Posted on 07/12/2005 10:26:43 PM PDT by CyberAnt
There is no bigger deal in Washington, DC this week than the Karl Rove business.
To catch up, I recommend most strongly that you review previous Mullings:
"The Sweet Mint Teapot Dome Scandal" "Joe Wilson Can't Find the Truth, Either"
What we know is this: Rove, according to an internal e-mail leaked to Newsweek's Michael Isakoff, was warning Time Magazine's Matt Cooper off the Joe Wilson story.
At the time the story was swirling around that the office of Vice President Cheney had authorized the trip and then buried Wilson's report.
SIDEBAR
If you don't think the popular press is giddy with anticipation about "getting" Rove, consider the odd circumstance of Time Magazine leaking this material to Newsweek Magazine. Macy's/Gimble's; Yankees/Red Sox; CNN/Fox.
Don't give up your August recess vacation waiting for the results of the internal investigation at Time.
END SIDEBAR
The aspect of the story which Cooper was working on wasn't, Is Joe Wilson's analysis Correct? but rather, Who authorized Wilson's mission to Niger in the first place?
Rove was, in effect, helping Cooper by telling him the Veep's office had not authorized the trip; that it was Wilson's wife who "apparently works at the agency on WMD issues."
It has not been alleged by anyone that Rove (a) mentioned (or even knew) Valerie Plame's name; or (b) knew or had any reason to know that she operated in a covert capacity.
It is not illegal to mention the name of someone who works at the CIA. Porter Goss, for instance, is the head of the CIA. In the US we don't, as in James Bond novels, have to refer to the current Director of the CIA as "G".
In fact, it is not clear here who first mentioned the fact that Valerie Plame - who's job in the WMD office of the CIA was that of an analyst - ever held a covert position nor whether she held such a position at the time her name surfaced.
Some national reporters believe the fact that Ms. Plame was actually a covert employee was first mentioned in public by none other than Joe Wilson, thereby outing his own wife.
Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post had a roundup of columns and blogs in which he quotes John Hinderaker of "Power Line" thus: "It is doubtful the government was making an effort to keep [Plame's] affiliation with the Agency a secret."
Further, in the midst of Hinderaker's post, Kurtz makes the point that Rove's discussion with Cooper "isn't, by the way, the sort of communication that is ordinarily referred to as a 'leak'."
The notion that Karl Rove has been hiding or covering up is beyond ridiculous. Even Jack Quinn - Bill Clinton's Legal Counsel - said on Fox yesterday that "Karl Rove has testified before the grand jury three times," and made no suggestion that Rove didn't testify truthfully.
Even if he thought Rove lied, Quinn is in no position to make the claim that lying to a federal grand jury is a reason to fire a high White House official.
If you know what I mean, and I think you do.
The now-daily spectacle of the White House press corps in Full Bellow, pretending to a holy outrage worthy of an exorcist attempting to draw out the Devil, will soon wear thin.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan will stick to his "can't-comment-during-an-investigation" line until the A-List Press Corps throws up its collective hands and heads off to Martha's Vineyard for the August recess allowing the C-List wannabees to man the bars in Waco, Texas covering the President's vacation at Prairie Chapel Ranch.
In the end, the Democrats will suffer. The once-great party is being led by MoveOn-dot-org and its wholly-own subsidiary, How-Weird Dean, has no new ideas. Democrats have presented no new initiatives. They are totally trapped into a response mode.
No matter how much they want it, Karl Rove is not going to lead the Democrats into the future.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to Howard Kurtz' on-line column, a Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day.
-- END --
Copyright ©2005 Richard A. Galen
The Wilson trip WAS A SCAM .. something Hillary is very good at. It was a trip to establish an anti-war stance - that there was no attempt by Iraq to purchase yellow-cake. There was no evidence that was true .. but since when has that stopped Hillary.
Proving that Iraq wasn't seeking yellowcake would be harder than ESP.
What's been interesting to me is that there is apparently a statement by Valerie to her husband that she is sending him specifically to scuttle the British story.
I was guessing .. and I had no idea I hit the nail on the head.
"...there is apparently a statement by Valerie to her husband that she is sending him specifically to scuttle the British story."
Really? If so, she has the stealthy subtlety of a New York cabbie, more of a disgrace to the CIA than I originally thought.
The normal procedure would be to send someone to Niger under cover, someone pretending to be a merchant or even better, someone pretending to be interested in buying uranium. One would get more realistic information that way.
However, if one had already determined that Niger was, indeed, selling urnaium, and one wanted to warn officials in that country that the jig was up, then sending a former ambassador, whom said officials knew, would make perfect sense.
I think Wilson was sent by Plame to warn the Niger officials. I think Niger DID sell the yellowcake. I think Wilson and Plame both were getting money from Iraq, and were busily involved in covering Saddam's tracks.
How's THAT for a tin foil theory? I demand Wilson be questioned about his associations in his consulting business, and that his bank account be scrutinized.
My theory also accounts for why Wilson didn't file a written report, by the way. And also why Tenet didn't know about the trip. It also accounts for the sudden resignation of Plame's boss, who has mysteriously disappeared from this story; I think he was eiither duped and incompetent, or in on the scam as well.
OMG - I don't think this is tinfoil at all .. I think you may have tapped into something.
I agree .. "if the Niger government was involved in such deals they would not want it to be public knowledge ...".
And I also agree it's possible that "... Wilson was sent by Plame to warn the Niger officials. I think Niger DID sell the yellowcake. I think Wilson and Plame both were getting money from Iraq, and were busily involved in covering Saddam's tracks." And .. I agree, in this situation, it would have been best to send a former Ambassador than an undercover person.
Wow! This Niger thing appears to be a hornet's nest. But .. isn't everything that Hillary touches ..??
And .. this info: "the sudden resignation of Plame's boss, who has mysteriously disappeared from this story; I think he was either duped and incompetent, or in on the scam as well.", is stunning info I did not know. I vote for the "in on the scam" - because it was well known that the Clinton leftovers were doing anything and everything to tar and feather the Bush admin - of course at the expense of America's security.
Well .. from the beginning I have suspected Hillary's involvement in this mess. Her long-time relationship with the Wilsons speaks volumes to me. I wouldn't trust the Wilsons for any reason.
I'll be surprised if Fitzgerald gets to the bottom of this - him being a democrat. I believe Hillary will apply pressure for him to cover up for any democrats involved. I could be wrong .. but Hillary's ability to control some democrats is well known.
Well .. Miss Marple .. I can see why you solved all those murder mysteries .. LOL!!
Why, thank you. I think I will post my theory on another thread which is getting more activity, and see what some other folks think. I'll give you a ping.
HAHA! I like your tagline!
Mr. Wilson's official role ended when he returned from Niger in March. The CIA didn't get the Italian forgeries until October. Mr. Wilson had no access to them. He either was making up what he told Mr. Kristof and Mr. Pincus, or he had received an unauthorized leak of classified information.
Mr. Novak (the journalist who outed Ms. Plame) hasn't revealed his sources. But a fawning profile of Mr. Wilson and Ms. Plame in Vanity Fair in January, 2004, offers a clue: "Wilson was caught off guard when around July 9 he received a phone call from Robert Novak who, according to Wilson, said he'd been told by a CIA source that Wilson's wife worked for the agency."
This is one of the most astute pieces of analysis that I've seen from a reporter to date, and it fills in a few more pieces of the puzzle. Who in the CIA was leaking classified info to Wilson? Could it have been Valerie? Maybe, although the wording of Novak's quote doesn't support that premise. Could it have been -- as other FReepers have suggested from the beginning -- that it was Valerie's former boss who quit the agency shortly after this story first broke? Hmmmm...all roads from every angle in this sure seem to lead back to the CIA.
Yes, I believe this is a Clinton leftovers in the CIA mess .. and I hope they get the total blame for it.
Thanks, I got the ping. I'm glad you did this because I think your theories have much merit.
good one!!
Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's cover?
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 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. (Or was it Vogue? No, probably too crass for Vogue, n'est pas?)
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