Rove-gate???

REPUBLICANS MUST CHOOSE: BUSH OR AMERICA? By Ted Rall
Mon Jul 18, 8:05 PM ET



NEW YORK--"Karl Rove is loyal to President Bush," a correspondent wrote as Treasongate broke. "Isn't that a form of patriotism?" Not in a representative democracy, I replied. Only in a dictatorship is fealty to the Leader equal to loyalty to the nation. We're Bush's boss. He works for us. Unless that changed on 9/11 (or 12/20/00). Rove had no right to give away state secrets, even to protect Bush.

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Newly loquacious Time reporter Matt Cooper has deflated half a dozen Rove-defending talking points since we last visited. Republicans, for instance, have argued that Rove had merely confirmed what Cooper already knew: that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. That claim evaporated in Cooper's piece in the magazine's July 25 issue: "This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife."

"I've already said too much," Cooper quotes Rove as he ended their 2003 conversation.

Rove may avoid prosecution under the Intelligence Identities and Protection Act, says John Dean, counsel at the Nixon White House. "There is, however, evidence suggesting that other laws were violated," he says, alluding to Title 18, Section 641 of the U.S. Code. The "leak of sensitive [government] information" for personal purposes--say, outting the CIA wife of your boss' enemy--is "a very serious crime," according to the judge presiding over a similar recent case. If convicted under the anti-leak statute, Rove would face ten years in a federal prison.

Even if Rove originally learned about Plame's status from jailed New York Times journalist Judith Miller, Dean continues, "it could make for some interesting pairing under the federal conspiracy statute (which was the statute most commonly employed during Watergate)." Conspiracy will get you five years at Hotel Graybar.

Rove's betrayal of a CIA WMD expert--while the U.S. was using WMDs as a reason to invade Iraq--is virtually indistinguishable from Robert Hanssen's selling out of American spies. Both allowed America's enemies to learn the identities of covert operatives. Both are traitors. Both are eligible for the death penalty.

And he's not the only high-ranking Bush Administration traitor.

In last week's column I speculated that Treasongate would almost certainly implicate Dick Cheney. Now, according to Time, Cheney chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby is being probed as a second source of leaks to reporters about Plame.

We already know that Rove is a traitor. So, probably, is Cheney. Since George W. Bush has protected traitors for at least two years; he is therefore an accomplice to the Rove-Libby cell. We are long past the point where, during the summer of 1974, GOP senators led by Barry Goldwater told Richard Nixon that he had to resign. So why aren't Turd Blossom and his compadres out of office and awaiting trial?

Democrats are out of power. And, sadly, Republicans have become so obsessed with personal loyalty that they've forgotten that their first duty is to country, not party or friend. Unless they wake up soon and dump Bush, Republicans could be permanently discredited.

Bush sets the mafia-like tone: "I'm the kind of person, when a friend gets attacked, I don't like it." His lieutenants blur treason with hardball politics--"[Democrats] just aren't coming forward with any policy positions that would change the country, so they want to pick up whatever the target of the week is and make the most out of that," says GOP House Whip Roy Blunt--and blame the victim--Rove, absurdly argues Congresswoman Deborah Pryce, was innocently trying to expose Wilson's "lies."

The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds Bush's credibility at 41 percent, down from 50 in January. Given events past and present, that's still a lot higher than it ought to be.

We don't need a law to tell us that unmasking a CIA agent, particularly during wartime, is treasonous. Every patriotic American--liberal, conservative, or otherwise--knows that.

Plame's Identity Marked As Secret
Memo Central to Probe Of Leak Was Written By State Dept. Analyst

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 21, 2005; A01



A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.

Prosecutors attempting to determine whether senior government officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative to the media are investigating whether White House officials gained access to information about her from the memo, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The memo may be important to answering three central questions in the Plame case: Who in the Bush administration knew about Plame's CIA role? Did they know the agency was trying to protect her identity? And, who leaked it to the media?

Almost all of the memo is devoted to describing why State Department intelligence experts did not believe claims that Saddam Hussein had in the recent past sought to purchase uranium from Niger. Only two sentences in the seven-sentence paragraph mention Wilson's wife.

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak seven days later.

Wilson has said his wife's identity was revealed to retaliate against him for accusing the Bush administration of "twisting" intelligence to justify the Iraq war. In a July 6 opinion piece in the New York Times and in an interview with The Washington Post, he cited a secret mission he conducted in February 2002 for the CIA, when he determined there was no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program in the African nation of Niger.

White House officials discussed Wilson's wife's CIA connection in telling at least two reporters that she helped arrange his trip, according to one of the reporters, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, and a lawyer familiar with the case.

Prosecutors have shown interest in the memo, especially when they were questioning White House officials during the early days of the investigation, people familiar with the probe said.

Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account. Rove has also testified that the first time he saw the State Department memo was when "people in the special prosecutor's office" showed it to him, said Robert Luskin, his attorney.

"He had not seen it or heard about it before that time," Luskin said.

Several other administration officials were on the trip to Africa, including senior adviser Dan Bartlett, then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and others. Bartlett's attorney has refused to discuss the case, citing requests by the special counsel. Fleischer could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, have been identified as people who discussed Wilson's wife with Cooper. Prosecutors are trying to determine the origin of their knowledge of Plame, including whether it was from the INR memo or from conversations with reporters.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the memo made it clear that information about Wilson's wife was sensitive and should not be shared. Yesterday, sources provided greater detail on the memo to The Post.

The material in the memo about Wilson's wife was based on notes taken by an INR analyst who attended a Feb. 19, 2002, meeting at the CIA where Wilson's intelligence-gathering trip to Niger was discussed.

The memo was drafted June 10, 2003, for Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who asked to be brought up to date on INR's opposition to the White House view that Hussein was trying to buy uranium in Africa.

The description of Wilson's wife and her role in the Feb. 19, 2002, meeting at the CIA was considered "a footnote" in a background paragraph in the memo, according to an official who was aware of the process.

It records that the INR analyst at the meeting opposed Wilson's trip to Niger because the State Department, through other inquiries, already had disproved the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. Attached to the INR memo were the notes taken by the senior INR analyst who attended the 2002 meeting at the CIA.

On July 6, 2003, shortly after Wilson went public on NBC's "Meet the Press" and in The Post and the New York Times discussing his trip to Niger, the INR director at the time, Carl W. Ford Jr., was asked to explain Wilson's statements for Powell, according to sources familiar with the events. He went back and reprinted the June 10 memo but changed the addressee from Grossman to Powell.

Ford last year appeared before the federal grand jury investigating the leak and described the details surrounding the INR memo, the sources said. Yesterday he was on vacation in Arkansas, according to his office.

It's all about the war in Iraq. And the lies that rallied this nation into the war. And tangentially, it's also about a press corps that apparently puts its confidential information conveniently in e-mails, only to have it scooped up later by prosecutors who want to do God-knows-what with these files. As a gray-beard journalist, I can tell you we were taught to communicate such stuff to an editor only in person and behind closed doors. And only to an editor you trusted to look after your dog should you be sent to jail for civil disobedience.
But this is now. The drunken fire drill we see today in Washington has to do with a presidency that misled this nation into war with lies and distortions about a purported clear and present danger from Iraq. For more than three years, the falsehoods have shadowed the Bush administration, creating a credibility gap that in its gravity hasn't been seen since Vietnam.
At the moment, but not for the first time, the gap is making big headlines. And the headliners include senior advisers in the White House who may have leaked the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Wilson, née Plame, to the press. The purpose of the leak was to discredit the operative's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former American ambassador who had challenged the factual underpinnings of the White House's rush to war.
This all happened two years ago. It took six months or so for the Justice Department to name a special prosecutor, Patrick...

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Ex-CIA Officers Rip Bush Over Rove Leak

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
The Associated Press
Friday, July 22, 2005; 3:22 PM

WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. intelligence officers criticized President Bush on Friday for not disciplining Karl Rove in connection with the leak of the name of a CIA officer, saying Bush's lack of action has jeopardized national security.

In a hearing held by Senate and House Democrats examining the implications of exposing Valerie Plame's identity, the former intelligence officers said Bush's silence has hampered efforts to recruit informants to help the United States fight the war on terror. Federal law forbids government officials from revealing the identity of an undercover intelligence officer.



Former CIA analysts, Larry Johnson, center, with former analyst and case worker, Col. W. Patrick Lang (ret.), left, and Jim Marcinkowski, right, testifies on Capitol Hill before a joint Senate and House committee, Friday, July 22, 2005, in Washington. The Democrats of the Senate Policy Committee and House Government Reform Committee held a hearing on the CIA leak and the national security implications of disclosing the identity of a covert intelligence officer. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson) (Lawrence Jackson - AP)
"I wouldn't be here this morning if President Bush had done the one thing required of him as commander in chief _ protect and defend the Constitution," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst. "The minute that Valerie Plame's identity was outed, he should have delivered a strict and strong message to his employees."

Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff, told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in a 2003 phone call that former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction issues, according to an account by Cooper in the magazine. Rove has not disputed that he told Cooper that Wilson's wife worked for the agency, but has said through his lawyer that he did not mention her by name.

In July 2003, Robert Novak, citing unnamed administration officials, identified Plame by name in his syndicated column and wrote that she worked for the CIA. The column has led to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame's undercover identity. New York Times reporter Judith Miller _ who never wrote a story about Plame _ has been jailed for refusing to testify.

Bush said last week, "I think it's best that people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions. And I will do so, as well."

Dana Perino, a White House spokesman, said Friday that the administration would have no comment on the investigation while it was continuing.

Patrick Lang, a retired Army colonel and defense intelligence officer, said Bush's silence sends a bad signal to foreigners who might be thinking of cooperating with the U.S. on intelligence matters.

"This says to them that if you decide to cooperate, someone will give you up, so you don't do it," Lang said. "They are not going to trust you in any way."

Johnson, who said he is a registered Republican, said he wished a GOP lawmaker would have the courage to stand up and "call the ugly dog the ugly dog."

"Where are these men and women with any integrity to speak out against this?" Johnson asked. "I expect better behavior out of Republicans."

___

Nobody gives a rats-ass about Rove.

Rove row deepens into full-blown scandal




With accusations of leaks turning to claims of jeopardising national security, Ros Davidson reports on the White House’s latest intelligence gaffe



The scandal over the White House leak of a CIA agent’s identity is this weekend turning far uglier as new accusations and revelations unfold. President Bush has jeopardised national security by not disciplining his top aide Karl Rove for his role in the burgeoning controversy, said ex-CIA agents in a hearing in Washington.
America’s credibility overseas is dented because it was the US government – and most likely the White House – that leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame in apparent political retaliation, said the retired security agents.

According to US newspaper reports, Karl Rove and a second top administration official may also have misled criminal investigators. Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who is probing the leak, has been scrutinising discrepancies and gaps in the statements of Rove and vice-presidential chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby since last summer, said a front- page report in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Rove, the architect of Bush’s political career, has testified before a closed-door federal grand jury and been questioned by FBI agents at least five times. The accounts given by Rove and Libby differ from those of reporters involved, sources told Bloomberg news agency on Friday.

Fitzgerald’s new focus suggests he may now be considering charges of perjury, not just the leaking of classified information. The two-year probe, initially called for by the CIA, is expected to last until October and is fraying already tense relations between the White House and the intelligence community.

The scandal, a classic Washington tale of mud-slinging and whispers, with massive political ramifications, is undermining Bush’s popularity. It is also refuelling debate over the administration’s justification for war as Americans become more disillusioned about casualties in Iraq, and jittery about terrorism because of the London bombings.

The heat was turned up on Friday when several ex-CIA agents slammed President Bush for failing to take action in the naming of Plame two years ago, and for using an intelligence agent as a political football. Her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, had days before publicly accused the administration of “twisting” intelligence on Iraq’s weapons to bolster its case for the war.

Bush’s silence on the scandal, and on the White House’s role, is hampering the war on terror, said ex-agents in a special hearing organised by Democrats.

“I wouldn’t be here this morning if President Bush had done the one thing required of him as commander in chief – protect and defend the constitution,” said Larry Johnson, a registered Republican. “The minute that Valerie Plame’s identity was outed, he should have delivered a strict and strong message to his employees.”

James Marcinkowski, a former CIA case officer and prosecutor, said: “What has suffered irreversible damage is the credibility of our case officers when they try to convince an overseas contact that their safety is of primary importance to us.”




He then ripped into Republicans on Capitol Hill who have tried to minimise the leak by defending Rove as a “whistle-blower” and by downplaying Plame’s role at the CIA, where she was in fact an expert on weapons of mass destruction.

“Before you shine up your American flag lapel pin and affix your patriotism to your sleeve, think about what the impact your actions will have on the security of the American people,” he thundered.

The White House refused to comment on their accusations but was apparently taking the matter very seriously; it was Bush’s special aide, the Texan Karen Hughes, who spoke with reporters afterwards, not spokesman Scott McLellan.

“The probe has underscored that this administration plays hardball, smash-mouth politics” in its efforts to stifle dissent, said Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank.

“The leaks were clearly designed to undermine Wilson.”

Karl Rove has acknowledged that he discussed Plame with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. But he has said it was only after the reporter raised the issue, an account at odds with Cooper’s.

Rove has also said that he first heard Plame’s name from Robert Novak, the conservative columnist who actually published it, an account that apparently differs from Novak’s.

In July 2003, Novak wrote that Plame, a CIA agent, had recommended her husband for a mission in 2002 to look into a report that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger. Novak cited two senior White House officials as sources.

Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger who was also in Kuwait during the first Gulf war, said that the report on uranium was untrue, a view backed by the US State Department. But in a major speech in early 2003, Bush cited “intelligence” on Niger as evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMD.

Shortly after the speech, the White House withdrew the statement, although the invasion of Iraq began within weeks.

Rove, in charge of White House policy, is exceptionally powerful. Dubbed “Bush’s brain” by critics of the president, he is often seen walking at Bush’s side and is said to be as potent politically as Dick Cheney, the vice president. He is also renowned for his dirty campaign tricks.

He is once said to have smeared political opponent Ann Richards, the Democratic Texas governor, by having campaign workers pose as pollsters. They phoned potential voters and asked them what their reaction would be if told that Richard’s staff was dominated by lesbians. She lost the race.

Bush’s popularity is sliding, in part due to the scandal. Almost half of Americans now say that the President is not trustworthy, while only slightly more disagree, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Centre.

Only about half of those polled said they approve of Bush’s handling of terrorism, the lowest since September 11 2001. Support for Rove, even amongst Republicans, is weak. About four in 10 said they are not sure if he should resign. In an ABC poll earlier last week, only a quarter of people said they thought the White House was co-operating fully with the CIA probe.

24 July 2005

I smell impeachment hearings.

Karl Rove in a Corner
Karl Rove is at his most formidable when running close races, and his skills would be notable even if he used no extreme methods. But he does use them. His campaign history shows his willingness, when challenged, to employ savage tactics
by Joshua Green
.....
t is the close races that establish the reputations of great political strategists, and few have ever been closer than the 2000 presidential election. From the tumult of the lengthy recount, the absentee-ballot dispute, the charges of voter fraud, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court decision, George W. Bush emerged victorious by a margin of 537 votes in Florida—enough to elevate him to the presidency, and his chief strategist, Karl Rove, to the status of legend.
But the 2000 election was not Rove's closest race. That had come earlier, and serves as a greater testament to his skill. In 1994 a group called the Business Council of Alabama appealed to Rove to help run a slate of Republican candidates for the state supreme court. This would not have seemed a plum assignment to most consultants. No Republican had been elected to that court in more than a century. But the council was hopeful, in large part because Rove had faced precisely this scenario in Texas several years before, and had managed to get elected, in rapid succession, a Republican chief justice and a number of associate justices, and was well on his way to turning an...

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There are more bush-cheney bumperstickers on vehicals than there were before the election