others, did so and the reporters still balked speaks volumes. This acting like Cooper really really wanted to talk about Rove but was waiting for Rove to finally release him from confidentiality is a flat out lie.

Singling out Rove as if he was the only person being spoken to is deceitful in the extreme (not that I'm surprised).

[Grampa Dave]

Isikoff, the left wing MSM maggot/liar/spinner/hater of GW and Karl Rove appears to be continuing his bs just like the Koran being flushed in Gitmo.