Byron York: There's a lot we don't know yet about the CIA flap

The Hill ^ | 7/13/05 | Byron York

[Jean S]

Please allow me to share with you some of the things I don’t know. 

I don’t know what Valerie Plame’s status with the CIA was in July 2003 when Robert Novak wrote his column mentioning that she was an “agency operative” and had recommended her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for a fact-finding trip to Niger. Was Plame a covert agent then? If not, how recently had she been a covert agent?

I don’t know.

I also don’t know what’s going on with The New York Times’ Judith Miller.

Since top presidential adviser Karl Rove and top vice-presidential adviser Lewis Libby signed strongly worded waivers releasing all reporters from any pledges of confidentiality, why hasn’t Miller testified? Does that mean her source was someone else who has not signed a confidentiality waiver?

I don’t know.

I also don’t know why Miller is involved in all this at all, since she never wrote a story about it. Was she some sort of “carrier,” as is now being theorized, and actually helped spread word of Plame’s identity?

I don’t know.

For that matter, I don’t know what Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper was doing either. Rove’s lawyer says Rove signed the waiver about a year and a half ago and has never changed it. Why was that waiver not acceptable to Cooper for 18 months and then, on the brink of going to jail, Cooper agreed to testify?

I don’t know.

I don’t know anything about the role the other journalists caught up in the case — Tim Russert, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler — played. Apparently on the basis of waivers signed by sources, they all gave information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What did they say?

I don’t know.

And of course I also don’t know what is happening with Novak. Given Fitzgerald’s aggressiveness in dealing with all figures in this case, Novak must have made some sort of accommodation. Did he testify? Refuse to testify?

I don’t know.

I also don’t know why many in the press, most notably The New York Times, were once so enthusiastic about the Fitzgerald investigation. On Dec. 30, 2003, the Times published an editorial headlined “The Right Thing, At Last,” which said, “After an egregiously long delay, Attorney General John Ashcroft finally did the right thing yesterday when he recused himself from the investigation into who gave the name of a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak.” Why did the Times do that?

I don’t know.

And then, why did the Times change its position and condemn Fitzgerald who, the paper said, “can’t even say whether a crime has been committed.” Why would the Times say that, when it had once been so sure that a crime had been committed?

I don’t know.

I also don’t know about the actions of Joseph Wilson. For example, in his book, The Politics of Truth, he wrote, “The assertion that Valerie had played any substantive role in the decision to ask me to go to Niger was false on the face of it. ...Valerie could not — and would not if she could — have had anything to do with the CIA decision to ask me to travel to [Niger].” But later, the Senate Intelligence Committee, in its bipartisan report, said that “interviews and documents provided to the committee indicate that [Wilson’s] wife, a CPD employee [a reference to the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division], suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the deputy chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from [Wilson’s] wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both [Niger’s prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’” So why did Wilson say his wife played no “substantive role” in it?

I don’t know.

I also don’t know why Wilson’s defenders accuse the White House of “smearing” him. What was the smear? Was it a smear to say that Wilson got the Niger assignment, at least in part, because his wife recommended him? If so, then the Senate committee “smeared” him, too. If not, what is the smear?

I don’t know.

And finally, I don’t know about Karl Rove’s public statements on the case. Last year on CNN, he said of Plame, “I didn’t know her name and didn’t leak her name.” Even if he hadn’t passed on Plame’s name — just mentioned her as Wilson’s wife — why not just say nothing, especially since the whole thing is under criminal investigation?

I don’t know.

The bottom line is, some of the most critical facts in the whole Wilson/Plame/CIA matter are just not known, at least not known by anyone outside of the Fitzgerald investigation.

But don’t worry. At least we can be sure that we will someday know them, right?

I don’t know.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
E-mail: byork@thehill.com

[SkyPilot]

even went "drama queen" on us, by saying he had already told his seven year old son good-bye because he knew he was going to prison before the phone call came as he was walking out the door.

Yes Howlin, he is just a prince, isn't he?

I was listening to Byron York in amazement today when he was on the Hannity program. He also said that Cooper's lawyers had the iron clad release document in hand when they called Rove's lawyers last week. They asked him if the terms in the document (which the Special Prosecutor wrote!) that said "Mr. Rove authorizes any person to release his name as the source" meant Cooper. His lawyer, incredulously, said, "Yes--if he is a person, then any person means him."

The "drama queens" were not finished. After a flurry of phone calls and more reassurances, lawyers for Cooper only then gathered all their buddies from the media and held a soap opera press conference they hoped the public would swallow. This contained the teary eyed Cooper acting like he just received a gallows pardon from the Governor.

The only problem with this charade is that Rove signed the release in 2003!!!!! These two reporters and their lawyers have been caught red handed, lying to the American people.

[hole_n_one]

Sweet fine!

For a second there, I thought you were talking about me again.

[Howlin]

I am trying to find any article that discusses what Cooper said on the steps that day.

I want to read it word for word.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Rove signed the waiver about a year and a half ago and has never changed it. Why was that waiver not acceptable to Cooper for 18 months and then, on the brink of going to jail, Cooper agreed to testify? I don’t know.

We're counting on you, Mr. York, to get to the bottom of this set up.

[Howlin]

Cooper took the podium in the court and told the judge, "Last night I hugged my son good-bye and told him it might be a long time before I see him again."

"I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions" for not testifying, Cooper said. But he told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" a direct personal communication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep the source's identity secret.

[Mo1]

David Shuster just said that according to Cooper .. he was one of the final witnesses for the Grand Jury

[Right_in_Virginia]

Re: your tag line. ---- If Judith Miller remains silent through her incarceration, do we ever find out who she's covering for?

[hole_n_one]

Gergen: It appears that Rove does NOT have a legal problem.

[Howlin]

He said a source in the CIA leak investigation had phoned him this morning to release him from his pledge of confidentiality and encouraged him to testify. That source is believed to be White House political strategist Karl Rove, who has acknowledged speaking with Cooper but has denied unmasking the CIA agent's identity.

and

Another reporter who had been facing jail time on the same matter, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, agreed today to testify to a grand jury about his confidential source on the same matter, thus avoiding jail. Mr. Cooper said he had decided to do so only because his source specifically released him from promises of confidentiality just before today's hearing.

--

Mr. Cooper told the judge that he had been prepared to go to jail until shortly before the hearing.

"Last night I hugged my son good-bye and told him it might be a long time before I see him again," Mr. Cooper said. But just before today's hearing, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" a direct personal communication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep the source's identity secret.

"It's with a bit of surprise and no small amount of relief that I will comply with the subpoena," he told the judge.

and

Separately, the White House correspondent for Time magazine, Matthew Cooper, said he would testify, breaking two years of silence, after his source consented in a "very sudden development" Wednesday morning....

[Howlin]

No.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Damn.

[Mo1]

The only problem with this charade is that Rove signed the release in 2003!!!!! These two reporters and their lawyers have been caught red handed, lying to the American people.

EXACTLY!

[Howlin]

They just never tell ALL the facts, do they?

Matthews never ever says that she wasn't undercover and that the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wilson was an out and out liar.

[Howlin]

And I think that's why she's in jail.

Her source is not Rove.

And she's not going to name that Democrat.

[Mo1]

Gergen: It appears that Rove does NOT have a legal problem.

No Kidding

We've been saying that for some time now

[SkyPilot]

I believe it was on July 6th, here is one link about it.

Remember everyone, the "other shoe to drop" is that Robert Novak as said this: Novak: 'I will reveal all'

You can bet your next paycheck that when the grand jury ends its investigation, Novak is going to spill quite a bit. Cooper and Miller better hold those book deals and acceptance speeches for next award presentation by their peers. Novak has the facts that can embarrass them if they try to stretch the truth any further, and they certainly will try.

[RoseofTexas]

The Rats never come clean! They rather slit their throats than to turn on another RATS, not like the RINOS who so happily and willingly back-stab a pub! Cooper will never divulge his connection. Right now Rove is flapping in the wind and the RATS love it! I wonder if the truth will ever be known...just curious!

[Ole Okie]

I've seen one or two articles that said the agency was afraid that Aldrich Ames had outed her to the Russians. That would have been 1994.

Also Cuba (Cuber for you Sub Commander Kennedy afficianados out there) received an inadvertant copy of a report naming Plame as a covert agent.

At any rate, she was brought back to Washington in 1994 and given a desk job. When Novak published his article (2003), she would have been out of the covert business for at least nine years.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Double damn.

[Howlin]

When I talk about you, I call you honey!