BTW, here's a link to an earlier article that helps to understand what's fact and what is fiction. Noticeably, the CIA says they wouldn't offer a referral unlesss Mrs. Wilson was a covert agent at the time of the crimes by Rove and others in the BushMafia.
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:PMi-X2KWqqMJ:www.billingsgazette.com/index.php%3Fts%3D1%26display%3Drednews/2003/10/01/build/nation/25-leak.inc+Plame+CIA+referral&hl=es
Rove will be exonerated.
However, misuse of public funds and libel charges should immediately be field against Wilson and Plame.
Rove did not out a covert agent. She had not been covert for nine years as she was outed by Aldrich Ames prior to 1994 and then again by the Cubans. She was assigned a desk job as an analyst at that time.
The identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was compromised twice before her name appeared in a news column that triggered a federal illegal-disclosure investigation, U.S. officials say.She would have had to have been covert in the last five years for Rove to have broken the law, IF he mentioned her name, which he did not.Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana.
The documents were supposed to be sealed from the Cuban government, but intelligence officials said the Cubans read the classified material and learned the secrets contained in them, the officials said.
Cooper called Rove about a story on welfare reform and then mentioned that Dick Cheney had sent Wilson to Niger. Rove told Cooper he needed to back down as that information was false and that it was Wilson's wife who recommended Wilson for the trip. He never mentioned her name. Therefore, it is an outright lie that Rove was "peddling" the information as some have suggested.
Now...go crawl back under your rock.
"No, this not just another story. The criminality involved here is far more treasonous and vindictive than Watergate ever was. Rove and the other involved in the latest BushCo episode don't have a "third rate burglary" defense to rescue them. Have you noticed that Scott McClellan's defense is only to wait until the prosecutor acts? Scott doesn't even try to explain his and Dubya's prior inconsistent statements to the press."
ARe you being sarcastic? You're joking, right? Did you read the Wall Street Journal Online Editorial I posted?
Let me give you a little help with your link.
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:PMi-X2KWqqMJ:www.billingsgazette.com/index.php%3Fts%3D1%26display%3Drednews/2003/10/01/build/nation/25-leak.inc+Plame+CIA+referral&hl=es
I wish McClellan would follow the Clinton Press Secretary mold. Remember? When the Clinton White House got tough questions, when the going got rough, they would assign a special office to handle the troubles. That way when White House reporters finally grew some balls, and wanted to pepper Mike McCurry with an onslaught of challenging questions, he would just refer them to someone else. McClellan isn't slick, but he ain't no coward.
"Those were the days my friend, you thought they'd never end...."
MM,
Who do you think that Judith Miller is protecting in jail?
Certainly not Rove, we both know that if it was Rove she would have long ago given up the name, probably in early November right before the election to create the most possible slime.
Rove told a reporter (Cooper) to watch out for this Wilson character-- he's a loose cannon. And he was correct. He did not leak a name.