Posted on 07/12/2005 6:55:21 PM PDT by RightFighter
I'm wondering who everyone thinks the actual leaker is. Remember that Novak stated that it's not who we think it is and that it's a highly placed government official who is "no partisan gunslinger".
My gut tells me this is what happened:
Cooper calls Rove about welfare reform. At the end of the conversation, he asks Rove about Wilson. Rove tries to warn him off the story, mentioning that Wilson's wife, who apparently works at CIA, arranged for Wilson to go to Niger.
Miller catches wind of this conversation, perhaps through a conversation with Cooper or perhaps she asked Rove a similar question. Anyway, Miller wants to confirm this portion of the story, so she does some digging to find out the NAME of Wilson's wife.
The key question then, is, who does Miller call to get the name?
My guess is George Tenet. He would have certainly known the name. He was definitely a highly placed government official, and he certainly would not be considered a partisan gunslinger, having worked as CIA Director under both Presidents Clinton and Bush. Plame had been working in Washington during Tenet's entire tenure at CIA I think, so it's certainly possible that he didn't think that she could possibly be considered covert, so he didn't think he was doing any harm by revealing her name.
This would also explain the NYT stance on this whole matter. They would rather see Rove twist in the wind while their reporter-ette sits in a country club saying nothing than they would like to see the truth come out. The truth in this case would totally exonerate the administration and cast the blame on a CLINTON appointee!!!
There may be nothing to this, but take note of this post, because it may be one that you go looking for in a couple of months to say "didn't that guy RightFighter post Tenet's name on FR a while back?"
This is from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame:
21 July 2003: Newsday article "Columnist Names CIA Iraq Operative" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce attributes intelligence information independently leaked to them about Plame as coming from "intelligence officials" and a "senior intelligence official." . Both have been subpoenaed in the Plame investigation.
Interestingly, I noticed this on Wikipedia too. I didn't realize that Wiki was biased, but I guess this proves it:
July 11, 2005: Rove's lawyer/paid liar says, "Rove did not mention her name to Cooper." This one might actually be true, in its lie-y way.
their pic's been taken down, looks like.
jeeeeeez, does he have any corroboration or details on that? Or does he have a copy of the actual web page? That would be HUGE!!!
Nope. See my post #65.
He didn't say. He was laughing about it. Apparently, it's common knowledge around Washington. The Feds must have tracked it.
Rush will hit it tomorrow no doubt. Maybe Hannity. Maybe O'Reilly?
Did the INR commission and pay for Wilson's trip to Niger?
Yup. As of this year. Pretty good for a guy in trouble all of the time.
But, being Deputy Chief of Staff and a buck and a half will get you the donut and coffee special at Dunkin Donuts.
How much political power does the position have?
So, who is the Chief of Staff? Heard much about him lately?
dunno. This is all I found at the INR web site concerning Wilson:
"July 6, 2003: The New York Times published an article in which former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson described his mission to Niger, in which he had been unable to find evidence that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium there. The next day, the White House conceded that President Bush had relied on "incomplete and possibly inaccurate information" when he mentioned in his State of the Union address that, according to the British Government, Iraq had tried to obtain uranium in Africa."
Those of us who followed the story here on FR in 2003 have known that there was obvious collusion between Wilson, Pincus and other reporters from the get go on this story. You've just helped fill in another couple of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.
Plame and Wilson were paid (by Iraq) to write a critical report that would discourage Bush's war effort and the whole Karl Rove situation is a diversion. Others are involved.
Ok...but it would make a good movie!!! ;)
Actually, when I was talking with my Dad about this yesterday afternoon, I told him I thought it was Tenet, but that the other person whose name popped into my head was Colin Powell. He is the only other "senior administration official" who I think would have had the knowledge and who would not be considered to be a "partisan gunslinger".
Now help me with this. There must be two sources, otherwise Judith Miller has no reason to keep Rove's name secret since Cooper already revealed it. Seems pretty simple to me that the press could put this together and focus on the reality of a secondary source rather than the fact that they are getting burned once again. But, I guess we already know that the press is a bunch of ignorant fools.
To be honest, I have a simpler theory: Plame was among many government operatives left over from the Clinton administration who cooked the intelligence due to either incompetence or outright political and personal hatred of Bush to make it look like Iraq had more than it did. When someone actually decided to go look for evidence, Plame got her husband on the team to Niger in order to deflect everyone away from her own incompetence or motives.
Alternatively, she shared her husband's view of the war and the current administration, and got her husband on the team to help Niger officials destroy evidence and cover up their collusion with Iraq.
I wonder if Judith is trying to be another Susan MacDougal. Afterall, Susan refused repeatedly to testify during a grand jury hearing and was kept in jail for a lengthy period of time. I'm wondering just how much of a bonus she'll get from her boss for all this inconvenience.
And the man who wrote the law that Rove supposedly broke was on Fox this morning, I didn't catch his name, and I can't find it on WWW.... he said that Rove did NOT break the law. He said it is a narrowly written law meant to stop a particular person years ago who was publishing the names of CIA agents.
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