Oh, I don't know. Makes a swell anecdote to spice up the conversation a bit with your intimates. I'd expect nothing less from a fellow whose response to this allegedly heinous crime was this:
Posted on 07/12/2005 3:10:12 PM PDT by Dog
Stick with me--this is a long post.
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 means 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 target of Fitzgerald's investigation 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? What if he 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 the Foundation 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.
Chew on that for a while. I'm exhausted. Posted at 05:55 PM
I'm with you! I'd give anything if it were told to Terry Moran by Joe Wilson!
Me too. That Miller's source has released her means that Fitzgerald knows who it is. Still, he wants her before the GJ under oath. Hmmmmm. Inquiring minds...
John Podhoretz has been reading your stuff......;)
Oh, I don't know. Makes a swell anecdote to spice up the conversation a bit with your intimates. I'd expect nothing less from a fellow whose response to this allegedly heinous crime was this:
I think you mispelled his name. It's Terry Moron. LOL
FYI (see the latter half of the article)...
That's what makes the Wilson angle so relevant in this case. In public at least, he was doing exactly the opposite -- he was denying that she had any role in his trip at all (which later turned out to be absolutely false). His role in this story as the author of an op-ed piece for the NY Times makes the newspaper a party to the story, and therefore unable to report on it in an objective manner (not that they're objective anyway).
The other alternative I've considered here is that Miller isn't protecting any source at all. Perhaps she intended to identify Plame by name simply because a whole bunch of people in Washington already knew who she was -- and Miller is now going to jail rather than admit that her "source in Washington" just doesn't exist.
History repeats itself.
Brit Hume just said Plame was the one who notified Joe Wilson that he was assigned the trip to Niger. She started with "There's this crazy report (about Saddam wanting to buy uranium from Niger)." Wilson's attorney also denied that Wilson's wife involved in the sending of Joe to Niger...even though a CIA agent testified to that and there is a email from Plame recommending that her husband should be assigned to go.
Also on Fox tonight, John Gibson recommended that Rove be given a medal for exposing a CIA agent (Plame) who knows her husbands thoughts on the war has the CIA send her husband on such a critical mission. Who was trying to harm national security???? "There's this crazy report...", nope, no bias there!
They got her emails!
Never play poker with a Texan..
If Joe Wilson and Val tesify to the GJ???
Did Wlison and his wife tesify in front of the GJ?
Ooh! Ooh! I want to answer!
If the jailed NYT reporterette Judith Miller is the one who let Valerie Plame's identity slip, the entire mainsteam media will do an abrupt 180-degree turn in heavy traffic and claim "Oh come ON, man! *Everyone* knew who Valerie Plame was the CIA agent wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson! FREE JUDITH MILLER!"
Brit Hume just said Plame was the one who notified Joe Wilson that he was assigned the trip to Niger. She started with "There's this crazy report (about Saddam wanting to buy uranium from Niger)."
Page 39:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/13jul20041400/www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/s108-301/sec2.pdf
The lawyer for top White House adviser Karl Rove says that Time reporter Matthew Cooper "burned" Rove after a conversation between the two men concerning former ambassador Joseph Wilson's fact-finding mission to Niger and the role Wilson's wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, played in arranging that trip. Nevertheless, attorney Robert Luskin says Rove long ago gave his permission for all reporters, including Cooper, to tell prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about their conversations with Rove.
Maybe it does help because it implies it wasnt Rove who gave last minute permission.
Good article.
I'm leaning towards multiple leaks as well. It also seems logical to conclude the reporters who actualy wrote articles related to this were only a subset of the full number of reporters who were aware of Plame's CIA background, which unfortunately would further complicate things.
The possibility of information passing through a Wilkerson-Powell channel is interesting. That could've down up or down the chain, too.
Wilson denied his wife got him the Niger gig in his book, but the senate committee found a memo written by Plame recommending him. He's a flat liar. On his website he named his wife as a CIA person--long before KR ever had a conversation with cooper. Also Aldrich Ames outted Plame 9+ years ago.
The whole whole thing is hysterical!! Typical liberals.
Me too. And yes, I think Judith Miller more than likely spilled to Cooper, who then found some mundane reason to call Karl Rove; and in asidem, wrangled about the Niger story; using whatever Karl Rove said as a "confirmation". Miller has the same waiver as Cooper, right?
Miller is doing time for the NY Times.
Judith Miller is hiding something embarrasing to Dems/Libs. Her supposed source, is Rove. OR IS IT??????
ping
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