A Few Thoughts on Karl Rove -Provided For Those Who Are UNcErTaInn Still About Rove

NYT ^ | 7/13/05 | OP-ED

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Far be it for us to denounce leaks. Newspapers have relied on countless government officials to divulge vital information that their bosses want to be kept secret. There is even value in the sanctioned leak, such as when the White House, say, lets out information that it wants known but does not want to announce.

But it is something else entirely when officials peddle disinformation for propaganda purposes or to harm a political adversary. And Karl Rove seems to have been playing that unsavory game with the C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joseph Wilson IV, a career diplomat who ran afoul of President Bush's efforts to justify the invasion of Iraq. An e-mail note provided by Time magazine to the federal prosecutor investigating the case shows that Mr. Rove's aim in talking about Ms. Wilson to Matthew Cooper, a Time reporter, was to discredit Mr. Wilson, perhaps to punish him.

Mr. Wilson had published an Op-Ed article in The Times about being assigned to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from Niger - a claim that was popular among the White House and Pentagon officials eager to make the case for war with Iraq. Mr. Wilson said the allegation was unsupported by evidence, and it was later withdrawn, to Mr. Bush's embarrassment.

Before that happened, Mr. Rove gave Mr. Cooper a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Mr. Rove said the origins of Mr. Wilson's mission were "flawed and suspect" because, according to Mr. Rove, Mr. Wilson had been sent to Niger at the suggestion of his wife, who works for the Central Intelligence Agency. To understand why Mr. Rove thought that was a black mark, remember that the White House considers dissenters enemies and that the C.I.A. had...

[Paraclete]

As Rove sets up the ultimate political play -- the MSM gets sucked in again! They'll never learn :)

[jammer]

But it is something else entirely when officials peddle disinformation for propaganda purposes or to harm a political adversary.

Like Deep Throat? Sheesh, how low into hypocrisy can they sink? (and, that's the opinion of someone --me--who thinks that if it were Rove, he should probably go).

[nhoward14]

Hey, NY Times, why is Judith Miller still in jail?

Before this thing is done, I'll bet NYT will need a glacier to put some ice on it.

[leprechaun9]

The Jayson Blair Fish Wrapper speaks out!

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics. - Will Rodgers

[SolidSupplySide]

It makes perfect sense if Judith Miller is the leak.

Judith Miller isn't a government employee. She couldn't have "leaked". If she knew Plame was a CIA agent, someone told her. Miller may be guilty of another crime . . . one that Bill Clinton committed.

[Dr.Hilarious]

I turned from lefty to righty when I realized that in all the voluminous reading I was doing, the conservative columnists were the ones who wrote stuff I thought about after I closed the magazine. So your advice is like gold.

[woofie]

I cant bring myself to read the rest

[facedown]

Terry Moran's talking points about "peddling" are showing up in the NYT.

I would suggest to you that it is the other way around.

[SolidSupplySide]

While we like government officials who are willing to whisper vital information, we like even more government officials who tell the truth in public.

If that is the case, then the NY Times should like Karl Rove and hate Joe Wilson.

[ONETWOONE]

Moran is a raving Moran. His stories are over 76 percent negative for the Bush Administration. That's the highest of all networks. Can't stand the guy. Heh Moran and the party of do nothings. You want to investigate or indite someone? How about that Sandy Burgler?

[technomage]

have Judy Miller testify

Does anybody else find it interesting that the NY Slimes would allow Miller to go to jail rather than reveal her source, even though she has said that her source has released her from anonymity and told her she can testify?

And her reason for not doing so: She says the source was coerced into releasing her.

In my opinion her source cannot be Karl Rove for a couple reasons:

1. I cannot see the administration coercing Rove into releasing Miller from her pledge of anonymity (assuming the claim of coercion is true).

2. If the source was indeed Rove, would not the NY Slimes and Miller want that news out immediately to pile on?

No, something does not smell right here with Miller's source. Why would the NY Slimes have her go to jail, rather than testify even AFTER her source told her she could?

The only thing I can think of is the source would make liberals look very bad, or the Slimes look bad (or both), or it would exonerate Rove.

Besides the fact that this is a complete non-story and Rove broke no laws, something is just not right with the Slimes forcing a reporter to go to jail when it was not necessary.

[Lancey Howard]

Plame's last "cover" was as a State Department employee and the State Department is well known as a nest of appeasing, globalist, Euro-socialist, Bush-hating Democrats. It was from this position at State that Plame got sneaky and managed to get her husband sent on an unauthorized trip to Niger so that he could fabricate a bogus "report" to try to damage Bush. Plame, likely employing seductress tactics learned during her long tenure at the CIA, used the simpleminded, love-struck Wilson as her chump. (By the way, I wonder how many secrets Plame was able to suck out of foreign agents.... But I digress.)

VALERIE PLAME, of all people, HAS BEEN GIVEN A COMPLETE PASS in all of this, and I don't know why. It is my contention that Valerie Plame is the ultimate scumbag in this whole disgraceful fiasco. It will be interesting to find out who her handlers are.

[kcvl]

But it is something else entirely when officials peddle disinformation for propaganda purposes or to harm a political adversary.

Like the Clintons did for the NYT's for eight plus years. One of which was Linda Tripp's personnel file, information about Kathleen Wiley and anyone else who dared to tell the truth about Bill & Hillary Clinton.

The NYT's lecturing anyone on disinformation and propaganda is a joke. They have many of those "political adversaries" of Conservatives and/or Republicans working in their so-called news room.

[John Robertson]

Mike, I'm all out of exclamation points and question marks. Could you give a few back?

[REDWOOD99]

She'll stay in jail as long as the judge wants to keep her there. I agree, Rove is not her source. If she does reveal her source, though, the NYT will have to stop its attacks on Rove. I think the source is Joe Wilson himself. I think the NYT is making it worth Miller's while to stay in jail and I think they no longer care about being impartial. Only libs read that rag so why not cater to them. The same is happening on the network news, CNN, MSNBC, et al. Rather than try to woo back their lost viwers/readers they've decided to shore up their base...the libs.

[fhayek]

If the Times knows that Rove was not the leak, yet allows him to twist in the wind like this, then they are beneath contempt. They have forfeited any reputation of journalistic integrity (if they indeed had any remaining.

The story is a simple one (to me at least), Rove was communicating to Cooper that Wilson was not, shall we say, as pure as source as the Slimes and Slime magazine would want everyone to believe. If you are going to run with a story, tell the whole story, including the integrity of the sources involved. As usual, the mainstream media missed the point.

[rubeng]

The part that worries me the most, and thing the DemocRATS having been hammering home over and over these past few days is this part of the law, which I have to admit never states that the agent has to be named, only identified. According to that weasel Cooper, Rove identified Plame as "Joe Wilson's wife". This prosecutor, who appears to me to be on a political witch hunt, may find that as damning enough. The law reads: "Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identity of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." The way this law reads to me, it doesn't matter at all whether Roved cited Plame specifically by name.

[cubreporter]

MMMM, well I wonder how long she'll bite the bullet? Does she have a family? I sure wouldn't separate myself from my husband and kids. NO way, no how.

[Shortstop7]

Well, they have come out swinging......like crazy. Major networks, newspapers, etc....have all declared Rove the "leak".