Posted on 07/12/2005 9:31:17 PM PDT by oc311
Byron York has a vital detail in his must-read piece right now on the main part of the NRO website. Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, tells Byron that Time's Matt Cooper called Rove to talk about something else and that only secondarily did the subject of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame come up.
This is important, because it suggests Rove wasn't "retailing" the information about Wilson and Plame -- wasn't reporter-shopping to drop a dirty dime on those involved -- but was rather a passive source, answering a phone call at the reporter's behest and presumably changing topics to the sexier one at issue at the reporter's behest as well.
Since Rove-centric psychos can devise any scenario whereby he manipulates people into doing everything he wants, I doubt this detail will change any minds in Daily Kos-ville. But it offers an important and nagging clue to the continuing antics of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What do I mean?
It means that clearly information was circulating around Washington about the identity of Wilson's CIA operative wife Valerie Plame. The presumption has thus far been in most quarters that the only people who could have known about this were administration officials.
But what if that's not right? What if the original source for the "Wilson got the job from his CIA wife" was, in fact, a reporter? After all, we know that the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, has testified he learned of Plame's identity from a journalist.
Wilson had gotten very cozy with a couple of them -- Walter Pincus of the Washington Post and Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times among them. What if he spilled the beans to enhance his own standing in the story somehow, to bolster his supposed findings?
What if -- and here's where it gets really interesting -- what if the real object of interest where Fitzgerald's investigation is concerned is now none other than the jailed Judith Miller of the New York Times? What if she let it all slip and in the giant game of telephone around the nation's capital, Miller was the original source of the "Plame's in the CIA" info? What if Fitzgerald needs her notes to discern whether Miller knew or didn't know of Plame's supposedly covert status?
Fitzgerald already has a major bone to pick with Miller. He believes she materially and dangerously impeded his investigation into a terrorist-financing scheme run by the Holy Land Foundation.
When Miller found out that Fitzgerald was on the verge of indicting Holy Land, she called the Foundation for comment -- and right after her call Fitzgerald believes the Foundation may have commenced a shredding party that ensured prosecutors would find little paperwork to go on when they raided the Holy Land offices.
As the Washington Post put it, "On Dec. 3, 2001, Times reporter Judith Miller telephoned officials with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity accused of being a front for Palestinian terrorists, and asked for a comment about what she said was the government's probable crackdown on the group. U.S. officials said this conversation and Miller's article on the subject in the Times on Dec. 4 increased the likelihood that the foundation destroyed or hid records before a hastily organized raid by agents that day."
Fitzgerald sought her phone records on that occasion to uncover the source of a potential leak in his own office and was blocked by a liberal New York judge named Robert Sweet. Miller didn't get so lucky this time. Fitzgerald thinks Miller has a loose tongue, and for good reason. It's possible he's trying to figure out what other mischief her loose tongue might have caused.
Search is our friend here at FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441454/posts
It's funny how Colmes and Press claim that the phone call "doesn't matter" when in fact it comepletely disproves the theory that Rove was gunning for Plame. Unless they are suggesting he has telepathic powers and forced him to call...?
She tipped off a terrorist funding group in the US and now this ? Whoa, this Miller chick is a Real Loser and deserves to be in jail. Hope she rots there for a while.
wow.....this could be something after all. The dems hopes for a big blow out will go down the drain....but alot more quietly than the media are being now
woops sorry I didnt see it. I really really apologize
Let's not forget that the original "story" put out by Wilson and the press was that the "leaker" was shopping the story around and had CALLED and TOLD no less than six reporters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441409/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440992/posts
"It means that clearly information was circulating around Washington about the identity of Wilson's CIA operative wife"
How can that be when the Wilsons were fund raisers for the Clintons, and were seen at all the A-list parties, and Wilson's website said his wife was a CIA agent (but she was really an analyst). I can't see how there would be any "speculcation" about who Wilson's wife was.
All of this stuff is coming out even as Terry Moran, the snotty kid of the newsroom, and David Gregory are competing to be Most Obnoxious. It doesn't help that McClellan is a wimp, and looks like the chubby kid who starts to sweat when dragged down to the principal's office.
The press already seem to be shifting to this "You said if anyone was involved" thing--paraphrasing McClellan, Bush and Rove and accusing THEM of "Clinton-like nuancing"--as if they can embarass Rove out of the Administration. I think they realize they have little time to bring this to a boil before the rest of the country tells them to shut up and move on.
This is the incedent that I have been referring to, that Miller was in already in trouble for refusing to testify about. What the article doesn't mention is that Wilson met with Chris Lehane in May, 2003 before Wilson made any accusations of anyone exposing his wife. It was Chris Lehane that set up the interview with Vanity Fair. Chris Lehane was head of the Kerry campaign at that time. Judith Miller may have been acquainted with both Valerie Plame and Chris Lehane. Miller was a Middle Eastern corespondent for the NYT and Valerie Plame was a WMD clerk for the CIA.
Regards,
I know, that's why I never forgot the connection between Wilson and Lehane. I wouldn't be surprised if Lehane and Kerry were behind the whole thing. They would just say that they were duped by Wilson as well, though.
Right after this story first broke, a writer for National Review Online (I forget who) reported that a Democratic friend of his had previously told him about Plame's CIA employment, and he did so in a casual manner, as if it were common knowledge. So I've always thought that the original "outer" - well before the Niger events unfolded - might have been Joseph Wilson himself. This information then got into the DC gossip pipeline and became known to many, probably including reporters like Miller, and she or another reporter may indeed be the one who tipped someone in the Bush administration about Plame's role.
David Gregory is in serious need of a wedgie and/or a swirly. What a pr*ck he is.
The Dems and the media are trying to pressure Rove to resign before the grand jury expires and the facts come out that will exonerate him.
After that happens, the talking points will shift to, "None of that matters! What Karl Rove did was wrong, and he should have known it was wrong! He should be fired forthwith, so we as a nation can commence the healing process necessary to work towards building consensus candidates for the Supreme Court!"
CA....
Actually it's maddening how many times the FR search doesn't turn up anything. It is not our friend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.