Posted on 07/12/2005 3:10:12 PM PDT by Dog
Stick with me--this is a long post.
Byron York has a vital detail in his must-read piece right now on the main part of the NRO website. Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, tells Byron that Time's Matt Cooper called Rove to talk about something else and that only secondarily did the subject of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame come up.
This is important, because it means Rove wasn't "retailing" the information about Wilson and Plame -- wasn't reporter-shopping to drop a dirty dime on those involved -- but was rather a passive source, answering a phone call at the reporter's behest and presumably changing topics to the sexier one at issue at the reporter's behest as well.
Since Rove-centric psychos can devise any scenario whereby he manipulates people into doing everything he wants, I doubt this detail will change any minds in Daily Kos-ville. But it offers an important and nagging clue to the continuing antics of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What do I mean?
It means that clearly information was circulating around Washington about the identity of Wilson's CIA operative wife Valerie Plame. The presumption has thus far been in most quarters that the only people who could have known about this were administration officials.
But what if that's not right? What if the original source for the "Wilson got the job from his CIA wife" was, in fact, a reporter? After all, we know that the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, has testified he learned of Plame's identity from a journalist.
Wilson had gotten very cozy with a couple of them -- Walter Pincus of the Washington Post and Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times among them. What if he spilled the beans to enhance his own standing in the story somehow, to bolster his supposed findings?
What if -- and here's where it gets really interesting -- what if the real target of Fitzgerald's investigation is now none other than the jailed Judith Miller of the New York Times? What if she let it all slip and in the giant game of telephone around the nation's capital, Miller was the original source? What if he needs her notes to discern whether Miller knew or didn't know of Plame's supposedly covert status?
Fitzgerald already has a major bone to pick with Miller. He believes she materially and dangerously impeded his investigation into a terrorist-financing scheme run by the Holy Land Foundation.
When Miller found out that Fitzgerald was on the verge of indicting Holy Land, she called the Foundation for comment -- and right after her call the Foundation commenced a shredding party that ensured prosecutors would find little paperwork to go on when they raided the Holy Land offices.
As the Washington Post put it, "On Dec. 3, 2001, Times reporter Judith Miller telephoned officials with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity accused of being a front for Palestinian terrorists, and asked for a comment about what she said was the government's probable crackdown on the group. U.S. officials said this conversation and Miller's article on the subject in the Times on Dec. 4 increased the likelihood that the foundation destroyed or hid records before a hastily organized raid by agents that day."
Fitzgerald sought her phone records on that occasion to uncover the source of a potential leak in his own office and was blocked by a liberal New York judge named Robert Sweet. Miller didn't get so lucky this time. Fitzgerald thinks Miller has a loose tongue, and for good reason. It's possible he's trying to figure out what other mischief her loose tongue might have caused.
Chew on that for a while. I'm exhausted. Posted at 05:55 PM
Someone else.... is asking what if it was a reporter?
According to briefs filed in court, Fitzgerald wants Miller to tell him the substance of a conversation she had with someone who has already given her a waiver. That is not a very large set of people.
Ofcourse it was, when Karl Rove siad it was Wilson's wife that sent him to some hellhole. What did Cooper do......started calling his reporter buddies to find out what theat blonde chicks name is that Wilson is seen at every social function in D.C. with. I'm sure Sally Quinn (social diva) knew her name.
"When Miller found out that Fitzgerald was on the verge of indicting Holy Land, she called the Foundation for comment -- and right after her call the Foundation commenced a shredding party that ensured prosecutors would find little paperwork to go on when they raided the Holy Land offices."
Interesting column. I've always thought the original leaker was none other than Joe Wilson himself.
Check this out..
What a coinky dink, check out the latter half of this article...
My money is still on Joe Wilson being the original leaker. Miller or somebody else may have passed it on, but I suspect that good ol' Joe is the boy responsible. And I'll even speculate Judith Miller is going to jail rather than reveal that Joe Wilson is her source.
Outstanding post!
I feel safer knowing Miller is in jail, let's keep her there.
I get giddy hoping this will be tied to an inside the beltway reporter..
"It means that clearly information was circulating around Washington about the identity of Wilson's CIA operative wife Valerie Plame."
Identity, but her role in the Niger trip too?
I think there's multiple leaks. Novak's was related to the White House. Miller might have been telling other reporters what she learned from Tenet or other prior souce for her in her WMD stories. As for Rove/White House, how did they find out?
I think through Colin Powell or assistant Lawrence Wilkerson. They ordered up the INR (State Department) memos about the meeting hiring Wilson. Press reports said Powell was quizzed on this. One analyst wrote Plame "convened" the meeting. That is closer to Rove's word "authorized" than came out in the CIA memo, Plame's own, in which she was clearly recommending hubby for the trip, not appointing him.
BTW, the State Department memo said Plame said Wilson would be travelling to the region soon on business. One source reportedly said the trip was a "boondoggle." That description probably comes from the implication Wilson got a free ride for a trip he was already planning. Perhaps that trip involved the Niger gold interests the Vanity Fair article mentioned.
Very very interesting
"My money is still on Joe Wilson being the original leaker."
Wilson allegedly talked about his wife being in the CIA, but a very much doubt he would say his wife got him the trip to Niger.
I think there's multiple leaks. Novak's was NOT related to the White House.
Someone has finally printed what a lot of us have thought all aong. We know that Rove told them to spill their guts so why is Miller so h<ll bent on going to jail?. Who is she trying to protect? What's the worst case scenario for Judith Miller? Hmmm.
Yes!
Ain't it fascinatin'?
Karl Rove is brilliant. The liberofascists leap upon a passing remark and reveal their own operatives as stupid political shills married to memo-producing weapons-of-mass-destruction pimps who recommend their incompetent husbands for front-line spy duty.
And, as a bonus, he nails a NYT-wit reporter who thinks she is above the law. She is now pursued by a Democrat special prosecutor (Fitzgerald) who is trying to make a name for himself while prosecuting a possible violation of the law in a Republican administration that is hated by the liberofascist base of the Democrat party.
BUT: there has been no violation of the law (except by Wilson, who probably has committed perjury), and the NYT has engaged a story that will not prove true or worthwhile, in the summer when no one really cares anyway, and just in time to make the lib Democrat senators in the Senate look childish, without judgment or maturity, and merely obstructionist in nature and purpose.
Brilliant. Absolutely. Brilliant. Win-win-win-win-win.
I love it.
When Miller found out that Fitzgerald was on the verge of indicting Holy Land, she called the Foundation for comment -- and right after her call the Foundation commenced a shredding party that ensured prosecutors would find little paperwork to go on when they raided the Holy Land offices.
Is there room for her at Gitmo?
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