Posted on 07/12/2005 1:36:26 PM PDT by Steven W.
The lawyer for top White House adviser Karl Rove says that Time reporter Matthew Cooper "burned" Rove after a conversation between the two men concerning former ambassador Joseph Wilson's fact-finding mission to Niger and the role Wilson's wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, played in arranging that trip. Nevertheless, attorney Robert Luskin says Rove long ago gave his permission for all reporters, including Cooper, to tell prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about their conversations with Rove.
In an interview with National Review Online, Luskin compared the contents of a July 11, 2003, internal Time e-mail written by Cooper with the wording of a story Cooper co-wrote a few days later. "By any definition, he burned Karl Rove," Luskin said of Cooper. "If you read what Karl said to him and read how Cooper characterizes it in the article, he really spins it in a pretty ugly fashion to make it seem like people in the White House were affirmatively reaching out to reporters to try to get them to them to report negative information about Plame."
First the e-mail. According to a report in Newsweek, Cooper's e-mail to Time Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy said, "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper said that Rove had warned him away from getting "too far out on Wilson," and then passed on Rove's statement that neither Vice President Dick Cheney nor CIA Director George Tenet had picked Wilson for the trip; "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip." Finally — all of this is according to the Newsweek report — Cooper's e-mail said that "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly that there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger..."
A few days after sending the e-mail, Cooper co-wrote an article headlined "A War on Wilson?" that appeared on Time's website. The story began, "Has the Bush administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps."
The story continued:
Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched to Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, which is used to build nuclear devices.
Plame's role in Wilson's assignment was later confirmed by a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation.
Luskin told NRO that the circumstances of Rove's conversation with Cooper undercut Time's suggestion of a White House "war on Wilson." According to Luskin, Cooper originally called Rove — not the other way around — and said he was working on a story on welfare reform. After some conversation about that issue, Luskin said, Cooper changed the subject to the weapons of mass destruction issue, and that was when the two had the brief talk that became the subject of so much legal wrangling. According to Luskin, the fact that Rove did not call Cooper; that the original purpose of the call, as Cooper told Rove, was welfare reform; that only after Cooper brought the WMD issue up did Rove discuss Wilson — all are "indications that this was not a calculated effort by the White House to get this story out."
"Look at the Cooper e-mail," Luskin continues. "Karl speaks to him on double super secret background...I don't think that you can read that e-mail and conclude that what Karl was trying to do was to get Cooper to publish the name of Wilson's wife."
Nor, says Luskin, was Rove trying to "out" a covert CIA agent or "smear" her husband. "What Karl was trying to do, in a very short conversation initiated by Cooper on another subject, was to warn Time away from publishing things that were going to be established as false." Luskin points out that on the evening of July 11, 2003, just hours after the Rove-Cooper conversation, then-CIA Director George Tenet released a statement that undermined some of Wilson's public assertions about his report. "Karl knew that that [Tenet] statement was in gestation," says Luskin. "I think a fair reading of the e-mail was that he was trying to warn Cooper off from going out on a limb on [Wilson's] allegations."
Luskin also shed light on the waiver that Rove signed releasing Cooper from any confidentiality agreement about the conversation. Luskin says Rove originally signed a waiver in December 2003 or in January 2004 (Luskin did not remember the exact date). The waiver, Luskin continues, was written by the office of special prosecutor Fitzgerald, and Rove signed it without making any changes — with the understanding that it applied to anyone with whom he had discussed the Wilson/Plame matter. "It was everyone's expectation that the waiver would be as broad as it could be," Luskin says.
Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller have expressed concerns that such waivers (top Cheney aide Lewis Libby also signed one) might have been coerced and thus might not have represented Rove's true feelings. Yet from the end of 2003 or beginning of 2004, until last Wednesday, Luskin says, Rove had no idea that there might be any problem with the waiver.
It was not until that Wednesday, the day Cooper was to appear in court, that that changed. "Cooper's lawyer called us and said, "Can you confirm that the waiver encompasses Cooper?" Luskin recalls. "I was amazed. He's a lawyer. It's not rocket science. [The waiver] says 'any person.' It's that broad. So I said, 'Look, I understand that you want reassurances. If Fitzgerald would like Karl to provide you with some other assurances, we will.'" Luskin says he got in touch with the prosecutor — "Rule number one is cooperate with Fitzgerald, and there is no rule number two," Luskin says — and asked what to do. According to Luskin, Fitzgerald said to go ahead, and Luskin called Cooper's lawyer back. "I said that I can reaffirm that the waiver that Karl signed applied to any conversations that Karl and Cooper had," Luskin says. After that — which represented no change from the situation that had existed for 18 months — Cooper made a dramatic public announcement and agreed to testify.
A few other notes: Luskin declined to say how Rove knew that Plame "apparently" (to use Cooper's word) worked at the CIA. But Luskin told NRO that Rove is not hiding behind the defense that he did not identify Wilson's wife because he did not specifically use her name. Asked if that argument was too legalistic, Luskin said, "I agree with you. I think it's a detail."
Luskin also addressed the question of whether Rove is a "subject" of the investigation. Luskin says Fitzgerald has told Rove he is not a "target" of the investigation, but, according to Luskin, Fitzgerald has also made it clear that virtually anyone whose conduct falls within the scope of the investigation, including Rove, is considered a "subject" of the probe. "'Target' is something we all understand, a very alarming term," Luskin says. On the other hand, Fitzgerald "has indicated to us that he takes a very broad view of what a subject is."
Finally, Luskin conceded that Rove is legally free to publicly discuss his actions, including his grand-jury testimony. Rove has not spoken publicly, Luskin says, because Fitzgerald specifically asked him not to.
"If you read what Karl said to him and read how Cooper characterizes it in the article, he really spins it in a pretty ugly fashion to make it seem like people in the White House were affirmatively reaching out to reporters to try to get them to them to report negative information about Plame."
A judge in the court decision (which no reporters bother to read) pointed out that Cooper chose to see a "sinister" motive from the "some government sources", and that helped make his testimony more required. Cooper was spurred by others assuming a sinister motive, like David Corn. Joe Wilson didn't jump on that bandwagon for a few weeks time.
Cooper has recently said he does not know the motive of the leaks.
Pretty much says it all to me. Rove isn't the source of the leak.
I watched a small part of "Hardball" last night, and it was pathetic. Matthews, Gregory, etc. do not have a clue that nobody in the entire county gives a damn about Karl Rove other than the lunatic left. The Democrat Party and the MSM are imploding right in front of our eyes. It isn't even worth one word from our side. These people are not living in the real world!!!
not only that - it was a total setup by Cooper and that's why he was reluctant to turn over the proof (in the form of the memo) and was afraid of giving up the goods by having to testify and thus confirm it was he - COOPER - who called Rove, not the other way around as it's being portrayed by all the LIARs in the media!
So the bottom line in this story is exactly as we figured all along - the MSM is covering for their own lies, nothing more, and trying to blame it on evil Republicans.
But Luskin told NRO that Rove is not hiding behind the defense that he did not identify Wilson's wife because he did not specifically use her name. Asked if that argument was too legalistic, Luskin said, "I agree with you. I think it's a detail."
It's the detail that destroys the contention that Rove "outed" anyone. If Luskin did in fact say the above, then he is indeed an idiot. But that would seem rather unlikely.
WhoooHoooo! Leave it to Byron to get to the REAL HEART of the matter.
Just shows, you can never trust a newsie. If you ever have to talk to these weasels, always have your own tape running, because they will twist your words.
except that this time the media were CAUGHT by the Special Prosecutor and Time actually had the smoking memo which proves Cooper - with his other cohorts & DemoncRAT allies - set the whole thing up!
A diminishing parcel. Even the lefties I spar with at work know there is no story here. Well there is, but doesnt implicate A White House staffer.
Prime suspect #1. Joe Wilson
Suspect #2. George Tenet (Shermy's call and one I havd never considered)
Suspect #3.Cooper himself. It is quite plausible that during the course of Cooper's career, that he could have stumbled upon the connection between Wilson and his wife.
Ah, the truth about Cooper's source's "dramatic" shift comes out. Oh, I loathe the presstitutes...
yes, it had nothing to do with Cooper wanting to protect his source but, rather, to protect the smoking memo that proves the press was in cohorts with Wilson in all this lying and that it was he, Cooper, who called Rove, and not the other way around, as they (and Time Magazine + others) had always sought to portray. Lucky that the judge forced the truth to come out here because these lying press people would have done everything they could to keep the truth from ever seeing the light of day, just like they're continuing to lie about the whole thing to this very moment!
These people have lost all the advantages that Clinton built for them in PR in less than three years.
I wouldn't call it being burned, in my book that's deception.
Well, I think the White House should make it mandatory that this article be passed out to every one of those stupid press jackasses at the next briefing. Also, a restraining order should be sought and served on Cooper to prohibit him from contacting any other official in the present administration.
The further this goes along, the more it becomes clear that Judith Miller doesn't belong in jail. She belongs on a gallows as befits an unrepentant traitor.
Re#13 Well said. I guess they figured they could just spin it, i.e., Isikoff's "we obtained an e-mail" story in a sister magazine which has turned into the get Rove circus of the past two days. My hope of hopes is that Fitzgerald is as disgusted as us and will do the right thing in a very public way....
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