Thread: Rove on the Hotseat?

BUMP, because I'm feeling like a son-of-a-*****, and I wanted to get Broken to post something foolish about this non-issue so that I can throw in his face later.

Oh, and here's another one, because I'm REALLY feelin' like a son-of-a-*****:

Heh.

Originally Posted by Bluesman

BUMP, because I'm feeling like a son-of-a-*****, and I wanted to get Broken to post something foolish about this non-issue so that I can throw in his face later.

Oh, and here's another one, because I'm REALLY feelin' like a son-of-a-*****:

Heh.

Awww, you guys miss me.....

OK, here's an article today buy Pincus of the Wash Post which talks about the CIA head of CPD sending Wilson to Niger and that Plame was only marginally involved. That ought to get your teeth a-gnashing.

What is interesting is that Pincus makes the case, without actually saying it, that the only way Rove and Libby could have learned Plame's name is from the classified State Dept report circulating the White House right after Wilson wrote his article on the Niger uranium. This is the only report which makes the claim that Plame selected Wilson. Unless Rove and Libby just made that up, they would have had to have gotten that little tid-bit from this classified report. So far, they have denied this.

Here's the article:

Side Issue in the Plame Case: Who Sent Her Spouse to Africa?

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 11, 2005; Page A08

The origin of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's trip to Niger in 2002 to check out intelligence reports that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase uranium has become a contentious side issue to the inquiry by special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is looking into whether a crime was committed with the exposure of Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, as a covert CIA employee.

After he went public in 2003 about the trip, senior Bush administration officials, trying to discredit Wilson's findings, told reporters that Wilson's wife, who worked at the CIA, was the one who suggested the Niger mission for her husband. Days later, Plame was named as an "agency operative" by syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who has said he did not realize he was, in effect, exposing a covert officer. A Senate committee report would later say evidence indicated Plame suggested Wilson for the trip.

Over the past months, however, the CIA has maintained that Wilson was chosen for the trip by senior officials in the Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division (CPD) -- not by his wife -- largely because he had handled a similar agency inquiry in Niger in 1999. On that trip, Plame, who worked in that division, had suggested him because he was planning to go there, according to Wilson and the Senate committee report.

The 2002 mission grew out of a request by Vice President Cheney on Feb. 12 for more information about a Defense Intelligence Agency report he had received that day, according to a 2004 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. An aide to Cheney would later say he did not realize at the time that this request would generate such a trip.

Wilson maintains that his wife was asked that day by one of her bosses to write a memo about his credentials for the mission--after they had selected him. That memo apparently was included in a cable to officials in Africa seeking concurrence with the choice of Wilson, the Senate report said.

Valerie Wilson's other role, according to intelligence officials, was to tell Wilson he had been selected, and then to introduce him at a meeting at the CIA on Feb. 19, 2002, in which analysts from different agencies discussed the Niger trip. She told the Senate committee she left the session after her introduction.

Senior Bush administration officials told a different story about the trip's origin in the days between July 8 and July 12, 2003. They said that Wilson's wife was working at the CIA dealing with weapons of mass destruction and that she suggested him for the Niger trip, according to three reporters.

The Bush officials passing on this version were apparently attempting to undercut the credibility of Wilson, who on Sunday, July 6, 2003, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" and in The Washington Post and the New York Times that he had checked out the allegation in Niger and found it to be wrong. He criticized President Bush for misrepresenting the facts in his January 2003 State of the Union address when he said Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from Africa.

Time magazine's Matthew Cooper has written that he was told by Karl Rove on July 11 "don't get too far out on Wilson" because information was going to be declassified soon that would cast doubt on Wilson's mission and findings. Cooper also wrote that Rove told him that Wilson's wife worked for the agency on weapons of mass destruction and that "she was responsible for sending Wilson."

This Washington Post reporter spoke the next day to an administration official, who talked on the condition of anonymity, and was told in substance "that the White House had not paid attention to the former ambassador's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger because it was set up as a boondoggle by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction," as reported in an Oct. 14 article.

Novak had been told earlier in the week about Wilson's wife. He has written that he asked a senior administration official why Wilson, who had held a National Security Council staff position in the Clinton administration, had been given that assignment. The response, Novak wrote, was that "Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife." Novak then called another Bush official for confirmation and got the response "Oh, you know about it." Novak said he called the CIA on July 10, 2003, to get the agency's version. The then-CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, told the columnist that the story he had gotten about Wilson's wife's role was not correct. Novak has written that Harlow said the CPD officials selected Wilson but that she "was delegated to request his help."

Harlow has said that he told Novak that if he wrote about the trip, he should not mention Wilson's wife's name. Novak, who published her maiden name -- Valerie Plame -- has written that Harlow's request was "meaningless" because "once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as 'Valerie Plame' by reading her husband's entry in 'Who's Who in America.' "

In the July 14, 2003, column, Novak wrote that Plame was an "agency operative" and that "two senior administration officials" told him that she "suggested sending him to Niger." He also wrote that "CIA officials did not regard Wilson's intelligence as definitive" because they would expect the Niger officials to deny the allegation. Although Novak cited the two officials' version of events, he also included the CIA's opposing view: that "its counterproliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."

Two other sources appear to support the view that Wilson's wife suggested her husband's trip. One is a June 2003 memo by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). The other, which depends in good part on the INR document, is a statement of the views of Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and two other Republican members. That statement was attached to the full committee report on its 2004 inquiry into the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The INR document's reference to the Wilson trip is contained in two sentences in a three-page memo on why the State Department disagreed with the idea that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa -- a view that would ultimately be endorsed after the Iraq invasion by the U.S. weapons hunter David Kay. The notes supporting those two sentences in the INR document say that the Feb. 19, 2002, meeting at the CIA was "apparently convened by [the former ambassador's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue," according to the Senate intelligence committee report. But one Senate Democratic staff member said, "That was speculation, that was not true."

The full Senate committee report says that CPD officials "could not recall how the office decided to contact" Wilson but that "interviews and documents indicate his wife suggested his name for the trip." The three Republican senators wrote that they were more certain: "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee."

Just in case you haven't gotten enough Plame-gate, here is an article with some possible big implications. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's boss is quitting the Justice department, and the new guy is an old buddy of Bush's. Will he let Fitzgerald continue if things get too hot for Rove and Libby?

Justice Department Losing Top Officials at Busy Time

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page A17

The Justice Department's second-in-command, James B. Comey, is clearing out his desk today to take a job as Lockheed Martin Corp.'s general counsel. The department's sprawling criminal division has been without a permanent chief for three months. And two other divisions covering antitrust and civil rights investigations are operating under temporary leadership.

Amid a major department reorganization, a Senate battle over the Supreme Court and an ongoing probe into the leak of a CIA operative's name, the Justice Department is stuck with vacancies in some of its most high-profile and politically sensitive jobs.

Justice officials say they are particularly concerned about the appointments for deputy attorney general and criminal division chief, which have been held up by disputes in the Senate and are unlikely to be approved until mid-September at the earliest.

The delays have resulted in a rare bout of friction between Congress and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who has vowed to mend frayed relations between Justice and Capitol Hill since his contentious confirmation battle early this year.

"There's a huge concern that we're sitting without confirmed leadership for this many weeks," said one senior Justice official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing negotiations over the appointments.

The candidate to replace Comey, former deputy White House counsel Timothy E. Flanigan, came under sharp questioning from some senators last month about his role in setting U.S. policy on torture and his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was indicted yesterday. A confirmation vote has yet to be scheduled.

The Judiciary Committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), indicated during a July 26 confirmation hearing that he was dissatisfied with some of Flanigan's responses and hinted that he might not support his appointment.

Perhaps the most intractable disagreement centers on Alice Fisher, a Justice official under Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. She is nominated to head the criminal division. A vote on Fisher's appointment has been blocked by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), who is seeking information from the administration related to detainee-abuse allegations. Levin has placed a hold on Fisher's nomination, taking advantage of long-standing rules allowing one senator to block a nominee, according to Senate aides and Justice officials.

The standoff stems from an FBI e-mail revealed during recent litigation over detainee-abuse allegations in which the author writes: "In my weekly meetings with DOJ we often discussed [Defense Department] techniques and how they were not effective or producing intel that was reliable," adding in a second sentence that Fisher and other Justice officials "all attended meetings with FBI."

To Levin and other Democrats, including Sens. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), the e-mails indicated that Fisher may have participated in discussions of FBI objections to the tactics used by Defense Department interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other detention facilities.

Fisher said in written responses to the Judiciary Committee that she did not recall participating in discussions of specific interrogation techniques. According to a follow-up letter from Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella, the unidentified author of the FBI e-mail said that Fisher had not participated in such discussions and that he did not mean to imply that she had.

But Levin and other Democrats want to interview the FBI agent themselves, a request that the Justice Department has refused.

The Justice vacancies come at a busy time for the department. Under a reorganization ordered by President Bush, Justice officials are working on plans to create a national security division within the department to oversee counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations -- much of which is now handled by the criminal division that Fisher has been nominated to lead.

Comey, the departing deputy attorney general, has also had the task of overseeing special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's probe into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Justice officials expect to announce today that Comey will be replaced temporarily by Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum. Officials have declined to say whether McCallum -- a Yale classmate of the president's as well as a longtime friend -- would be tapped to oversee the Plame investigation.

Journalist Freed to Testify in Plame Case
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — New York Times reporter Judith Miller, jailed since July 6 for refusing to reveal a confidential source, was freed Thursday after agreeing to testify about her conversations with the source.

Miller is expected to appear today before a federal grand jury investigating whether anyone in the Bush administration leaked the name of a covert CIA officer to reporters.

Her surprise release, negotiated between Times lawyers and a Justice Department special prosecutor, came after Miller received what the newspaper described as "a direct and un-coerced waiver" from her source that released her from any pledge of confidentiality and enabled her to testify.

Although the New York Times did not identify the source, people close to the case said that it was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Miller is expected to testify about conversations she had had with Libby, sources said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings.

Miller's testimony had been sought as part of a nearly two-year probe into whether the White House played a role in leaking the name of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to journalists, and violated a federal law that makes it a crime to identify covert agents.

Plame is married to former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, who wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times criticizing the administration's use of intelligence in justifying the war with Iraq. On July 14, 2003, eight days after that article was published, Robert Novak identified Plame by name and occupation in a syndicated column that attacked Wilson.

Among other avenues, the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has been investigating whether White House officials, including Libby and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, were fully forthcoming with investigators about their knowledge of Plame and how her name became public.

Miller's agreement to cooperate suggests that Fitzgerald may be in a position to wrap up his investigation into the politically charged case. Depending on his findings, it could bring further damaging news to the administration, already rocked over its handling of hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast and the indictment this week of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Neither Libby nor his lawyer, Joseph Tate of Philadelphia, could be reached for comment Thursday night.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, who has said that his client was told more than a year ago that he was not a target of the investigation, said in an interview late Thursday that he had no reason to believe Rove's status had changed.

In a statement, Miller said: "I am leaving jail today because my source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter.

"My attorneys have also reached agreement with the Office of Special Counsel regarding the nature and scope of my testimony, which satisfied my obligation as a reporter to keep faith with my sources."

It was unclear whether Miller would be testifying about conversations with other individuals, although one source close to the case indicated that her testimony would be limited to her discussions with Libby.

Libby has denied leaking Plame's name and has said that he first heard about her from journalists. Some people close to the case have said that Miller herself may have helped identify Plame to administration officials and is protecting another source who gave her that information.

Miller, 57, a veteran investigative reporter, spent 85 days in jail, housed in a federal detention center in Alexandria, Va., whose inmates include Zacarias Moussaoui, the French national who pleaded guilty this spring to conspiring with Al Qaeda operatives involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist plot.

Her incarceration, among the longest any journalist has undergone for protecting a confidential source, sparked an outcry from media groups and has triggered renewed interest in Congress concerning federal legislation to prevent journalists from going to jail for protecting sources who provide information about official misconduct.

What made Miller's case particularly unusual was that, unlike other journalists called to testify, she never wrote an article about Plame and Wilson.

Miller was found in civil contempt of court and sent to jail by a federal judge in Washington in July after refusing a demand from Fitzgerald to testify about conversations she had with an administration figure — widely presumed to be Libby — in the eight days between the time Wilson's article was published and Plame was identified in Novak's column.

At the behest of Fitzgerald, Libby and others in the administration had earlier provided a general written waiver releasing journalists from their pledge of confidentiality and allowing them to discuss their conversations. Many journalists in the case, including Miller, regarded those blanket waivers as overly impersonal and meaningless.

Libby has shown a willingness in the past to offer more personal assurances when asked, freeing journalists to talk. Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, who barely avoided jail at the same time Miller was sentenced last summer, testified about Libby after approaching the White House aide for a waiver.

Sources close to the case said that Libby talked directly with Miller about 10 days ago, releasing her from any pledge of confidentiality.

The New York Times reported in today's editions that the agreement that led to Miller's release followed negotiations involving Miller; her lawyer, Robert Bennett; Tate; and Fitzgerald, and that the talks began with a telephone call from Bennett to Tate in late August.

According to the Times account, Libby and Tate strenuously argued that a waiver Libby had provided more than a year earlier was adequate to cover Miller, and that additional assurances were unnecessary.

People close to the case speculated that the possibility of a grueling and seemingly endless jail term may also have been a factor in the resolution.

Miller was sent to jail for the length of the grand jury investigating the Plame case, which is due to expire Oct. 28. The grand jury's term could be extended by six months.

At the same time, Fitzgerald had raised the possibility in court that he might seek to have the reporter held in criminal contempt if she continued to refuse to cooperate. Under federal law, the penalty for criminal contempt is a maximum of five years in prison. A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment late Thursday on any aspect of Miller's release.

Source

This is very interesting....kinda reminds me of the "who shot J.R.?" episode.