Posted on 09/29/2003 8:04:09 AM PDT by The_Victor
The naming of the intelligence officer's identity by syndicated columnist Robert Novak came shortly after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, had undermined Bush's claim that Iraq (news - web sites) had tried to buy uranium in Africa.
Wilson has publicly blamed Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, for the leak, although Wilson did say Monday he did not know whether Rove personally was the source of Novak's information.
"He wasn't involved," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of Rove. "The president knows he wasn't involved. ... It's simply not true."
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has confirmed that the Justice Department has received a letter from CIA Director George Tenet to look into the matter. The department and the FBI (news - web sites) are trying to determine whether there was a violation of the law and, if so, then whether a full-blown criminal investigation is warranted, the official said.
"It's a serious matter and it should be looked into," McClellan said.
Asked whether Bush should fire any official found to have leaked the information, McClellan said: "They should be pursued to the fullest extent by the Department of Justice (news - web sites). The president expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct — and that would not be."
Schumer, D-N.Y., said matter should be investigated from someone outside the Bush administration.
"If there was ever a case that demanded a special counsel, this is it," he said. "This is a very serious national security matter where there is a clear conflict of interest for the attorney general because it could involve high-level White House officials."
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Schumer's request.
On Sunday, Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said she was unaware of any White House involvement in the matter.
"I know nothing of any such White House effort to reveal any of this, and it certainly would not be the way that the president would expect his White House to operate," she told "Fox News Sunday."
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) also denied knowledge of the matter.
The flap began in January when Bush said in his State of the Union address that British intelligence officials had learned that Iraq had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium in Africa.
In an opinion piece published in July by The New York Times, Wilson said he told the CIA long before Bush's address that the British reports were suspect and the administration has since said the assertion should not have been in Bush's speech.
A week after Wilson went public with his criticism Novak, quoting anonymous government sources, said Wilson's wife was a CIA operative working on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.
The Washington Post on Sunday quoted an unidentified senior administration official as saying two top White House officials called at least a half-dozen journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Disclosing the name of an undercover CIA agent could violate federal law. "I know nothing about any such calls and I do know that the president of the United States would not expect his White House to behave in that way," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Wilson said Monday he believes the White House leaked his wife's name "to intimidate others and to scare them and to keep them from coming forward and speaking." Wilson had said in a late August speech in Seattle that he suspected senior Bush adviser Karl Rove. But on ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday, he backtracked somewhat from that assertion. "In one speech I gave out in Seattle not too long ago, I mentioned the name Karl Rove," he said. "I think I was probably carried away by the spirit of the moment. I don't have any knowledge that Karl Rove himself was either the leaker or the authorizer of the leak. But I have great confidence that, at a minimum, he condoned it and certainly did nothing to shut it down." The White House has denied that accusation. Powell told ABC's "This Week" that he thought that if the CIA believed the identity of one of its covert employees have been revealed, it had an obligation to ask the Justice Department to look into the matter. But he added: "Other than that, I don't know anything about the matter." Rice said the matter has been referred to the Justice Department and "I think that's the appropriate place. ... Let's just see what the Justice Department does." Pressed whether anyone at the White House raised concerns that the Wilson matter posed a problem for the administration, she replied: "I don't remember any such conversation." Wilson said Monday that if the administration actually took an intelligence asset "off the table," that would have been "a dastardly deed ... coming from an administration that came to office promising to restore dignity and honor to the White House. It was contemptible."
Let me see if I got this straight: Because I happen to agree with Novak on a number of issues, I therefore share with Novak your Slanderous Statement that Novak is for Israel's destruction. You really are a desperate Creep, aren’t you?
Tell ya what, why don't you search FR’s archives and see if you can find anything I wrote that has been anything less than supportive of Israel. Give it a try Creep and get your buddies to help you.
If you had any talent at all, which you don’t, your habitual use of making half-witted Smears could be of value to the Dirty Tricks Dept. of Karl Rove.
Ginsberg, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco and special adviser for Mediterranean security and trade policy under the Clinton administration, is fluent in Arabic, French and Hebrew and knows well the mind-set of people in the Arabic world and the Middle East. He now serves as a consultant to the Arabic Al-Jazeera television network as well as CEO and managing director of an equity company in Washington, D.C. (APCO Worldwide)
Note: I did the researach on Ambassador Ginsberg after listening to him this morning before the President spoke at the UN and hearing some Freepers talk about how good he was (didn't share that opinion). It was obvious that he was against the President in Iraq and spinning for the RATs but I did not realize just how connected he was including speaking at the DNC Convention in 2000! This "expert" on the Middle East is a shill for the Clinton DemocRATs who as a Middle East expert analyst for Fox can trash the President at will. Believe his background should be disclosed when he is discussing what President Bush is going to say and what is happening in Iraq!
Here is the link:
http://www.meetings-conventions.com/issues/0503/features/feature4.html
Fox uses this man as their Middle East analyst? Something smells with that one!
You have nothing to worry about then. Relax.
You beat me to that post. :-)
Glad to hear that we agree on the need for a full investigation of the matter, that's all any honest person could ask for.
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