What a tangled web he weaves, when Rove practices to deceive.

Karl Rove gets a tip off from Robert Novak (6 Days prior to the infamous article) that he (Novak) is about to out a CIA reporter. Rove then spoke with Matt Cooper 3 days later and using the information he apparently received from Novak, told Cooper that Time should not go out on a limb over the whole Joe Wilson story. Rove`s defence throughout this has been, and I quote " I didn`t knowingly leak Valerie Plame`s identity".

Now, far be it from me to introduce some typical British pragmatism into all this, but I feel I have to. The current distraction in the media is that Rove received Plame`s identity from Novak. Yippee doo. Well that clears everything up doesn`t it? No, actually, if anything this information has just sealed Karl Rove`s fate and probably widened the investigation targets. The law that everyone is getting excited about is The Intelligence Identities And Protection Act. Fundamentally, this law states, that Rove must have had "authorized access to classified information" under the statute. Plame was an NCO (non-covered officer). White House aides, and even the president, are seldom, if ever, given this information. So it is not likely Rove had "authorized access" to it.

In addition, Rove must have "intentionally" -- not "knowingly" as has been mentioned in the news coverage -- disclosed "any information identifying such a covert agent." Whether or not Rove actually referred to Mrs. Wilson as "Valerie Plame," then, the key would be whether he gave Matt Cooper (or others) information that Joe Wilson's wife was a covert agent. Also, the statute requires that Rove had to know,a as a fact, that the United States was taking, or had taken, "affirmative measures to conceal" Valerie Plame's covert status. Rove's lawyer says he had no such knowledge. Findlaw

So, in a nutshell, Karl Rove, having been notified that Robert Novak was about to write a story outing a CIA operative did none of the following:

1) Ask Novak to let him look into the whole story, because it invloved a CIA operative who may or may not have been under cover, and blowing the cover of a CIA operative would be illegal and may jeopardise other agents in the field.
2) Check with other members of the administration in the 6 days leading up to the Novak article, and see if they had any information pertaining to Novak`s article.

However, Karl Rove did do this, on July 11, three days prior to the release of Novaks piece, Rove in a conversation with Matt Cooper on double super secret background, Rove revealed to Cooper that "it was, KR said, wilson's (sic) wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd (weapons of mass destruction) issues who authorized the trip.".

This is a mountain being made out of a molehill, and it is being done by the GOP to distract from the one thing that will really hang them out to dry, the DSM. Its ironic that this whole affair has blown up around false intelligence about WMDS, the "who said what about what and when" is a total smokescreen.

The DSM proves that Bush was "fixing intelligence around the facts", Wilson`s revelations prove this to be true, the issue isn`t who sent Wilson to Niger, he could have gone on a bike pedalled by imaginary elves for all I care, the issue is that the whole Niger Uranium claim made by Bush in the STOTU speech in 2003 was a LIE and Joe Wilson proved it was a lie. Joe Wilson should be being lauded as a bloody hero, but instead the critical information he revealed is being hidden behind whether Karl Rove spoke to a reporter about the origins of the trip.

This is a point that many commentators on the whole affair are missing. The Novak development confirms that Karl Rove knew exactly who he was talking about when he spoke to Matt Cooper. It doesn`t matter about the smoke and mirrors, two things apply here, and only two things...

1) Following Novaks phone call, Karl Rove didn`t do any further research and allowed a false piece outing a CIA operative to be published. Assuming we take Karl Rove completely at face value, this is gross negligence and for this he should be fired immeadiately and charged with a conspiracy charge.

2) Following Novaks phone call, Rove did do the research (as I believe he would have done) and deliberately contributed to the lie by discussing the matter with another reporter and allowed the outing a CIA operative. For this Karl Rove should face the full wrath of the American people and the law. Furthermore, if he did speak with any members of the Bush administration about this issue, none of the administration chose to do anything about it, therefore they are also guilty of aiding and abetting a crime.

No amount of spin can changed these two simple conclusions, this is purely and simply about Karl Rove. Is he an incompetant negligant idiot (and they call him Bush`s brain, this may explain a lot) or a traitor? Either way, he should not be in the White House, and Bush`s refusal to remove him calls immeadiately into question his mental competance to carry out his duties, which I believe is grounds for impeachment.

End of discussion, now back to the DSM.

Peace


Peace