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
What Rove tried to tell Cooper was - Cheney didn't authorize the trip (as Wilson stated), Wilson didn't give the VP any report (as Wilson stated). Cooper was asking if Cheney authorized the trip and Rove said, no it was Wilson's wife, who works in the WMD section of the CIA.
What Rove said was not illegal - and it didn't out anybody.
Also .. it was common knowledge that Blair and Bill Clinton had a few sharp words at a cocktail party in London - in the run up to the Iraq war. Clinton told Blair that if he continued to support Bush, Blair was going to lose his election. Right after that the Niger affair blew up. I find that too coincidental not to be related.
I said that about the Blair incident to say this: The Wilsons were very close friends with the Clintons - and the Wilsons did fundraisers for the Clintons. What if it was Hillary who plotted with Valerie to send Wilson on the trip to try to prove there was no yellow-cake - and thereby stop the war from happening ..?? Clinton's statement to Blair could be construed to mean that the Clintons already knew about the Wilson trip and that it was going to be used to try to discredit the intel on Iraq and thereby Blair and Bush would be discredited.
What if the person the NYT is trying to cover for is Hillary ..??
I must confess it's not common knowledge to me... I missed this tidbit. You wouldn't happen to have a link to a report on this party, would you?
Sometimes I wonder if Wilson didn't out himself and his wife as a way of defending against prosecution for something else, perhaps something to do with Oil for Food or the WOT or job-related incompetance. Sometimes people become wanna-be 'whistleblowers' as a way of getting sympathy and making themselves look like candidates for martyrdom when in fact they know they've become targets of an investigation and are expecting the law to come down on them like a ton of bricks at any moment. Think of it as the defense team's preemptive strike against prosecution in court.
Another figure in the Pentagon tried smearing others when he was caught trying to land contracts for his buddy's telecom biz. The idea is to make the prosecution look bad for going after the 'poor wittle whistleblower.'
Think about it- Wilson, in spite of his public denials, did find additional humint to back up existing evidence that Iraq had sought to acquire uranium in Niger. But he didn't write a formal report upon his return. This seems to be an effort on his part to WITHHOLD or bury his newfound information from those who can act on it, certainly justification for dismissal of a normal employee. Wilson also effectively outed himself as the Niger-tale's 'covert operative' in his haste to get press time- he after all was abroad while Plame was behind a desk here waiting for his return.
I believe it was a Clinton insider.... John Podesta?
"I believe it was a Clinton insider.... John Podesta?"
Wow! I hadn't thought of him .. what makes you suspicious of him ..??
"I missed this tidbit. You wouldn't happen to have a link to a report on this party, would you?"
It was the first of a couple of dust-ups Blair had with Clinton. Hillary was in London, hawking her book, and they were at a cocktail party with Blair. The conversation was overheard by some reporter. It was so long ago, I don't think I have any info about it.
The other dust-up came at another meeting between the two just before Blair was set to fly to the USA to speak before the joint session of Congress. Evidently, Clinton was saying the usual leftist drivel about America needed to share their power and it was somehow bad for America to be the only superpower.
When Blair spoke before Congress - he said this in reply:
“There is no more dangerous theory in international politics than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitive powers; different poles around which nations gather.
“Such a theory may have made sense in 19th century Europe. It was perforce the position in the Cold War.
“Today, it is an anachronism to be discarded like traditional theories of security. And it is dangerous because it is not rivalry but partnership we need; a common will and a shared purpose in the face of a common threat”.
LOL - I know what you mean - and the dems still don't get it which makes it even sweeter.
Thanks for the reply... I do remember her book tour so maybe I can eventually run down the report based on the date. Thanks for the quotes as well.
My mouth is watering like a Pavlov dog at the thought.
Regards,
Hundreds of thousands of people work for the CIA, not all are under cover field agents. Are we to refrain from mentioning that auntie is a secretary or uncle is a janitor at the CIA for fear of 'outing' them?
In my first msg to you I said the dustup took place in the "run up to the war" .. but the more I think about it .. the more I think the war was already on-going. So, if you run down the reports on Hillary's book tour - the date will give a better indication of when this event took place. I do know the yellow-cake incident and Blair's speech to the Congress followed right after.
The other dust-up I remember was when Clinton made a trip somewhere and stopped off in London and had a "private" meeting with Blair; a meeting that was reported as "not very friendly".
Well .. I keep wondering if Judith Miller is next in the long line of serfs who will fall on the sword for the Clintons ..??
"The whole thing smells of Bubba, Hildabeast, and Co."
Hmmmm?? I didn't think anybody would agree with my suspicion.
I've seen several legal eagles saying only purposefully outing a "covered agent" through knowledge of "classified material" is controlled by the statute. Because Pflame was not a "covered agent" - speaking her name was not a violation. That info came from the person who WROTE THE STATUTE.
I've heard it too. From the way the RATS and MSM are nattering ANY one working for the CIA who was named is outed.
MJY1288 found some good source material...
'Mark Rich has already been implicated in the Oil for Food scandal, and he was Pardoned by Slick Willy. Sandy Berger thought it necessary to steal highly classified documents form the National Archives before he and WJBC had to testify on the Intel they ignored. Jayna Davis makes a clear case that Iraq was behind the OKC Bombing and Clinton chose to blame Rush Limbaugh for in sighting right wing wacko's. When the facts show that Iraqi Intelligence officers were deeply involved. Then we know that Clinton had several chances to nab Bin-Laden and missed the chance to do so because he claims he needed his lawyers to look into the legality of doing so........ This coming from a man who lied under oath about his unsavory liaisons in the Oval Office with an Intern.. (dripping hypocrisy).
Joseph Wilson was the point man on Bill & Hill's 1000 person trip to Africa in the last year the Clinton's would call the White House home. 200 million dollars were spent on Bill and the FOB's summer vacation in Africa, and Joe Wilson handled every detail of the trip, and was basically the sub contractor and most likely skimmed millions from the contracts between him and the Tin Horn Dictators who welcomed those two criminals and their 998 friends.
I simply do not believe that our Government did not know about the criminal activity that was associated with the Oil for Food Program and I also believe that a portion of that money was ear marked for the DNC Coffers.
I don't want to come off like a tin foiler, but I know in my heart that there is no depths to which the Clinton's and their cronies won't go for absolute power.'
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joseph_C._Wilson_IV#Profile
and from 2002,
http://www.fishkite.com/notes/ambassadorwilsonbio.htm
Well .. as usual .. they're lying. And .. they're lying because they think we're too stupid to figure it out.
If you know what I mean, and I think you do.
Rich Galen is a gem.
I love Rich. He was a guest speaker at a FReeper event in Las Vegas. He looks like a mild mannered accountant - but he's so sharp and he has the democrats/liberals all figured out .. LOL!
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