Posted on 07/14/2005 9:32:15 PM PDT by blake6900
Source: Rove Got CIA Agent ID From Media By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of a CIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.
The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.
Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story. The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration's Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.
The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson's wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.
Novak's column, citing two Bush administration officials, appeared six days later, touching off a political firestorm and leading to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame's undercover identity. That probe has ensnared presidential aides and reporters in a two-year legal battle.
On Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for legislation to strip Rove of his clearance for classified information, which he said President Bush should already have done. Instead, Reid said, the Bush administration has attacked its critics: "This is what is known as a cover-up. This is an abuse of power."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Democrats were resorting to "partisan war chants."
Across the Capitol, Rep. Rush Holt (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., introduced legislation for an investigation that would compel senior administration officials to turn over records relating to the Plame disclosure.
Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson's wife from another reporter but had no recollection of which reporter had told him about it first, the source said.
When Novak inquired about Wilson's wife working for the CIA, Rove indicated he had heard something like that, according to the source's recounting of the grand jury testimony.
Rove told the grand jury that four days later, he had a phone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and — in an effort to discredit some of Wilson's allegations — told Cooper that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, though he never used her name.
An e-mail Cooper recently provided the grand jury shows Cooper reported to his magazine bosses that Rove had described Wilson's wife in a confidential conversation as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA.
Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said Thursday his client truthfully testified to the grand jury and expected to be exonerated.
"Karl provided all pertinent information to prosecutors a long time ago," Luskin said. "And prosecutors confirmed when he testified most recently in October 2004 that he is not a target of the investigation."
Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Wilson suggested in a New York Times opinion piece that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. Novak's column identifying Wilson's wife as a CIA employee and Cooper's magazine piece came out a few days later.
Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so this week.
"If I were to get into discussing this, I would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
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Associated Press special correspondent David Espo contributed to this story.
Game. Set. Match.
Novak's been around DC for many years , Karl is a newbie , shrewd and crafty , but still a newbie to The Beltway compared to Novak
Women love to gossip together. If they are having a nice lunch, she and Mandy, women like to puff themselves up in front of their friends. Suppose Valarie told Mandy what she did, Mandy's husband, cooper, works at the WH.
Maybe both Mandy and Valarie invite another woman, Miller for lunch and a little girl talk.
Women, are fantastic plotters and schemers.
"Rove-a-Dope". Ha, Ha!
Good one!
Women can be meaner than men most days -- and I'm a woman.
Your theory is very appealing to me.
hee, Drudge goes from the NYTIMES article to the AP version.
Now lets go after the various reporters because obviously they were pushing the info around.
I'm a woman too. I know how we think. (but, shhh, don't tell any men.)
So, Wilson had at least six days to hatch a plan and lay all the BS at the White House steps. It also tells us, if Wilson is to be believed, that Novak was looking for anyone (Rove, Wilson, anyone) to actually confirm that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Note, not that she was a covert operator but that she simply worked there. Clearly Wilson was the one who came up with the "They outed my wife the spy" nonsense since even her boss says she never really was undercover in the true sense of the word.
Wilson and CO. obviously put this whole scam together, most likely with the intent to hammer Bush with it before the election but the wheels in Washington didn't spin quick enough. So now they've tried to get it going in time for next year and now that the truth is starting to come out the whole house of cards is falling down.
David Gregory must really feel like an idiot right now. But notTerry Moran (or moron). He is as his name implies.
I'd much rather argue with a man, wouldn't you? It's a fairer fight........LOL.
It's a damn good thing we read it tonight, Pika; lord only knows how watered down it will be in the morning!
Freeking snakes all the way !
I noticed that. Guess it's Gray Lady Down.
Its been 2 years, and still its not clear whether she was an operative or analyst, covert or not. Why can't this be clarified?
Hey, let me know when you chicks finish up the "Women Good, Men Bad" routine. In the meantime I'd like to know if you think the agenda on the prosecutor's part is to build a possible perjury case. Or perhaps obstruction of justice? And does anybody know if Joseph Wilson himself has testified before this Grand Jury?
The Captain is posting on USENET.
It has been cleared up, she was an analysis. The other side has to maintain that she was an operative in order for them to strike at Bush through Rove.
Without that, they have nothing to kepp reporting on.
It's clear that the law in question would classify her as NOT covert.
LOL! Gee, Bob...what's wrong with you? Valerie Plame was all these things and more. In fact I heard she was America's James Bond? Shaken, not stirred.
I also heard she knew about 9/11 but didn't say anything cuz she didn't want to blow her cover!
Seriously though, with nimrods like her on the CIA's payroll it's easy to see why this country's intelligence gathering capability was so screwed up.
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