In case you were away from your computer over the weekend, several pieces of the Plame puzzle have started to come together. The newly-formed picture isn’t a pleasant one for Karl Rove.
It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. “Subject: Rove/P&C,” (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. “Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation …” Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, “please don’t source this to rove or even WH [White House]” and suggested another reporter check with the CIA. […]
In a brief conversation with Rove, Cooper asked what to make of the flap over Wilson’s criticisms. Newsweek obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. (The e-mail was authenticated by a source intimately familiar with Time’s editorial handling of the Wilson story, but who has asked not to be identified because of the magazine’s corporate decision not to disclose its contents.) Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a “big warning” not to “get too far out on Wilson.” Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s trip had not been authorized by “DCIA” — CIA Director George Tenet — or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, “it was, KR said, wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.” Wilson’s wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there’s still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger … “
In an interview with CNN last year, Rove, when asked about his role in the leak, said, “I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name.” It turns out he was being quite literal. Plame’s name wasn’t used, but according to Cooper’s email, Rove gave up everything but her name.
So, what does this new revelation tell us? First, not surprisingly, there’s been a whole lot of lying going on. When asked about the Plame scandal in July 2003, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “That is not the way this President or this White House operates.” More recently, Rove’s lawyer told reporters that Rove “did not reveal any confidential information.” We now know this is exactly how the Bush White House operates and that Rove did reveal classified information.
Second, there are the legal issues.
The “I didn’t leak her name” defense is pretty weak. Federal law prohibits the intentional disclosure of “any information identifying” a covert agent, as well as the dissemination of classified information. Based on Cooper’s email, it sounds like Rove has a real problem.
And finally, I think it’s worth noting that Rove was not only directly responsible for telling at least one reporter about Plame, he was also lying while doing it.
“Rove did not mention her name to Cooper,” [Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin] said. “This was not an effort to encourage Time to disclose her identity. What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren’t true.”
That’s total nonsense. Joseph Wilson was making it painfully clear that the White House was not telling the truth about Iraq’s weapons program, so Rove & Co. went after him. While doing so, as Cooper’s email explains, Rove also said that “there’s still plenty” to tie Saddam Hussein to uranium from Niger.
Except there wasn’t. Rove identified an undercover CIA agent, smeared a political rival, and lied about the Iraqi threat, all in one relatively brief phone conversation. It’s quite a trifecta.
Drip, drip, drip…