If Rove Wasn't Initial Source of Leak, Who Was? [LATimes laments]

LATimes ^ | July 17, 2005 | By Doyle McManus

[johnny7]

Some in GOP fear more revelations, and hope naming a court nominee will overshadow case.

WASHINGTON — If Karl Rove was source No. 2, who was source No. 1? Rove, President Bush's top political advisor, has survived a bruising week of controversy over his role in the unmasking of a CIA officer. But White House officials and their Republican allies acknowledge that they may face more revelations in the weeks and months to come.

[Cboldt]

Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to Dion shortly after the game began wanting to know the status of the investigation. I'm not sure but john kerry also might have signed the letter, maybe Shumer as well.

Thanks for that. Here is the text of the letter ...

October 15, 2003
John Dion, Chief, Counter-Espionage Section
Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Dion,

We write to express our concerns regarding apparent delays in the White House's production of evidence to the Department of Justice in connection with the criminal probe into the disclosure of a covert CIA operative's identity.

There have been three different public reports as to the deadline you set for the responses by White House staff to your request for evidence. First, on Friday, October 3, "an official familiar with" Justice's letter to the White House stated the deadline for production of evidence was Friday, October 10. Then, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at a briefing on Tuesday, October 7, that it would take two weeks for the White House to produce evidence to DOJ. Finally, an October 8 report in the Washington Post indicated that the deadline is October 17, with "intermediate deadlines" in the interim.

Given the President's commitment to total cooperation with this investigation, any delay in disclosing evidence to the Department of Justice is difficult to understand. A serious national security breach appears to have been committed, reports have indicated that someone (or some people) within the White House is responsible, yet this investigation is moving at a snail's pace. We hope you can understand why we are concerned.

Until the Attorney General recuses himself from this investigation and a special prosecutor is appointed, all reports of apparent delays and unusual beneficial treatment of the White House will be looked upon by the public with great skepticism. The conflicts of interest run too deep for there to be public confidence in the integrity of this investigation, especially when it appears a serious national security breach is being treated with kid gloves.

In the interest of improving public confidence in the integrity of this investigation we ask that you promptly address the following questions:

1. What was the original deadline or set of deadlines in your request for evidence transmitted to the White House on or about October 2?

2. Was the initial deadline or set of deadlines altered?

3. If so, what alterations have been made?

4. Please describe the process by which those deadlines were revised, who was involved in the decision to revise them, and the substance of all communications with superiors at the Department of Justice and anyone at the White House regarding revising deadlines. Please also identify with whom those communications took place.

5. If the White House sought any delay, please explain why the White House stated it wanted a delay and why such a delay was granted. Please describe the roles played by all superiors at the Department of Justice in approving any such delay.

6. Please describe the process by which decisions regarding this investigation are made. Specifically, under what circumstances are you required to or do you actually consult with superiors or anyone else at the Department of Justice? What role are Attorney General Ashcroft, Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, Solicitor General Ted Olson, and Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Christopher Wray playing in the investigation?

We are addressing this letter to you because you have been announced as the person in charge of the White House leak and intimidation investigation. If you do not have authority to respond to this inquiry without consulting with a superior or with someone outside your section, please let us know immediately the name of the person or persons with authority to respond, so we may redirect this request to the proper individual or office.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible regarding these important questions.

Sincerely
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator
Edward M. Kennedy
United States Senator

US Sens. Schumer's and Kennedy's Oct. 15, 2003 letter to John Dion
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR02107.html

A google search of "kennedy" "dion" "letter" "justice" turns up the letter as well as related articles. Substituting "schumer" for "kennedy" may yield slightly different results.

[jveritas]

You still with, eh!.

No it was not clever from the Donkeys, they do not do anything clever and that is why they keep losing one election after another. This is no different then all the lies and distortions they have spewed and re-spewed in the last 4 1/2 against President Bush, his administration and his policies, and they ended up with one utter defeat after another.

Do you know that there is their third try for the Plame non story? They tried it in 2003 and failed, in 2004 during the elections and failed, and now they will utterly fail again in 2005.

[Sam Hill]

"Do you know that there is their third try for the Plame non story? They tried it in 2003 and failed, in 2004 during the elections and failed, and now they will utterly fail again in 2005."

Just like the Bush National Guard story.

[jveritas]

Exactly.

[Arkie2]

How old was that article? 3-4 years? Get with the program.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

I suspect rogue elements in the CIA attempted to undermine the administration's war effort by setting up the whole Wilson Niger report garbage

I agree. It makes no sense why the CIA would send the spouse (Wilson) of an employee (Plame) on a critical fact finding mission. It had to be a rogue cabal within the CIA that authorized the trip.

It was surely outside the boundaries of normal procedures.

[VRWC For Truth]

We all know that a cabal of DemocRATS is behind this nonsense ... aided and abetted by incestuous DNC/MSM relationships.

[Eighth Square]

It's gotta be the dope! Nobody, but nobody could continue with this endless whining and 'shrilling' and yet apparently be oblivious to the public's reaction to it all. It's gotta be the dope! Collectively, nobody could be that stupid. Could they?

[Lx]

As Rush would say McManus, rhymes with...

[johnny7]

Remember that nanny-nag by the name of 'Shakeshaft' he laughed so much about?

[tobyhill]

http://mediabiasinternational.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_mediabiasinternational_archive.html

Flashback from the past

[Patriot from Philly]

Did you think you'd chase me away. I don't want to leave the field to the rose colored glasses crowd. I like the be prepared, be armed, be ready method myself. This is going to be a nasty fight. Media/DNC on one side and us on another. A couple of our spokespeople sounded pretty lame already. Livingston and Kristol did everything but wave a white flag.

Our side has to do a better job fighting this. I read an article by Michael Koran in Newsweek on the prosecutor that discouraged me. Seems like the left might be intimidating him, we need to make a big fuss on our side.

We need a better strategy then it will just work out because it did in the past. There is a SP involved this time. The potential for real damage is there.

[CyberAnt]

Remember .. the Wilsons were personal friends and fund raisers for the Clintons .. which menas I have to include them.

[FReethesheeples]

Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's cover?

It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press.

Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a year ago:

He certainly bragged about it per a famous and highly reliable source's (named below) account of his own face-to-face encounter with Amb. Joe Wilson prior to Valerie Plame's "outing" as a CIA agent/employee.

Based upon a personal conversation (we were in a small group eating; it was NOT an "off the record") I had with eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson (we were at a luncheon table together during a trip to Europe), it appeared entirely possible that Joe Wilson himself was the (or one source, if not the original one) possible source in revealing his own wife's status as a CIA agent or employee.

Victor Davis Hanson (Wilson presumably knew Victor Davis Hanson wrote regularly for NRO (National Review Online), had done OpEds for the Wall street Journal, and other publications, and had his own Website with a widespread following) said he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were both in the same "Green Room" before a televised debate-discussion on Iraq, etc. and Joe first warned the TV make-up person not to get powder on his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes), and then bragged about his beautiful wife who, Joe Wilson said (braggingly) was a CIA operative.

I asked Victor Davis Hanson Why he didn't write up this account.(?) He replied that Joe Wilson would probably simply deny it, since only he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were in the Green Room together before the broadcast.

However, it is now easy to surmise that Joe Wilson is a crass, materialistic, self-promoting, vain, egotistical, bragaddocio-opportunist, so this account is perfectly consistent with Valerie Plame's TWO photo shoots in Vanity Fair. (Or was it Vogue? No, probably too crass for Vogue, n'est pas?)

[tobyhill]

Wilson had been speaking to Kristof, NY Times Writer, a long time before Novak's article. Was Miller's source actually another reporter, Kristof? Of course Wilson has denied that he disclosed his wife's name but I have serious doubts that a writer would be investigating claims without inside sources and that's where I think Plame working at the CIA comes in.

[Cboldt]

... the fact remains there is an ongoing investigation as if she WAS covert.

I've been looking (so far in vain) for the questionnaire that CIA forwarded to Justice. I did find this snippet, which seems to indicate that CIA is asking whether or not a law was broken, which is different from assering and reporting that for sure, a law was broken.

The unauthorized disclosure laws are a fairly complex tapestry. In fact, the CIA isn't alwasy sure a law is broken, and sometimes (maybe more often than not) prefers to not bring the high profile of prosecution to bear on a disclosure.

As The Washington Post reported on October 1, 2003, the CIA submitted a detailed questionnaire to the Justice Department to initiate an investigation into whether the incident amounted to a "violation of federal law that prohibits unauthorized disclosures of classified information."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200507150007

This is a good read to give a flavor of the complexity of finding a statutory violation: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/lapham.html.

[Hoodat]

I had no idea the LA Times was still in business. Do they still have readers?

[sirchtruth]

As The Washington Post reported on October 1, 2003, the CIA submitted a detailed questionnaire to the Justice Department to initiate an investigation into whether the incident amounted to a "violation of federal law that prohibits unauthorized disclosures of classified information."

You are like the Master Informer aren't you? I now designate you operative MI!

Good info, thanks...your identity will not be revealed to any reporter or gov't official without serious consquences! Look out Karl Rove...

[FormerACLUmember]

Karl Rove has brilliantly engineered this entire rope-a-dope mass outing of the vast army of democrats, MoveOn.org zombies and their mainstream media machine. The rapidly falling circulation LA Slimes, especially. The dupes are being completely discredited to the American people with their silly lies.

Rove smiles. Another of his endless wily, brilliant strategies performed perfectly!

[StarFan]

Cooper says the first time he knew about Plame was from Rove

I saw the exchange as did many people in the Tri State New York area who may have missed MTP but certainly saw it being replayed several times by all local news stations. When we learned that both Novak and Cooper phoned Rove, not vice-versa, not a peep out of the MSM who have the audacity to complain that people are getting their news from other sources.