Posted on 07/17/2005 12:41:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Accusations obscuring facts in Washington leak
Scandal circles around Karl Rove, Joseph Wilson, and who said what
WASHINGTON - The escalating calls by Democrats and some liberal commentators for Karl Rove to resign, and the countercharges by conservatives that Rove is the victim of a political witch hunt, have obscured many of the facts in a tangled Washington story.
President Bush unwittingly touched off the controversy during his State of the Union address in January 2003, when, in making the case for war with Iraq, he said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Those 16 words became the target of a New York Times op-ed piece in July of that year, after the United States had invaded Iraq, written by an obscure career foreign service officer named Joseph Wilson who had worked for both Bush's father and President Clinton.
Claims of uranium
Wilson described going to Niger to check into the claim that Saddam was seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger or other African countries in early 2002 — almost a year before Bush's speech.
Wilson described himself as a whistle-blower whose findings contradicted the notion Saddam was seeking uranium in Africa. He said Bush's claim "was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
But Wilson's version of events turned out to be off the mark.
His article implied he had been dispatched to Africa at least indirectly by Vice President Dick Cheney.
What actually happened is that Wilson had gotten the job to go to Africa after his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA official, suggested he be sent.
Nor did any of Wilson's findings directly influence the administration's position on whether Saddam was trying to buy African uranium, according to a detailed Senate report.
In a line buried deep in his New York Times article, Wilson conceded, "I did not file a written report" on the African trip. Instead he theorizes that his findings would have bubbled up from oral briefings he gave to intelligence officials.
That was a groundless assumption, Senate investigators said.
Still, Wilson's charges became a rallying cry for anti-war groups and for Democrats opposed to Bush. Wilson later went to work for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry.
Wilson seemed to be at least partially vindicated when top Bush officials, including Condoleezza Rice, said in the summer of 2003 that Bush's staff should have edited the words from his speech because the CIA had not been able to independently confirm British findings.
But since then, Wilson's original assertions have been severely tested.
Finding 'well-founded'
One year after Wilson's article, in July 2004, the Butler commission in Britain found that Bush's original claim that Saddam was seeking African uranium was "well-founded."
That report said, "It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials visited Niger in 1999. The British government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium."
Wilson's credibility took a more serious blow when a bipartisan Senate panel released its massive report that same month. The Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed the Iraq-Niger uranium matter exhaustively, and found many of Wilson's assumptions and claims in error.
The Senate report concluded that Cheney had never been briefed on Wilson's findings because the CIA considered them of marginal value. The official CIA assessment of Wilson's trip was that it "did not provide substantial new information."
Wilson had made one finding that intrigued the CIA but it was not in his New York Times article. Wilson described a meeting with a Nigerian official during his visit who told him that an Iraqi delegation had visited Nigeria and Niger in the late 1990s. In Nigeria at least, the Iraqis had made inquiries about buying uranium, Wilson was told.
The Senate Intelligence Committee stated, "The report (based on Wilson's information) did not change any analyst's assessment of the Iraq-Niger uranium deal." For most CIA analysts, in fact, Wilson's findings "lent more credibility" to the idea that Saddam sought African uranium, according to intelligence officials who testified to Senate investigators.
A dramatic turn
Whatever the merits of Wilson's original article, the dispute between him and the Bush White House took a radically different direction when syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA employee just days after Wilson's New York Times piece.
In an online story three days later, Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper also suggested that the Bush administration had declared war on Wilson and noted that government officials had said that his wife was a CIA official.
The reports drew criticism from Wilson, who fingered Rove as the leaker and said he wanted to see "whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."
The CIA also raised objections, noting that federal law prohibited officials from intentionally disclosing the identity of a covert agent.
The CIA referred its complaint to the Justice Department, where the FBI commenced an investigation that included interviewing more than three dozen administration officials, including Bush's top political adviser, Rove.
At the time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, stressing that he had spoken with Rove, denied that the political adviser or other top administration officials were involved in the leak.
In a CNN interview last year during the GOP convention, Rove said, "I don't know her name and didn't leak her name."
Under pressure from Democrats to appoint an independent investigator, the Justice Department in December of 2003 named Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for Northern Illinois, as a special counsel.
Fitzgerald mounted an aggressive probe that included issuing subpoenas to journalists to testify about the possible leak.
The White House, meanwhile, directed officials to sign waivers releasing journalists from any confidentiality pledge they had made in conversations concerning Plame.
Novak, along with Tim Russert, the host of NBC's Meet the Press, and Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, worked out agreements to provide limited testimony.
However, Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who had investigated the Plame issue but had never written a story, balked at revealing their sources and appealed their case to the Supreme Court, which in June refused to quash the subpoenas.
Cooper, saying his source had given him a last-minute reprieve from his confidentiality pledge, agreed to testify before a grand jury last week. Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has disputed Cooper's account, saying he merely reiterated the confidentiality waiver that Rove signed at the outset of the investigation. Miller refused to cooperate and was ordered to jail by U.S. District Court judge Thomas Hogan.
Meanwhile, the source for Cooper's story was revealed by rival Newsweek magazine, which obtained a copy of an e-mail sent by Cooper to his bureau chief that said he had spoken to Rove about Plame "on double super secret background."
The e-mail regarding the conversation, which occurred before Novak had published his column, did not indicate that Rove used Plame's name or suggest she was a covert agent.
Not under investigation
On Friday, published reports indicated that Rove was one of two senior administration officials who had spoken with Novak about Plame.
The reports said that Rove had told investigators that he did not supply Novak with Plame's name, but he confirmed that he had heard that she worked for the CIA.
Rove's lawyer has repeatedly said that the political strategist has not broken the law and noted that Rove has not been told that he is the "target" of an investigation. Prosecutors generally warn individuals if they may be facing prosecution.
Analysts have said that it will be difficult for Fitzgerald to prosecute any official for violating the 1982 law regarding disclosure of covert agents.
The law requires the prosecutor to prove that the disclosure was made by someone with access to classified information and who intentionally revealed the name of a covert agent who has served outside the United States in the last five years.
However, even if Rove is not prosecuted under that law, it is not clear whether Fitzgerald is looking at other charges such as perjury or obstruction of justice. Questions remain as to who the other senior administration official was who spoke to Novak or who Miller's sources were.
michael.hedges@chron.com
bennett.roth@chron.com
Its really unfortunate that the MSM has gone so far over the edge they cannot be trusted to report facts. The actual story by Cooper should have been "Wilson report at odds with British intelligence" Wilson should be hammered about the lies and misrepresentations in his so called oral report. The media should be letting all America know that British intelligence backed the White House on the uranium claim and Wilson is a partisan glory hound.
I think a media who can be trusted to get the facts out is very important. Politicians shouldn't have to defend themselves against false accusations by lazy and partisan reporters who "leak" names and can never be held accountable.
A new law should be enacted in which any journalist who reveals the identity of a covert agent will be jailed as the leaker if they do not reveal the source of their leak.
I ordered mine last night.
Sorry I don't know how to post a link to another FR article, but search out the research done by Fedora on Wilsons Rock Creek corporation and his dealings with Saudis and possibly with the French who were recieving Oil for Food vouchers. I really think all this Rove stuff could be a smokescreen to keep others from asking why the CIA would send someone like Wilson to investigate and also how the media worked hand in hand with all the usual suspects to influence the election.
"What actually happened is that Wilson had gotten the job to go to Africa after his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA official, suggested he be sent."
Joe retires. Sounds like she wanted a little breather from him.
You know,the old I married you for better or for worse---not for lunch!
I am truly astounded to find an article in the Houston Communist to be so factually accurate. I think I must have shifted to a different reality. Is this a Star Trek movie?
In a line buried deep in his New York Times article, Wilson conceded, "I did not file a written report" on the African trip. Instead he theorizes that his findings would have bubbled up from oral briefings he gave to intelligence officials"
WE paid for this trip, most probably costing thousands of dollars, where Joe Wilson spent some time by the hotel pool sipping drinks, and we don't even get a written report for our money?
"what did you find out, Joe?"
"Nothing, but it sure is hot over there."
"Have Valerie put you in for a hazardous duty bonus. Thanks for your time."
I find a number of similarities between the events in Britain that attempted to bring down Tony Blair with the series of events here in the US that are attempting to bring down George W. Bush. In both instances, there have been claims that intelligence reports were inflated to promote the Iraq war. In Britain, it was a government employee named David Kelly that "leaked" information to Andrew Gilligan, a BBC reporter. Gilligan's reporting was later debunked following an investigation; Kelly committed suicide. Fake documents have been released in order to destroy the credibility of authentic documents which has further clouded the issues. Today, we're seeing the MSM desperately trying to keep this story alive to damage President Bush. I'm not convinced that all of this is pure coincidence.
And the msm will circle the wagons to "protect" their source a-k-a CYA.
That's exactly what they're doing. They are trying to deflect any roll Wilson may have in order to protect their own and they're doing this by trying to tag Rove at any cost.
In a line buried deep in his New York Times article, Wilson conceded, "I did not file a written report" on the African trip. Instead he theorizes that his findings would have bubbled up from oral briefings he gave to intelligence officials"
A fundamental question to this whole affair has not be addressed. Was this whole uranium buying deal classified? Did PinochiJoe's Op Ed piece release classified information?
Were real NOC's comprimised due to the release of the information?
Oh, that is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny! Did you do that?
A couple of years ago I heard one of the media pundits explain that the CIA never had Joe sign a Non Disclosure agreement. I worked a highly classified program most of my adult life and find the disregard for security procedures in this case astounding.
If Wilson never signed one and received any information from his wife then she should go to jail if she told him anything.
Why, thank you!
Yes, I'm responsible. If I can help Joe in any way in his slide to obscurity, I'm right there! :-)
I am envious of your talent!
There is another issue here besides his wife's status.
From what I can tell, the Niger information was gleaned from HUMINT and should have been compartmented in an SCI program. Hoops have to be jumped through before an individual is given access to the information. It appears this was not done in this case(ILLEGAL!!).
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