Ok folks, let's see if we can get some things straight about this Valerie Plame - Joseph Wilson - Matthew Cooper - Judith Miller - Karl Rove - U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald - Robert Novak - Scooter Libby - Federal District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan silliness.
1. No federal law was broken in the story written 2 years ago by Novak which stated that Joseph Wilson's green tea sipping adventure in Africa was set up by his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame. Why not, you ask, or even if you don't ask? While it is indeed against the law to reveal an undercover CIA operative's identity, Valerie Plame was not, at the time of the story, doing any undercover work for the CIA. Furthermore, Robert Novak and his superiors at the Chicago Sun Times, not being complete idiots about such matters, contacted the CIA prior to releasing the story. The CIA did not inform them of any objections to releasing Valerie Plame's name. And lastly, Robert Novak testified before a federal grand jury and turned over his notes last year. That testimony and those notes clearly identified the person or persons who gave him the Valerie Plame - Joseph Wilson - green tea in Niger - all expenses paid vacation link-up. If an undercover operative protection statute were broken, Fitzgerald would have asked for an indictment last year, but he didn't. No harm - no foul.
2. When Wilson began screaming that Karl Rove had leaked his wife's name, thereby endangering her life and the lives of countless other undercover moles in S.M.E.R.S.H., and then had to retract the accusation, a special prosecutor, one Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney from Chicago, was assigned to investigate whether any law had been broken and who dunnit.
3. Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Robert Novak, Matthew Cooper, Judith Miller and a host of other administration officials and reporters were summoned before a federal grand jury in Washington to testify. The political operatives all signed documents releasing the reporters to whom they had talked from any and all confidentiality agreements. Please see No. 1 above - no harm, no foul.
4. Except for one little problem - not just every witness that Fitzgerald called before the grand jury was willing to testify and turn over subpoenaed documents, like notes 'n' such. Two of the players, Mr. Cooper of Time Magazine and Ms. Miller of The New York Times, refused to turn over their notes from interviews with, among others, Karl Rove. So, Judge Hogan, getting more pissed off by the day at this circus of which he was supposedly in charge, began fining Time Magazine and Judith Miller (exactly why it is Time magazine and not Matt Cooper but Judith Miller and not The NYT getting fined, I am unclear about and don't really care) $1000 e pluribus unums per day. This since, I think, this past October. The lack of cooperation by these two members-in-good-standing of the fourth estate caused prosecutor Fitzgerald to recall, sometimes more than once (Rove testified on 3 different occasions) several witnesses trying to nail down exactly who said which to whomever about whatchamacallit.
5. Now, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald tells Federal Circuit Court Judge Hogan, in effect, "I be all done here except for these two dastardly evil journalistic types, Cooper and Miller, who have, horrors!, defied a legally binding subpoena issued by, ahem, yerself, yer honor." Judge Hogan reacts predictably, and as the law stipulates, calls in Mr. Cooper and Ms. Miller and sez, "Put up or go to jail and I increase the daily fine for contempt-of-court to the max." To the max probably means something around $25,000 per day. Now, at $1000.00 per day, it takes 1000 days to hit 1 million dollars. At $25,000 per day, Time and The NYT would be paying a million dollars each every 40 days. Ouch!
6. So, there is a criminal action in progress, prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in the U.S. District Court courtroom of Federal Judge Thomas F. Hogan. But it is not against Robert Novak for publishing the Plame name (he checked with the CIA first, remember?), and it's not against Karl Rove (Novak didn't talk to Rove and says it was not Rove who gave him the Plame name) and it's not against the two high ranking administration officials that Novak says gave him the Plame name (Fitzgerald, Hogan and the grand jury, a group of upstanding citizens which must be asking itself, "W.T.F?") have had those names for almost a year and issued no indictment, remember?).
No, the criminal action is against the two reporters who refused the honor the subpoena issued by the federal grand jury and Judge Hogan. The criminal action now is for the refusal to honor a lawful subpoena. The criminal action and the only criminal action which will come out of this whole ridiculous business is against Matthew Cooper, Time Magazine and Judith Miller. And, to put a cherry on top of it all, Judith Miller never even wrote or published one single word about Plame.
7. Why hasn't Karl Rove come forward, in person, to tell his side? He's having too much fun watching morons like Lawrence O'Donnell self-immolate just like Dan Rather did. Why hasn't Robert Novak come forward to name his sources? He says because it is an ongoing criminal investigation. Why hasn't U. S. Attorney Fitzgerald come forward to name the sources and put all of the speculation about The Dark Lord Rove to rest? Because that is not his business and the nattering nabobs of nincumpoopery can just knock themselves out, as far as he is concerned.
The above is as accurate a guess as to the true lies of this whole waste of overheated breath, taxpayer's money, bandwidth and virgin hardwood forests that I am physically and psychologically able to provide at this time.
With waning strength and an alarming loss of precious bodily fluids, I link to:
The Political Puzzle - Don't bet on Karl Rove going to jail
A Freethinker's Paradise - Might be a trap for someone (hello Larry O'Donnell.)
Digital Warfighter - hard time believing Rove would be so stupid.
ReidBlog - Rove only meant MoveOn.
Sardonic Sideshow - true fiction
Thoughts from Up Here - potential to be a large story
ReidBlog - Conversations with Karl
ReidBlog - And the leaker is...
Not Your Father's America - Rove denies outing CIA agent
ISUWatch - most notable College Republican
Ratiocination - distracted by blogchatter
PoliBlogZ - has a connect-the-dots test
zangle.info - Rove at center of the controversy
Will Bardwell - may have been Rove
Will Bardwell - Rove rumors heating up
roadrage.info
ROFASix - Truth Hurts
The Therapist - ROVE MAY HAVE USED Q'URAN, TOILET IN SAME SENTENCE!
Crooks and Liars -
BRAVO 411 - Bush's Rove boat is leaking
aTypical Joe - fingering Rove again
Crooks and Liars
firedoglake - Rovian Defense Squad
Hughes for America - puts a fine point on it
Hullabaloo - telling the right story
Seeing the Forest - Everyone on the same page?
It's Recess-time Somewhere - gonna miss Karl
The Witching Well - It was Rove
Tom Maguire - karl Rove and the Plame leak
Michelle Malkin - Rove-ing Reports
Mike's Noise - another Watergate fizzles
Myopic Zeal - Was it Karl Rove?
Macsmind - What O'Donnell knew and when did he know it?
The Unalienable Right - Surprise!: “Creepy liar” Larry O’Donnell omits the truth
Decision '08 - Maguire on The Rove Connection: Not Worried - Yet
Conservative Outpost - Rove misc
Ace of Spades - Karl Rove Was Definitely Not the Plame Leaker... Probably
UnCorrelated - Liberal Wet Dream
Obsidian Wings - Rove and Plame
AmbivaBlog - Valerie Plame's Deep Throat . . .
Common Sense Desk - Rove Outed Plame?
Tony Pierce - about to do a belly flop into history
Matthew Good - Karl Rove Leaked Plame Identity
Parveen Kaler - Karl Rove Leaked?
The Captain - Dafydd: If It's Rove...Then he's off the hook legally.
Flopping Aces - Rove was on the grassy knoll.
Three Bulls! - Karl Rove-My Spiritual Locker Partner
Ezra Klein - Rove knows
Rev. Mykeru - Cue the Frog March
Rox Populi - What did you know and when did you know it?
Pandagon - Treason means different things to different people
Wizbang - Rove Article Is Out
Joefish's Freshwater Blog - Left sets sights on Karl Rove as Plame "leaker"
Say Anything - The Rove Article From Newsweek: Nothing New
Blastfurnace Canada - So it was Rove after all ... maybe
The Commisar - Rove: A Source on Plame Article
Preemptive Karma - Cuffing Karl?
2 comments:
It would be intersesting to see if Rove perjured himself. He testified that he was not involved in any way with the leaking of the name or with having talked to reporters about it, at least prior to Novak's article being released. If the dates on Cooper's notes pr-date Novak's article, then thtere's a good chance they can go after Rove for perjury. But I think it might be more of a set-up exonerate Rove from any wrongdoing and to get the liberal blogsphere all wound up over Rove being the leak, then attack them on it later.
I've kinda always had the supicion that the whole afair was more about sending the message -If you're a Government official, then don't talk to the press because the reporter can't protect your identity. And if you're a reporter, don't think that you can protect your source.
Thus, potential sources of information dry up for fear of reribution, and reporters have no access to information that might prove damning to this the Bush administration.
I disagree with an early point of yours, #1 to be exact. If Plame was not at that moment a covert operative, her past as one still needed to be protected and had been up until then. It seems (via needlenose blog) that Rove et al were actually unaware or hadn't figured out that she had done her covert ops under the name of "Plame" and not Wilson; their little anti-Wilson smear campaign went silent the day Amb. Wilson revealed that little tidbit on the TODAY show.
It's true somebody might have someday put "Valerie Wilson" and "Valerie Plame" together someday if Novak had outed her as Amb. Wilson's wife. But by naming her as "Valerie Plame" he helped that whole process proceed directly to "Go."
This whole thing was indefensible from the outset. For purposes of comparison, I put odds that Rove outed Plame at, say, 3:1 against. Judith Miller, 2:1. Scooter Libby, 4:1. Of the bunch, Miller might be the most prosecutable via Espionage Act if she did it. I don't know what kind of perjury charges might be in the offing, that will be interesting.
I'm guessing that nothing will come of it since no charges have been filed after Cooper's e-mails were turned over -- I figured they'd have everything teed up when they got his stuff. Maybe they're still waiting on Miller's stuff, though.
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