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.
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What is really amazing is a lot of the rat's spin on Plamegate started with a series of lies by Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue. Those lies were exposed right here on Free Republic by :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/942488/posts
Did Capitol Hill Blue Post An Article With Fabrications?
Me ^
Posted on 07/08/2003 1:32:03 PM PDT by William McKinley
In this article on Capitol Hill Blue, there are the following lines:
"The report had already been discredited," said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. "This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings."
Bush's response was anger, Wilkinson said.
"He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."
Serious allegations. But I notice it is a single source. Being a conservative, I value the lessons of experience, and experience has told me that single sources are to be treated with skeptism. When I see one, I want to know more about the source quoted so as to establish if I should treat that source as credible.
So what about "Terrance J. Wilkinson"?
A Google search for "Terrance J. Wilkinson" found no results (which will change when Google picks up the Capitol Hill Blue article).
Google suggested that the name might be Terrence. But a Google search on "Terrence J. Wilkinson" also produced no hits.
Perhaps the middle initial is the problem. Alas, a Google search on "Terrence Wilkinson" CIA gave no hits, and a Google search on "Terrance Wilkinson" CIA also yielded no hits.
A Google news search on Terrence Wilkinson comes up with nothing relevant. So does a Google news search of Terrance Wilkinson.
A Google search on one of the phrases from one of the quotations comes up empty.
I would anticipate a 'CIA advisor' who attends the same briefings as the President to live somewhere near D.C. But there are no listings according to Anywho for a Terrance or Terrence Wilkinson in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia.
A Google search on "CIA Advisor" Wilkinson also comes up empty.
Perhaps Capitol Hill Blue would be better served by providing some more information about the person quoted so that others can judge his credibility. That is, if he exists.
My thought is that this gives at least a small glimpse of what the prosecutor was going for. It looks like Cooper may have found out that Wilson's wife recommended him, but not the name of Wilson's wife. But Cooper recommended that some other reporter talk to a CIA contact and confirm it. It looks like Miller may have done just that. It is probably the CIA agent that the prosecutor is going after.
I wonder who the leaker is. A liberal reporter wouldn't cover for Rove. This question still hasn't been answered. Who told her name?
Since there's clearly no story here, perhaps Isikooof best get after the Koran flushing story again, along with other horrors such as depriving Gitmo detainees of seconds on ice cream after dinner. I suppose he could devote a few minutes to the terrorist attacks in London last week, the successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the WOT in general -- but that would require actual work. And his ubermasters would frown upon him. What a limp-dick cowardly asshole. I could continue, but I'd only get more surly.
OK, so would anyone here who's railing that Rove should resign explain to me what's wrong with what he did according to this article?
I do not know the final outcome of this event.I suspect it will be a tempest in a teapot.However all people in the political arena must use more caution ,especially Republicans.They need to watch every word they say or write when in dialogue with reporters.They need to know that every syllable will be confused or twisted.The Rather memo was handled much better.Do not confirm or deny just say"hmmmm".It is better for the press to write falsehoods and then be found in error ,( I know that doesnt always happen),than to give them the field day they will have know.
Someone put Isikoff on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION.
This is the worst, most intentionally confusingly written article I've seen for ages.
It reads like it was written to mislead people... now Isikoff would never do a thing like that... would he?
I didn't know that Isikoff wrote for "The Onion" in addition to his many other duties. And this super duper double secret hidden covert code agent stuff is soooooooo convincing, don'tya think? (I sincerely hope I do not need an "end sarcasm" tag to display my true meaning.)
As usual, with Isikoff, there's no "there" there.
Again, I think Rove is innocent of anything illegal (and I wonder of the New York Times will now all of a sudden insist this be treated as a criminal act again, after backpedalling like mad, now that Rove is involved). But let's not be like DUmmies and backpedal either--Wilson and O'Donnell were in fact correct to a limited extent.
Now can the press move on from this retarded non-scandal non-story?
My best guess as to who the leaker is? None other than Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson.
People who use phrases such as "double super secret" should not be taken seriously unless they are in a movie with John Belushi.
ping
Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's "cover" (even if she had not been a covert CIA agent at the time of the alleged "leaks")?
It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press.
Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a year ago:
He certainly bragged about it per a famous and highly reliable source's (named below) account of his own face-to-face encounter with Amb. Joe Wilson prior to Valerie Plame's "outing" as a CIA agent/employee.
Based upon a personal conversation (we were in a small group eating; it was NOT an "off the record") I had with eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson (we were at a luncheon table together during a trip to Europe), it appeared entirely possible that Joe Wilson himself was the (or one source, if not the original one) possible source in revealing his own wife's status as a CIA agent or employee.
Victor Davis Hanson (Wilson presumably knew Victor Davis Hanson wrote regularly for NRO (National Review Online), had done OpEds for the Wall street Journal, and other publications, and had his own Website with a widespread following) said he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were both in the same "Green Room" before a televised debate-discussion on Iraq, etc. and Joe first warned the TV make-up person not to get powder on his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes), and then bragged about his beautiful ("hot") wife who, Joe Wilson said (braggingly) was a CIA operative.
I asked Victor Davis Hanson Why he didn't write up this account.(?) He replied that Joe Wilson would probably simply deny it, since only he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were in the Green Room together before the broadcast.
However, it is now easy to surmise that Joe Wilson is a crass, materialistic, self-promoting, vain, egotistical, bragaddocio-opportunist, so this account is perfectly consistent with Valerie Plame's TWO photo shoots in Vanity Fair.