Posted on 07/13/2005 10:33:50 PM PDT by Crackingham
"The fact is, Karl Rove did not leak classified information." So said Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican Party.
"I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name." So said Karl Rove of Valerie Wilson/Plame last year on CNN.
"He did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." So said Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, after Newsweek reported Rove had been a source for Time magazine's Matt Cooper but before Newsweek revealed a Cooper email that said Rove had told Cooper that "wilson's wife...apparently works at the agency on wmd issues."
The White House may be stonewalling on the Rove scandal, but the Rove camp--aided by its echo-ists in the conservative media--has been busy establishing the twin-foundation for his defense: he did not mention Valerie Wilson/Plame by name; he did not disclose classified information. The first of these two assertions is misleading and irrelevant; the second is wrong.
According to Cooper's email, Rove told Cooper that "Wilson's wife"--not "Valerie Plame," or "Valerie Wilson"--worked at the CIA. But this distinction has absolutely no legal relevance. Under the relevant law--the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982--a crime is committed when a government official (not a journalist) "intentionally discloses any information identifying" an undercover intelligence officer. The act does not say a name must be disclosed. By telling a reporter that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA officer, Rove was clearly disclosing "identifying" information. There was only one Mrs. Joseph Wilson. With such information in hand, Cooper or anyone else could easily have ascertained the name of this officer. (A Google search at the time would have yielded the name--and maiden name--of Wilson's wife.) Revealing the name is not the crime; it's disclosing information that IDs the officer. Imagine if a government official told a reporter, "At 3:15, a fellow in a green hat, carrying a red umbrella and holding a six-pack of Mountain Dew, will be tap-dancing in front of the Starbucks at Connecticut Avenue and R Street--he's the CIA's best undercover officer working North Korea." That official could not defend himself, under this law, by claiming that he had not revealed the name of this officer. The issue is identifying, not naming. Rove and his allies cannot hide behind his no-name claim.
A reading of this law also indicates that if Cooper's email is accurate then Rove did pass classified information to Cooper. It's possible that Rove did so unwittingly. That is, he did not know Valerie Wilson's employment status at the CIA was classified information. But he and his posse cannot say the information he slipped to Cooper was not classified.
The Intelligence Identities Protection Act makes it a crime to identify "a covert agent" of the United States. The law defines "covert agent," in part, as "a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information." (My emphasis.)
This definition clearly recognizes that the identity of an undercover intelligence officer is "classified information." The law also notes that a "covert agent" has a "classified relationship to the United States." Since the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate the Plame/CIA leak and the Justice Department affirmed the need for an investigation and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, once handed the case, pursued the matter vigorously, it is reasonable to assume that Valerie Wilson fits the definition of a "covert agent." That means she has a "classified relationship" with the government.
By disclosing Valerie Wilson's relationship to the CIA, Rove was passing classified information to a reporter.
man, the left really is pathetic.
There is no evidence yet to suggest Rove knew she was an undercover intelligence officer. The inference the person who wrote this article attempts to get the readers to draw is a lie.
It's only David Corn. The snake lives under a rock so just ignore him.
So Rove is is guilty of revealing something you can get from a google search?
Am i missing something, or is that about it?
Yet there are pictures of Plame and Wilson at some expensive dinner. How is that ' covert?'
Corn was one of the leftist commentators during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal who was consistently wrong about the applicable law. I seriously doubt he's become any better with his legal analytical skills.
She was not a covert operative. This "reporter" needs to get that through his thick skull.
Dave Corn's thong has been riding high lately, he's got a hair in his ass for anything Rove... and won't let go. Poor girl.
You could get a CIA agent's status from a google search?
David Corn...I don't trust a person with no lips.
LOL
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442513/posts
"In order for Rove (or whoever the source was) to have broken the law, he would have to know and reveal that Plame was a covert operative for the CIA. The problem is that she wasn’t one anymore."
This would pretty much be like arresting any reporter who wrote a story where they revealed George HW Bush was a former head of the CIA.
This is the best the left can dig up along with the Guantanamo baloney? Talk about desperate. It is NOTHING. Negative, negative, negative. How about offering some sort of alternative plan? These idiots are going to lose a lot more elections.
Here's the thing. Brit Hume said tonight the word from the Rove camp is that Rove learned where Joe Wilson's wife worked because a reporter told him. To break the law, you specifically have to get that info from a classified sorce. My guess is that the through Fitgeralds investigation he has pinned either Miller or who told here as the leaker. But to get a solid inditement he needs her testimony either so she can perger herself and he can bust her ( which will cause her to comply )or she will give in and tell him who here sorce was. Either way Rove is in the clear as far as I can see.
And dont worry because its been a long time coming for this Wilson prick and I cant wait for the sequal 'The White House Strikes Back' Wilson is going down. I just have this gut feeling.
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