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Source in CIA leaked named?

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White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.
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http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10016
 
Shinobi said:
Call me an eternal cynic, but I'll believe it when I see it. Personally I expect to see July's "missing white woman of the month" take center stage by week's end.
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Now that drives me nuts. I don't know what's the deal with our media's obsession with missing white girls.
 
Guileless said:
For the third time, media attention on this right now is beside the point. If there's enough evidence for a grand jury to indict him, he will be indicted regardless of what the media does. The media could start doing all their Rove stories in Latin and it will have no effect on whether he's indicted.
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Quoted for emphasis. Fitzgerald seems to be a man we can trust and if anthing deemed illegal happened, we can feel pretty secure that the right thing will be done whether that means indictments or not, we just don't know.

Its been a while (never) that I felt confidence in a Bush appointee...
 
no no no no no, it is the media's journalistic duty to figure out the truth of the matter and report it regardless of the criminal investigation. journalists are not supposed to assume that the government is acting perfectly in the public's best interests. they're there to assure that it is. i mean, they shouldn't hinder the investigation, but they shouldn't just ignore it until some kind of verdict is handed down either.
 
Of course the media should report on it, but there's no reason to assume that somehow justice will not be done if the media doesn't talk about it 24/7.
 
Photo from June 2003 of Rove and the Dark Prince Douchebag of Liberty himself....

rovenovakpals3


Anyone catch the button?

"I'm a source, not a target."

How ironic... :lol :lol :lol :lol
 
Did Sandy Berger get hammered by the republicans for stuffing files down his pants from the national archives? Reason why I ask, is because Hannity brought it up a few days ago.
 
AssMan said:
Did Sandy Berger get hammered by the republicans for stuffing files down his pants from the national archives? Reason why I ask, is because Hannity brought it up a few days ago.
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Just Sandy Berger hammered? Ha, the Republican spin machine version 2004 made sure to hammer the entire Democratic party over that one.
 
Sal Paradise Jr said:
No way, that's got to be photoshopped. If not, :lol :lol :lol
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It's real. http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/printables/050321roco02?print=true

In this photograph taken in June 2003, Karl Rove, senior advisor to President Bush and Robert Novak are pictured together at a party marking the 40th anniversary of Novak's newspaper column at the Army Navy Club in Washington DC. At the event a number of people wore buttons reading, 'I'm a source, not a target.' Rove is at the center of a controversy about the leaking of a CIA operative's identity which originally appeared in Novak's newspaper column.

...

Novak's amazing longevity and range were apparent one night nearly two years ago at the Army and Navy Club, in Washington, when he marked the 40th anniversary of his column. Given his fiercely conservative views, it was a surprisingly bipartisan affair. Karl Rove was there, but so was Rahm Emanuel, formerly a key Clinton aide and soon to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Ken Mehlman, now head of the Republican National Committee, was there, but so was Bill Daley, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign, and Bob Shrum, who would soon run John Kerry's. Long ago, Novak had trashed George McGovern, for whom Shrum once wrote speeches. And last year--and without acknowledging that his son was marketing it--Novak was pushing Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, the book that helped sink the Democratic candidate. Novak's attack on Kerry led comedian Jon Stewart to label him "a douche bag of liberty," and his failure to disclose his son's role in the book led the Washington Monthly to accuse him of operating in a "Cayman Islands-like ethics-free zone." But Shrum, like many liberals, still calls Novak his friend.

Another veteran Democratic operative, Mark Siegel, explained why. There's this Novak caricature on television, he said, but privately he's "a very kind, sweet, thoughtful guy." To Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Novak's cross-party appeal instead reflects something putrid about political culture in the nation's capital. "It's the worst, most glaring example of people in Washington putting personal relations over their principles," he says. By liking Novak, he believes, people think they can prove how open-minded and civil they are. Indulging Novak's hatefulness, he says, is "one of the membership requirements of the Washington establishment."

Some glad-hand Novak out of fear or calculation more than affection. At the Army and Navy Club celebration, people wore buttons reading "I'm a source, not a target"--a nod to Novak's statement that for him people fall into one category or the other. Even those who find him crude feel elevated in his aura; hanging around him, appearing in his column, are signs you've arrived, even when he whacks you. Always, though, there is the debate over what is at the man's core. "Underneath the asshole is a nice guy, but underneath the nice guy is another asshole," Michael Kinsley, a Crossfire veteran, has said.
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Yesterday, Powell had his fun dumping the state department memo to various newspapers further implicating Rove, today it's the CIA's turn to play the role of "anonymous source":


via kos

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002517_pf.html

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.
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Don't think the CIA is too pleased. Here's what a former CIA director and US president had to say about people who leak the name of CIA agents,

Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.
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George H.W. Bush
 
I just finally got a chance to watch Meet the Press from Sunday. Let me tell you it was sickning. Ken Mehlman is a piece of garbage. Saying that Rove was vindicated with the information that was being released. This guy is total trash and was dodging all of the questions. This administration makes me sick. They all are liars and unethical from the top down. I think this Ken Mehlman jerk should be some how kicked out too. He didn't do anything illegal he's just a major dick.

I'm so pissed I don't even know what I am talking about now.
 
maynerd said:
I just finally got a chance to watch Meet the Press from Sunday. Let me tell you it was sickning. Ken Mehlman is a piece of garbage. Saying that Rove was vindicated with the information that was being released. This guy is total trash and was dodging all of the questions. This administration makes me sick. They all are liars and unethical from the top down. I think this Ken Mehlman jerk should be some how kicked out too. He didn't do anything illegal he's just a major dick.

I'm so pissed I don't even know what I am talking about now.
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Mehlman got his position thanks to Rove according to most insiders, so that shouldn't be so surprising really.
 
Well with the new bombings in London this story has been officialy swept under the rug. Perhaps Rove had something to do with the attack.
 
That's ridiculous, maynerd. Anyway, Bloomberg news has a fresh article about Rove and Libby lying to the Grand Jury.

Rove, Libby Accounts in CIA Case Differ With Those of Reporters

By Richard Keil

July 22 (Bloomberg) — Two top White House aides have given accounts to the special prosecutor about how reporters told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to persons familiar with the case.

Lewis “Scooter'’ Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn’t tell Libby of Plame’s identity.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who was first to report Plame’s name and connection to Wilson. Novak, according to a source familiar with the matter, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor.

These discrepancies may be important because one issue Fitzgerald is investigating is whether Libby, Rove, or other administration officials made false statements during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genesis in whether any administration officials violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a CIA agent.

The CIA requested the inquiry after Novak’s July 14, 2003, article that said Plame recommended her husband for a 2002 mission to check into reports Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson, in a July 6 column in the New York Times, said the Bush administration “twisted” some of the intelligence on Iraq’s weapons to justify the war.

Robert Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said today that Rove did tell the grand jury “he had not heard her name before he heard it from Bob Novak.'’ He declined in an interview to comment on whether Novak’s account of their conversation differed from Rove’s.

There also is a discrepancy between accounts given by Rove and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. The White House aide mentioned Wilson’s wife — though not by name — in a July 11, 2003 conversation with Cooper. Rove says that Cooper called him to talk about welfare reform and the Wilson connection was mentioned later in passing.

Cooper wrote in Time magazine last week that he told the grand jury that he never discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call.

The leak case shows that administration officials have in effect been using reporters as shields by claiming that the information on Plame first came from them.

One reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, has been jailed on contempt of court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury about her reporting on the Plame case.

Cooper testified only after Time Inc. said it would comply with Fitzgerald’s demands for Cooper’s notes and reporting on the Plame matter, particularly regarding his dealings with Rove.

Libby didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

The various accounts of conversations between Rove, Libby and reporters come as new details emerge about a classified State Department memorandum that’s also at the center of Fitzgerald’s probe.

A memo by the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) included Plame’s name in a paragraph marked “(S)'’ for `Secret,’ a designation that should have indicated to anyone who read it that the information was classified, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

The memo, prepared July 7, 2003, for Secretary of State Colin Powell, is a focus of Fitzgerald’s interest, according to individuals who have testified before the grand jury and attorneys familiar with the case.

The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa by his wife, Valerie Wilson, who worked on the CIA’s counter-proliferations desk.

In his New York Times article, Wilson said there was no basis to conclude that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear material in Africa and that the administration had exaggerated the evidence.

Bush had said in his State of the Union message in January, 2003 that Iraq was trying to purchase nuclear materials in Africa.

The memo summarizing the Plame-Wilson connection was provided to Powell as he left with President George W. Bush on a five-day trip to Africa. Fitzgerald is exploring whether other White House officials who accompanied Bush may have gained access to the memo and shared its contents with officials back in Washington. Rove and Libby didn’t accompany Bush to Africa.

One key to the inquiry is when White House aides knew of Wilson’s connection to Plame and whether they learned about it through this memo or other classified information.

Some Bush allies were hopeful that the Fitzgerald investigation, which dominated the news in Washington for the first part of July, would subside as the focus now is on Bush’s nomination of Judge John Roberts to fill the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years.

Yet special prosecutor Fitzgerald, not media coverage, will determine the outcome of this investigation.
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http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/21...rove-libby-may-be-subject-to-perjury-charges/
 
Another tough day at work for Scotty boy. :lol

Q Why does Karl Rove still have security clearance and access to classified documents when he has been revealed as a leaker of a secret agent, according to Time magazine's correspondent?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, there is an investigation that continues, and I think the President has made it clear that we're not going to prejudge the outcome of that investigation.

Q You already have the truth.

MR. McCLELLAN: We're not going to prejudge the outcome of that investigation through --

Q Does he have access to security documents?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- through media reports. And these questions came up over the last week --

Q Did he leak the name of a CIA agent?

MR. McCLELLAN: As I was trying to tell you, these questions have been answered.

Q No, they haven't.

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, David.

Q And they most certainly haven't. I think Helen is right, and the people watching us know that. And related to that, there are now --

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me correct the record. We've said for quite some time that this was an ongoing investigation, and that we weren't going to comment on it, so let me just correct the record.

Q If you want to make the record clear, then you also did make comments when a criminal investigation was underway, you saw fit to provide Karl Rove with a blanket statement of absolution. And that turned out to be no longer accurate --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, and there were preferences expressed by those overseeing the investigation that we refrain from commenting on it while they're continuing to look at -- investigate it.

Q White House officials have been very clear through their attorneys or through other leaks to make it known that it was essentially journalists who educated them about who Valerie Plame was, what she did, and her role in sending her husband to Niger. It has now come to light that in fact White House officials were aware, or at least had access to a State Department memo that the President's own Secretary of State at the time had with him when he was traveling on Air Force One to Africa, which indicated both who she was, what she did, and her role in the Niger trip. So did the White House, in fact, know about her through this memo, or not?

MR. McCLELLAN: I thank you for wanting to proceed ahead with the investigation from this room, but I think that the appropriate place for that to happen is through those who are overseeing the investigation. The President directed us to cooperate fully, and that's exactly what we have been doing and continue to do.

Q But you don't deny that attorneys for Rove and others in the White House are speaking about these matters, creating a lot of these questions, right, that you say you can't speak to?

MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, we're not getting into talking about an ongoing investigation. That's what the President indicated, as well.
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Man, it's only been six months and one day since Bush started his second term. Off to a terrible start... :lol :lol
 
Incognito said:
That's ridiculous, maynerd. Anyway, Bloomberg news has a fresh article about Rove and Libby lying to the Grand Jury.

You are right it is ridiculous. I was kidding. Anyways. Thanks for the new stuff this administration needs to answer to these charges.

Bush said that his admistration would be held to a higher ethical standard. They sure aren't showing it. In fact this could be the most deceptive, unethical, and reckless administration ever.

Watched the al frankin show last night on sundance it was a pretty good episode. He had Wilson on the show via phone and he set the record straight on the lies that the republicans are spreading about what he has said. He also had some rush limbaugh clips in a segment where a limbaugh supporter brought clips that prove Wilson wasn't being honest and proved that he was doing it for political reasons. He then responded to the clips (choosen by the limbaugh supporter I might add) with how rush was distorting the truth and he basically owned the guy. It was quite awesome.
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This just keeps getting better and better all the time!

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/07/oh-man-big-new-york-times-article-on.html

First, we've got the new fact that Scooter and Rove were working closely together on how to fight back against Wilson and the uproar over the 16 words. That suggests that the special prosecutor might be interested if they conspired, I mean, worked together on preparing their testimony?

At the same time in July 2003 that a C.I.A. operative's identity was exposed, two key White House officials who talked to journalists about the officer were also working closely together on a related underlying issue: whether President Bush was correct in suggesting earlier that year that Iraq had been trying to acquire nuclear materials from Africa....

People who have been briefed on the case said that the White House officials, Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr., were helping to prepare what became the administration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been included in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address six months earlier....

At the same time, they were grappling with the fallout from an Op-Ed article on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times by Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, in which he criticized the way the administration had used intelligence to support the claim in Mr. Bush's speech.

The work done by Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby on the Tenet statement, during this intense period, had not been previously disclosed....

Next we find out that all things go through Karl Rove. We knew that, and it made us ask originally how Karl never saw the Plame memo, which is what he suposedly told the grand jury. Hmmmm...

The effort was particularly striking because to an unusual degree, the circle of administration officials involved included those from the White House's political and national security operations, which are often separately run. Both arms were drawn into the effort to defend the administration during the period.

Then we read that Karen Hughes is now feeling some heat, and gosh, right before her confirmation hearings on Friday. Should the Senate really be confirming a woman involved in a criminal investigation involving national security secrets? Hmmmm....

In another indication of how wide a net investigators have cast in the case, Karen Hughes, a former top communications aide to Mr. Bush, and Robert Joseph, who was then the National Security Council's weapons proliferation expert, have both told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that they were interviewed by the special prosecutor.

Ms. Hughes is to have her confirmation hearing on Friday on her nomination to lead the State Department's public diplomacy operation. Mr. Joseph was recently confirmed as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. As part of their confirmation proceedings, both had to fill out a questionnaire listing any legal matters they had become involved in....

Then we get to Ari. Ari told the grand jury that he never saw the memo. But last weekend it was reported that Ari was soon walking around Air Force one actually CARRYING the memo. Uh oh.

The investigators have been trying to determine who else within the administration might have seen the memo or learned of its contents. Among those asked if he had seen the memo was Ari Fleischer, then the White House press secretary, who was on Air Force One with Mr. Bush and Mr. Powell during the Africa trip right after Mr. Wilson's article appeared. Mr. Fleischer told the grand jury that he never saw the memo, a person familiar with the testimony said....

Here's where we find out that Rove says he never saw the memo. Uh huh.

Mr. Rove has also told the grand jury that he never saw the memo, a person briefed on the case said.

And then, the piece de resistance - John friggin' Bolton gets involved. Oh yes, it's a dream come true scandal, folks.

Democrats who have been eager to focus attention on the case have urged reporters to look into the role of a number of other administration officials, including John R. Bolton, who was then undersecretary of state for arms control and international security and has since been nominated by Mr. Bush to be ambassador to the United Nations.

In his disclosure form for his Senate confirmation hearings, Mr. Bolton made no mention of having been interviewed in the case, a government official said.
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Some background on Patrick Fitzgerald, from an old Washington Post article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55560-2005Feb1.html

Fitzgerald, 44, is the special prosecutor investigating the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak. The gifted son of an Irish doorman makes no bones about challenging the establishment. His office is also prosecuting former Illinois governor George Ryan and loyal associates of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on influence-peddling and corruption charges.
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For years, Fitzgerald has avoided receiving mail at his apartment because of the threat of a letter bomb from one murder-minded defendant or another.

The staff of the 9/11 commission called him one of the world's best terrorism prosecutors. He convicted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and all four defendants in the embassy bombings, which had left 224 people dead. He extracted a guilty plea from Mafia capo John Gambino and became an authority on bin Laden, whom he indicted in 1998 for a global terrorist conspiracy that included the African bombings.

"His thoroughness, his relentlessness, his work ethic are legendary," says terrorism expert Daniel Benjamin, a former member of the National Security Council.

Seeing Fitzgerald in action, says Los Angeles lawyer Anthony Bouza, a college classmate, is "like watching a sophisticated machine." Colleagues speak in head-shaking tones of Fitzgerald's skills in taking a case to trial. A Phi Beta Kappa math and economics student at Amherst before earning a Harvard law degree in 1985, he has a gift for solving puzzles and simplifying complexity for a jury.

He's no slouch at stagecraft, either. At the trial of a Mafia hit man, the defense argued that a ski mask -- part of what Fitzgerald called a "hit kit" that included surgical gloves, a gun and hollow-point bullets -- was really just a hat. (The defense also said the surgical gloves were for putting ointment on the defendant's ailing dog.) During closing arguments, Fitzgerald startled the jury by rolling up one leg on his lawyerly dark suit.

"These are just shorts, ladies and gentlemen," he said, according to one account. "These are just shorts."
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After law school, he spent three years in private practice before fleeing to the prosecution side. In the New York days, his married friends chided him about his workaholic, overachieving, hopelessly bachelor life. One time, visiting the small Brooklyn studio where Fitzgerald lived, a lawman noticed papers piled on the gas stove. Don't worry about the fire hazard, Fitzgerald told him -- "I've never turned it on."

"The advantage he had over me," Comey says, "was he was much smarter and he had no life. He could sit there and never go home. Fitz would go in there and just sit and read through files. It would almost be as if he was photographing them."
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Fitzgerald is careful to be apolitical in his targets and his public life alike. He registered to vote as an Independent in New York, only to discover, when he began receiving fundraising calls, that Independent was a political party. He re-registered with no affiliation, as he did later in Chicago.

He spit fire last year when reporters asked whether the racketeering indictment of Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, a fundraiser for the Islamic militant group Hamas, was timed to boost President Bush's reelection campaign. The case was trumpeted first by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
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Even more troubling to many press analysts is Fitzgerald's effort to review the telephone records of Miller and fellow Times reporter Philip Shenon in another case. The prosecutor wants to know how the Times learned of the impending search of two Islamic charities then under investigation by Fitzgerald's office. The Times called the charities for comment, allegedly alerting them to the raid, Fitzgerald says.

In a recent court hearing, Fitzgerald told U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet that he is sensitive to First Amendment concerns. He said the reporters are not his targets: "We want to find out who leaked national security information."

Times attorney Floyd Abrams countered, "If we start down the road of permitting a federal prosecutor to obtain secret information without which journalists cannot function, the world will change for the worse because confidential sources will no longer be available."
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WASHINGTON -- The special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation has shifted his focus from whether White House officials violated a law against exposing undercover agents to determining whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges, according to people briefed in recent days on the inquiry's status.Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, and his team have made no decision on whether to seek indictments, and there could be benign explanations for differences that have arisen in witnesses' statements to federal agents and a grand jury about how the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who had worked undercover, was leaked to the media two years ago.
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L.A. Times
 
Interesting: "Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe"

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday that he spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. immediately after learning that the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. But Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, waited 12 hours before officially notifying the rest of the staff of the inquiry.
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Interesting...he told Card (who then probably gave advance warning to everyone else at the White House), and waited 12 hours until notifying the rest of the staff.

In the New York Times yesterday, columnist Frank Rich reported that when Gonzales was notified about the investigation on the evening of Monday, Sept. 29, 2003, he waited 12 hours before telling the White House staff about the inquiry. Official notification to staff is meant to quickly alert anyone who may have pertinent records to make sure they are preserved and safeguarded.
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Which is why official notification came 12 hours later. I wonder how much documentation can be destroyed within that time window.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), appearing on the same program, questioned why Gonzales would not have notified the staff immediately by e-mail and suggested that Fitzgerald now pursue whether Card may have given anyone in the White House advance notice to prepare for a criminal investigation.
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My point exactly.

"The real question now is, who did the chief of staff speak to? Did the chief of staff pick up the phone and call Karl Rove? Did the chief of staff pick up the phone and call anybody else?" Biden asked.
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I'll take "Everyone" for $1,000, Alex.
Washington Post

So now we have a new player in this whole affair: Andrew Card.
 
MIMIC said:
Interesting: "Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe"



Interesting...he told Card (who then probably gave advance warning to everyone else at the White House), and waited 12 hours until notifying the rest of the staff.



Which is why official notification came 12 hours later. I wonder how much documentation can be destroyed within that time window.



My point exactly.



I'll take "Everyone" for $1,000, Alex.
Washington Post

So now we have a new player in this whole affair: Andrew Card.
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Oh Snap!
 
The rabbit hole just keeps going. How deep is this thing going to get?
 
Andy Card and Karl Rove aren't the best of friends. I'll try to dig up the article, but it seems Ed Gillepsie(Former RNC Chairman) will be taking over Andy's role as Chief of Staff pretty soon -- probably after Roberts confirmation.
 
Robert Novak living up to his role as "Douchebag of Liberty".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602069_pf.html

Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified information.

In a column published Oct. 1, 2003, Novak wrote that the CIA official he spoke to "asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties' if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name."

Harlow was also involved in the larger internal administration battle over who would be held responsible for Bush using the disputed charge about the Iraq-Niger connection as part of the war argument. Based on the questions they have been asked, people involved in the case believe that Fitzgerald looked into this bureaucratic fight because the effort to discredit Wilson was part of the larger campaign to distance Bush from the Niger controversy.

Wilson unleashed a multimedia attack on Bush's claim on July 6, 2003, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," in an interview in The Post and writing his own op-ed article in the New York Times, in which he accused the president of "twisting" intelligence.

Behind the scenes, the White House responded with twin attacks: one on Wilson and the other on the CIA, which it wanted to take the blame for allowing the 16 words to have remained in Bush's speech. As part of this effort, then-national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley spoke with Tenet during the week about clearing up CIA responsibility for the 16 words, even though both knew the agency did not believe Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Tenet was interviewed by prosecutors in the leak case, but it is not clear whether he appeared before the grand jury, a former CIA official said.
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With Judy Miller out of the way, Fitzgerald can now close up shop. His Grand Jury term ends October 28th, but he could convene another jury if so needed. Thankfully, all indiciations are that he's indeed finishing up, and that he'll be announcing the outcome of his investigation later this week.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsa...0649Z_01_KWA603946_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal prosecutor investigating who leaked the identity of a CIA operative is expected to signal within days whether he intends to bring indictments in the case, legal sources close to the investigation said on Wednesday.

As a first step, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was expected to notify officials by letter if they have become targets, said the lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter."

...Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by Fitzgerald. In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target.
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Rumors are swirling that up to 22 indictments are to be handed down, and that Rove is indeed a target, thus explaining his disappearing act the past few weeks.

Of course, all the rumors should be taken with a huge grain of salt. It's just nice to see closure to the case.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9613084/

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer’s leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won’t be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.

The persons, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of President George W. Bush or others.

The U.S. attorney’s manual requires prosecutors not to bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless they are notified in advance that their grand jury testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.
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...they cannot guarantee he won’t be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.
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I guess this means they can't guarantee he will, either, right? Nice. Put on a brave face Mr. Rove, you American Hero. "11th Hour" testimony? No immunity from indictment? By God, your balls are truly the size of Nigeria. What gumption! What nerve! It is only by this baptism of fire that you can walk away cleansed.
 
Waitwaitwait.

Doesn't Incognito's quote imply that Rove will *not* have criminal charges pressed against him, or am I missing something?
 
TheOMan said:
Waitwaitwait.

Doesn't Incognito's quote imply that Rove will *not* have criminal charges pressed against him, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
CNN said:
Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor, said it was unusual for a witness to be called back to the grand jury four times and that the prosecutor's legally required warning to Rove before this next appearance is "an ominous sign" for the presidential adviser.

"It suggest Fitzgerald has learned new information that is tightening the noose," Gillers said. "It shows Fitzgerald now, perhaps after Miller's testimony, suspects Rove may be in some way implicated in the revelation of Plame's identity or that Fitzgerald is investigating various people for obstruction of justice, false statements or perjury. That is the menu of risk for Rove."
Click to expand...
I just can't wait to see the results of this investigation.
 
TheOMan said:
Waitwaitwait.

Doesn't Incognito's quote imply that Rove will *not* have criminal charges pressed against him, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

As I read it, it's practically an indication that they will. Calling him without that warning, according to the last paragraph, would mean they could *not* charge him. If they had no intention or possibility of charging him, they wouldn't have warned him.
 
Even if he's found guilty of something, I have a feeling he'll get away with it. He's Karl Rove.
Anything is possible of course, but I'm certainly not setting myself up for disappointment.
 
Rove's story has changed according to FBI and grand jury accounts, so that's why he's being called back. To "straighten" his story. Or fill in the holes that his previous three trips to the grand jury failed to fix. He *doesn't* have to appear this time, but he voluntarily chose to to clear the air. Obviously, the heat is on.

EDIT:

Lawrence O'Donnell, on the case as usual:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/plamegate-the-next-step_b_8447.html

Prosecutors prefer pre-indictment plea bargaining to post-indictment because they have more to offer you, like not being indicted at all or downgrading your status to unindicted co-conspirator. And pre-indictment plea bargaining can greatly enrich the indictments that the prosecutor then obtains. If, for example, Fitzgerald has a weak case against, say, Scooter Libby, imagine how much Rove's cooperation might strengthen that case.

If no one RSVPs to Fitzgerald's invitations, look for indictments as early as next week. If anyone does sit down with Fitzgerald, he will probably have to move to extend the grand jury, which now has only thirteen working days left in its term.

Prediction: at least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators.
Click to expand...
 
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