"This story has LEGS, I tell you!"
Posted on 7/16/2005, 12:12:15 AM by blogblogginaway
Washington (AP) - After mentioning a CIA operative to a reporter, Bush confidant Karl Rove alerted the president's No. 2 security adviser about the interview and said he tried to steer the journalist away from allegations the operative's husband was making about faulty Iraq intelligence. The July 11, 2003, e-mail between Rove and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is the first showing an intelligence official knew Rove had talked to Matthew Cooper just days before the Time magazine reporter divulged CIA officer Valerie Plame's secret identity.
"I didn't take the bait," Rove wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press, recounting how Cooper tried to question him about whether President Bush (website - news - bio) had been hurt by the new allegations.
The White House turned the e-mail over to prosecutors, and Rove testified to a grand jury about it last year.
Earlier in the week before the e-mail, Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had written a newspaper opinion piece accusing the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence, including a "highly doubtful" report that Iraq bought nuclear materials from Niger.
"Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming," Rove wrote in the e-mail to Hadley.
"When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this."
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
Fyi...
This special prosecutor's office appears to be leaking like a sieve.
Another nail in this stupid story's coffin.
anudder *ping*
Im glazing over fast
Yep - it is as he has said all along.
"This story has LEGS, I tell you!"
Checkmate.
He knows what a rat smells like.
I'm stealing that one.
Now who the H leaked this? It shows Karl is not guilty of anything. But how did AP get it?
Sounds like it's just one person doing the leaking. The judge better nip this quickly.
Good question!
Yes, they smell just like a Donkey(or so I have heard!!)
Don't ya think it's Rove's folks who are doing the leaking? Which is okay. If this stuff proves wrong, Karl's cooked. If true, Karl is one fine public servant. My guess is Karl's going to play the press like a fiddle on this one. (Which is what he'd done all along -- you'd think they'd learn.)
Could be Rove's attorney releasing this? Its more good news for Rove....and as you recall, all witnesses can reveal whatever they want to. It just goes to show that the news media was "peddling" this story, not Rove...more credibility problems for MSM.
I think you are correct. This helps Rove. It clearly shows he was the one not pushing the story (which is key, because intent is a part of the Intelligence Identity Protection Act).
The weird thing was when I clicked on the story on Yahoo's main page, it sent me to some intermediary page: http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/media_watch, that left out the key portions. You had to do a secondary click to get to the full article. And last night, for the AP story (favorable to Rove), Yahoo did not allow comments. I have never run into that before.
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