CIA Rove

sweetkidsmom · July 18, 2005, 1:28pm

Looks like Bush is changing his stance on the leaker, watch out:
WASHINGTON, July 18 - President Bush changed his stance today on his close adviser Karl Rove, stopping well short of promising that anyone in his administration who helped to unmask a C.I.A. officer would be fired.

“If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration,” Mr. Bush said in response to a question, after declaring, “I don’t know all the facts; I want to know all the facts.”

For months, Mr. Bush and his spokesmen have said that anyone involved in the disclosure of the C.I.A. officer’s identity would be dismissed. The president’s apparent raising of the bar for dismissal today, to specific criminal conduct, comes amid mounting evidence that, at the very least, Mr. Rove provided backhanded confirmation of the C.I.A. officer’s identity.

In the months after the name of the officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, was made public in July 2003, the White House said repeatedly that no one working for the administration was part of the disclosure.

More: <a href=“http://nytimes.com/2005/07/18/politics/18cnd-rove.html?[/url]”>http://nytimes.com/2005/07/18/politics/18cnd-rove.html?</a>.

Rove was fired Twice before, !st Bush: For the next few years, Rove worked in various Republican circles and assisted George H. W. Bush’s 1980 vice-presidential campaign. He was subsequently fired from the campaign for leaking information to journalist Robert Novak. Rove introduced Bush to Lee Atwater. A signature tactic of Rove was to attack an opponent on the opponent’s strongest issue.

In 1981, Rove founded direct mail consulting firm, Karl Rove & Co., based out of Austin, Texas. This firm’s first clients included Republican Governor Bill Clements and Democratic Congressman Phil Gramm, who later became a Republican Congressman and United States Senator. In 1993, Rove began advising George W. Bush’s gubernatorial campaign. He continued, however, to operate his consulting business until 1999, when he sold the firm to focus his efforts on Bush’s bid for the presidency.

In 1986, just before a crucial debate in the election for governor of Texas, Karl Rove announced that his office had been bugged by the Democrats. It was later claimed that Rove had bugged his own phone to garner media coverage. [3]

In 1992, Rove was fired from George H. W. Bush’s 1992 presidential re-election campaign for allegedly leaking information to journalist Robert Novak. State campaign manager Robert Mosbacher had allotted Rove only one-quarter of the campaign’s $1 million direct mail contract, after Rove had the entire contract in 1988. As Novak wrote, “Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher”. Novak’s column described the firing of Mosbacher by former Senator Phil Gramm.

Novak and Rove deny that Rove was the leaker. Mosbacher maintains that “Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it.”

(Sources: “Karl and Bob: a leaky history,” Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2003, ; “Genius,” Texas Monthly, March 2003, p. 82; “Why Are These Men Laughing,” Esquire, January 2003)

sweetkidsmom · July 18, 2005, 1:48pm

The R talking points have been completely debunked:
<a href=“http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004870.php[/url]”>http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004870.php</a>

TALKING POINT: Valerie Plame (Joseph Wilson’s wife) was not covert.
FACT: She was. (More here).

TALKING POINT: Joseph Wilson himself admitted that Valerie Plame was not covert.
FACT: False and false. [added 7/16]

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not leak Valerie Plame’s name.
FACT: Please. Her name was not a secret, her identity was (which is the issue here) and he leaked that. (Also see here and here and this one, where the singularly appaling stupidity of John Gibson, Andrew Napolitano and John Podhoretz is revealed on this particular talking point. How these people continue to get paid for their work is beyond me).

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove was “not the leaker”.
FACT: Rove’s attorney’s statement and Cooper’s email shows this claim is false. Rove did leak Plame’s identity. (Whether or not this is found to be prosecutable is another matter).
P.S. Considering Rove was Nixon’s henchman for dirty tricks, and has a long history of vile misbehavior and leaking secrets, this shouldn’t exactly be a surprise to anyone. [updated 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove was only the recipient of information, not a leaker.
FACT: False. [added 7/16]

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not reveal classified information.
FACT: A CIA agent’s identity is considered classified.

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not reveal Valerie Plame’s identity.
FACT: Utterly, completely false.

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove has never lied about his role in this matter.
FACT: Yes he has. [updated 7/16]

TALKING POINT: The White House has never lied or misled people about its role in this matter.
FACT: False.

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove never knew that Valerie Plame was covert.
FACT: Really? Then why not state this on the record, something Rove’s attorney refuses to do.

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove first learnt of Valerie Plame’s identity from Bob Novak
FACT: False. (The same article points out Rove confirmed to Novak that he had also heard what Novak had heard about Plame’s identity; also see here and here). [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not know the name of Valerie Plame when he spoke to Matt Cooper of Time.
FACT: If this NYT report on Rove’s alleged testimony to the grand jury is accurate, then Rove’s claim is/was false. [added 7/16]

TALKING POINT: The White House was not trying to “affirmatively” reach out to reporters to expose Plame’s identity; Matt Cooper of Time magazine “burned” Rove
FACT: False. The White House did reach out to reporters “affirmatively” to push this story and sometimes “veered off” the matters being discussed with the reporter to push this story. Rove’s lawyer, who made the above fake claim, also expounded again and again about how Rove gave complete waivers to all his journalist contacts to testify. [updated 7/14]

TALKING POINT: The fact that Karl Rove was on “double super secret background” indicates Rove did not want to expose Valerie Plame’s identity to the public
FACT: False. In fact, the exact opposite is true. If he wanted to NOT expose Valerie Plame’s identity he could have spoken to Matt Cooper off the record. Instead he specifically chose to speak on background. [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Rove’s lawyer only reaffirmed the original blanket waiver from Rove and did not issue an “express personal release” to Matt Cooper of Time magazine to testify at the grand jury
FACT: False. Moreover why should this matter considering Rove’s position that he has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide? [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Bob Novak used the word “operative” by accident and his sources did not say she was one.
FACT: This is false, after-the-fact spin from Novak.

e, false, false and false.

sweetkidsmom · July 18, 2005, 1:50pm

Part 2 of R talking points, debunked:TALKING POINT:

Journalist David Corn was the one who first reported/leaked Valerie Plame’s covert identity, not Bob Novak.
FACT: Slanderously false. [added 7/16]

TALKING POINT: Rove “was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story” based on Joe Wilson’s “false premise” (that DCI Tenet or VP Cheney authorized his trip)
FACT: False. Moreover, Joe Wilson did not make such a claim before Rove exposed Valerie Plame’s identity. False. Moreover there’s no “…‘trying to prevent a bad or innaccurate story from being run’ exception to the relevant statute…” [updated 7/14]

TALKING POINT: All Rove was doing was trying to reveal the truth to Matt Cooper of Time magazine. [added 7/14]
FACT: False.

TALKING POINT: The Senate Intelligence Committee said that Valerie Plame was the one who set up Joe Wilson’s trip.
FACT: False and false. (Also see here). (In fact, there is a fair amount of evidence that suggests that Valerie Plame did not even recommend/suggest that Wilson be sent on the trip.) [updated 7/15]

TALKING POINT: The White House/GOP cannot comment on questions regarding Rove or his role because of the ongoing investigation.
FACT: False. A completely bogus claim considering that they are talking behind the scenes (also here) or issuing false/misleading press releases (also see here and here) spreading fakery about Wilson. (Not to mntion, they felt free to comment self-servingly about the whole matter until the Rove story broke.)

TALKING POINT: Bush will not “prejudge the investigation based on media reports”
FACT: False. By claiming Karl Rove did nothing wrong and maintaining the fiction (for long) that there was no White House involvement in the Plame expose, he and the GOP more than prejudged the investigation. [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove is not a target of Fitzgerald’s investigation.
FACT: He is a subject of the investigation.

TALKING POINT: The Butler Report etc. vindicated Bush’s “uranium in Africa” State of the Union claim
FACT: False. The Butler Report was intended to exonerate Tony Blair and George Bush to prevent them from facing criminal charges. For obvious reasons, it excluded reams of information about Bush’s claim that showed that the White House lied through it’s teeth in defending Bush’s claim. (Indeed, as the link shows, people from the NSA, CIA etc. themselves stated that the SOTU claim did not have a sound backing.)

TALKING POINT: This is all just a partisan attack by Democrats (or Joseph Wilson)
FACT: False. The GOP leadership has a habit of minimizing numerous acts of treason from individuals inside the Bush administration over the last several years, by smearing truth-tellers. This is just the latest episode among many. In private, even Republicans admit that this kind of nonsense would have resulted in Congressional hearings “in a second”, if the President had been a Democrat. Republicans like Dick Armey were calling the Plame expose a “cowardly act of revenge” that should be prosecuted, before Rove was revealed as a leaker. Not to mention the hypocrisy of Rove himself (or that of other Republicans).

TALKING POINT: Even if Karl Rove leaked Valerie Plame’s identity, it’s no big deal and deserves a medal.
FACT: The GOP’s Ed Gillespie and George Bush disagreed (with an emphasis on ‘d’). In fact, if it’s so not a big deal, why all this intrigue about what the White House can or cannot comment on? Why did Rove hide like the coward he is behind Matt Cooper and not come out in 2003 and tell the world about his ‘noble’ efforts? Why let Fitzgerald and Time magazine and Cooper go through all the s*** they went through when he could have stepped forward and revealed he was Cooper’s source, especially considering his boss George Bush asked all Bush administration officials to come forward with the truth? All of this, in itself, shows what a pile of hogwash the claims are about Rove trying to set Cooper straight about his reporting. (As for medals, it probably deserves a medal in prison, to define the “role model” for fellow prisoners at Gitmo - while eating rice pilaf in the process).

TALKING POINT: Karl Rove had “guts” to do what he did.
FALSE: False. Even if one ignores Rove’s lying and leaking Valerie Plame’s identity (above), he hid like a coward for almost 2 years, resulting in wasted taxpayer money, effort and legal fees for Matt Cooper and Time magazine and put them through hell while they tried to protect him in response to a court order. Cowardice is the word that is most appropriate here, and considering that this is an administration of chickenhawks that’s no surprise either. [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: The leak was justifiable.
FACT: The current crop of GOP leaders have a history of denouncing leaks in the strongest terms - without qualifications. And if it was so justifiable, why have many officials refused to sign waivers to allow the journalists they spoke to on this case to testify and reveal their sources? (Not to mention, by Executive Order 12958 the White House is expected to investigate all leaks of classified information by administration officials). [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: There was no crime committed with the Plame expose.
FACT: False, false, false, false, false. It’s not just the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) we’re talking about, there’s the Espionage Act, there’s “theft” of government records (there’s a precedent), violation of SF-312 - the “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement”, and there are serious questions about whether purgery or obstruction of justice may have occurred. (So much for offering “a stiff dose of truth” instead of “more lectures, and legalisms, and carefully worded denials”.) [updated 7/16]

TALKING POINT: There was no crime committed since there was no “intent to impair national security” or intent to disclose Plame’s identity “maliciously” or if there was a “careless spilling of the beans”
FACT: None of these conditions have any connection whatsoever to the Law. This is complete B.S. pulled out of thin air. [added 7/15]

TALKING POINT: Bush never said he would fire the leaker of Valerie Plame’s identity.
FACT: False. [added 7/14]

TALKING POINT: Bush only said he would fire the leaker of Valerie Plame’s identity if it was “illegal” or done “knowingly”.
FACT: False and false. [added 7/14; updated 7/16]

TALKING POINT: Joseph Wilson supported John Kerry.
FACT: He voted for George Bush Sr., financially supported Republicans in the past, including a $1000 campaign contribution to George W. Bush in 2000 (before the GOP turned on him and his wife, treasonously) and was recognized by George Bush Sr. for his bravery against Saddam Hussein in Iraq - where he was acting* ambassador before Gulf War I. He not only “sheltered 800 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad during Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait,” his wife has long been a CIA WMD operative working to keeps WMDs away from terrorists. His pre-Iraq war (II) stance even got some support from George Bush Sr. Also see here. [*added/last updated on 7/16]

TALKING POINT: President Bush is committed to upholding the honor and dignity of his office.
FACT: For the umpteenth tim

CIA Rove

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