Novak contradicted himself
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Novak contradicted himself on Senate committee's Niger conclusions
Syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Robert D. Novak falsely stated in his August 1 column that the Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously contradicted former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's denial that his wife, former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, suggested him for a 2002 mission to Niger. In fact, the bipartisan committee did not reach an official conclusion about how the CIA made the decision to hire Wilson. Moreover, the only contradiction appears to be with Novak himself; in a July 2004 column, he reported that the Democratic committee members had rejected an official conclusion that Plame had suggested Wilson for the fact-finding mission.
In the August 1 column, Novak stated that the "unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee report ... said that Wilson's wife 'suggested him for the trip.'" But in a July 15, 2004, column, Novak clearly recognized that the committee did not reach an official conclusion about how the CIA made the decision to hire Wilson:
Like Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark, the most remarkable aspect of last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is what its Democratic members did not say. They did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. They neither agreed to a conclusion that former diplomat Joseph Wilson was suggested for a mission to Niger by his CIA employee wife nor defended his statements to the contrary.
While the committee report stated that "interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicated that his [Wilson's] wife, a CPD [Counterproliferation Divison] employee, suggested his name for the trip," the full committee refrained from approving an official conclusion that she had suggested the mission. In a partisan addendum to the report, committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) wrote that Democrats had specifically opposed including the statement, "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee," in the full committee's report. News reports that appeared both before and after the intelligence committee's 2004 investigation undermined this claim.
In addition, Novak further distorted the contents of the committee report in his August 1 column. He wrote that the "Senate committee reported that much of what he [Wilson] said 'had no basis in fact,'" apparently referring to Wilson's July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed, as well as his public statements following its publication. In the article, Wilson stated that the facts as he "understood them" did not support President Bush's claim in his 2003 State of the Union address that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
But the assertion that Wilson's claims "had no basis in fact" appears only in Roberts's addendum and not in the report ratified by the committee as a whole. Rather than proving that Wilson was incorrect, the committee's report suggested the opposite: that by the time the president delivered his State of the Union address in January 2003, the Niger claim was no longer supportable. The committee wrote: "Until October 2002 when the Intelligence Community obtained the forged foreign language documents on the Iraq-Niger uranium deal, it was reasonable for analysts to assess that Iraq may have been seeking uranium from Africa based on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reporting and other available intelligence."
The committee report also found that while the CIA indeed interpreted Wilson's Niger findings as confirmation of its assessment at that time that Saddam had sought uranium in Africa, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) interpreted it as confirmation of its competing assessment that Iraq had not sought uranium from Niger. The committee concluded that INR's assessment of Iraq's nuclear program as a whole, which Wilson's op-ed supported, was the correct assessment based on the intelligence available at the time:
After reviewing all the intelligence provided by the Intelligence Community and additional information requested by the Committee, the Committee believes that the judgment in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, was not supported by the intelligence. The Committee agrees with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) alternative view that the available intelligence "does not add up to a compelling case for reconstitution."
Moreover, the CIA later repudiated its assessment of the Niger allegation; then-Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet publicly stated in July 2003 that "[t]hese 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President."
From Novak's August 1 column:
There never was any question of me talking about Mrs. Wilson "authorizing." I was told she "suggested" the mission, and that is what I asked Harlow. His denial was contradicted in July 2004 by a unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee report. The report said Wilson's wife "suggested his name for the trip." It cited an internal CIA memo from her saying "my husband has good relations" with officials in Niger and "lots of French contacts," adding they "could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." A State Department analyst told the committee that Mrs. Wilson "had the idea" of sending Wilson to Africa.
The recent first disclosure of secret grand jury testimony set off a news media feeding frenzy centered on this obscure case. Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate committee reported much of what he said "had no basis in fact."
Top GOP Fictions on the White House Leak Case Refuted
Top GOP Fictions on the White House Leak Case Refuted
News from the DNC:
The Right-Wing Attack Machine is running at full speed to defend Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and other Bush Administration insiders implicated in the leaking of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity. It should come as no surprise that Karl Rove's defense is being scripted from his own playbook: distort, distract and divide. The attacks confuse fact with fiction. Here's how.
Fiction: Valerie Plame's identity could have been discovered by looking at the almanac, Who's Who in America, thus somehow allowing Bob Novak to have discovered who she was on his own.
Fact: Not only does the Almanac not list Valerie Wilson's employer as the C.I.A., Novak's latest version of events contradicts his previous assertions that he received the information of her identity from others.
"Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.'" [Newsday, 7/22/03]
Fiction: Rove and Libby weren't really leaking because their statements were made to steer reporters away from bad information, not to blow Plame's cover.
Fact: There was nothing bad about the information. Wilson returned from Africa with no evidence that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger, findings now admitted to be true.
* The White House formally repudiated the President's claim, in his 2003 State of the Union address, that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium from Africa. [MSNBC, 9/26/03]
* CIA Director George Tenet later confirmed the uranium story was false. [CNN.com, 7/11/03]
* Condi Rice did too. [CNN.com, 7/11/03]
* And Stephen Hadley. [Associated Press, 7/23/03]
* According to a recent Gallup poll, 51% of those surveyed now believe the Bush Administration deliberately misled the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. [CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, June 22-24, 2005]
* And maybe they have good reason: no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
Furthermore, the reason for the leak - even had it stemmed from concern for accuracy in journalism -- doesn't matter.
* The Intelligence Identities Act makes it a crime to intentionally reveal the identity of a covert officer. [Congressional Research Service Report "Intelligence Identities Protection Act," October 2003]
* The Espionage Act makes it a crime to willfully disclose classified information -- like, say, from a State Department memo labeled "Top Secret" -- that could be used against the United States Government. [18 USC §793(d) and (e)]
* The non-disclosure agreement signed by Executive Branch employees who handle classified information states that it is a violation of the agreement to confirm information without first checking to see that it is no longer classified. Even if you do so only negligently. [Standard Form 312, "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement" and accompanying booklet]
Keep that in mind as you re-read Matt Cooper's recollection of his conversation with Karl Rove:
Rove told me material was going to be declassified in the coming days that would cast doubt on Wilson's mission and his findings...Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the agency' -- by that, I told the grand jury, I inferred that he obviously meant the CIA and not, say, the Environmental Protection Agency. Rove added that she worked on WMD' (the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction) issues and that she was responsible for sending Wilson. This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife." [Time, July 25, 2005]
Fiction: Valerie Plame wasn't really covert or undercover.
Fact: Valerie Plame was a covert officer of the CIA.
* Since her exposure two years ago, the CIA has consistently said that she was a covert officer. [NY Times, 7/28]
* The CIA wouldn't have referred the case to the Justice Department if Plame was not a covert employee. [CIA submits a standard 11 part questionnaire used by the DOJ to determine whether an investigation is warranted -- Washington Post, 10/1/03]
* Former CIA officers have testified that she was covert from her first day at the Agency:
I worked with this woman...She has been undercover for three decades. She is not, as Bob Novak suggested, a CIA analyst...people she meets with overseas could be compromised. When you start tracing back who she met with, even people who innocently met with her, who are not involved in CIA operations, could be compromised. For these journalists to argue that this is no big deal, and if I hear another Republican operative suggesting that well, this was just an analyst, fine, let them go undercover." [Larry Johnson on Newshour, PBS, 9/30/03]
There are thousands of undercover CIA employees who drive through the three gates at CIA Headquarters in McLean, Virginia everyday. [Larry Johnson]
* Even Plame's neighbors had no idea she was CIA. [USA Today, 7/24]
* It's simply not credible to believe that the Special Prosecutor would still be investigating so aggressively if Ms. Plame was not covert.
Fiction: Joe Wilson's wife sent him to Niger on some sort of nepotistic junket.
Fact: This ignores CIA guidelines and what the Agency itself has said, not to mention the question of choosing Niger as a holiday destination.
* Plame didn't have the authority to send her husband to Niger. [Testimony of Larry Johnson, DPC Hearing 7/22]
* Wilson wasn't paid for his services. [NY Times, 7/6/03]
* Wilson, who has served as Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council and as Ambassador to multiple African countries, was not an illogical choice to send on the mission. ["Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV - Our Team," Corporate and Public Strategy Advisory Group website, 7/26]
* Niger has been in the news for another reason recently: its population faces the risk of mass starvation and resulting epidemics. Some junket. [Voice of America, 7/29]
Fiction: Joe Wilson is a liar who said Cheney sent him to Niger when he didn't.
Fact: As many times as the Republican talking heads put words in Joe Wilson's mouth, it doesn't make them true.
* Wilson never said he was sent by Cheney. Period. [Salon.com, 7/13]
* The White House has shown a persistent unwillingness to consider intelligence that conflicted with what it wanted to hear. If Cheney and other high-ranking officials didn't end up getting Wilson's report after asking the CIA to investigate, it says more about the Bush Administration's approach to intelligence than it does about Wilson's mission to Niger.
Fiction: The special prosecutor is engaged in some sort of crusade to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of reporters.
Fact: Reporter Judith Miller is in jail, for which the source who refuses to provide a specific waiver bears sole responsibility.
* But regardless of what one thinks of a federal shield law for journalists, it doesn't yet exist. And if a common law privilege existed, all three D.C. Circuit Court judges who considered the case have said that it would be an exception to that privilege. [In re Grand Jury Subpoena (Miller), 397 F.3d 964 (D.C. Cir., 2005)]
Fiction: Alberto Gonzales's decision to inform Andy Card of the opening of an investigation at least 12 hours before White House staff is completely justified by the fact that he had the ok of the Justice Department to delay his disclosure.
Fact: Ashcroft had to recuse himself in December 2003 from the investigation and Alberto Gonzales was on record saying that the investigation raised issues of separation of powers issues.
* The New York Times reported in 2003 that senior criminal prosecutors and FBI officials criticized the Attorney General's failure to recuse himself or to appoint a special counsel. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that whether the Attorney General should step aside has been discussed in the department and by his own senior advisors. They "fear Mr. Ashcroft could be damaged by continuing accusations that as an attorney general with a long career in Republican partisan politics, he could not credibly lead a criminal investigation that centered on the aides to a Republican president." [NY Times, 10/16/03]
* When Alberto Gonzales was White House Counsel, he claimed that Congressional suggestions about how to handle the leak were unconstitutional: "We believe it is inconsistent with the constitution's separation-of-powers principles for members of Congress to direct the president's management of White House employees." [Reuters, 10/15/03]
Fiction: The Senate is now finally going to investigate.
Fact: Senator Roberts has said he will first ask whether the CIA really knows what "covert" means, then investigate the investigation. [Reuters, 7/25/05]
* Senator Roberts's parroting of the RNC talking points show he's simply not serious about getting to the bottom of what happened. If he was serious about these issues, he would have begun the Phase II intelligence hearings months ago. [See Boston Globe, 7/27]
Fiction: The House is now finally going to investigate, starting by asking how we can strengthen our laws regarding classified information.
Fact: Laws already exist, they're just not being enforced.
* If Rep. Hoekstra really wants to talk about laws protecting classified information, shouldn't he begin by asking why the President hasn't enforced Executive Order 12958, the law already on the books?
Fiction: When Democrats raise questions about this breach of national security they are launching political attacks.
Fact: This case is about national security.
* Just ask Col. W. Patrick Lang (ret'd), former director of the Defense Human Intelligence Service, why this case matters. Here's what he'll tell you:
[When] the major country in the world, deliberately, and apparently for trivial and passing political reasons, decides to disclose the identity of a covert officer, the word goes around the world like a shock [that], "The Americans can't be trusted the Americans can't be trusted. If you decide to cooperate clandestinely with the Americans, someone back there will give you up someone will give you up, and then everything will be over for you." So you don't do it. [DPC Hearing, 7/22/05]
Fiction: The refusal of the White House to act or give any explanation to the American public is justified by the ongoing criminal investigation.
Fact: Bush could demand accountability from his staff now.
* The White House used to comment despite the ongoing investigation - when they had more favorable things to say. [White House Press Briefing, 9/29/03]
* Executive Order 12958, which the President signed in March 2003, says the White House has an affirmative legal obligation to investigate any leaks and punish those responsible. If they didn't have reason before Matthew Cooper's article in Time, they do now.
* It's not like the White House isn't talking, it's just not issuing its statements directly. The consistency of the statements coming from Rove and Libby's defenders shows a coordinated communications effort. It's just not happening on the record by White House spokespeople. [White House Press Briefing, 7/11/05 - Present Day.]
Fiction: The President can be trusted to get to the bottom of this.
Fact: The President and his spokesman repeatedly said they wanted to get to the bottom of things, but they have expressed shifting standards of accountability as the investigation has developed to include high level officials.
* McClellan - September 29, 2003: "The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." - Scott McClellan [White House Press Briefing, September 29, 2003]
* George Bush : "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." - [Press Pool, Chicago, Illinois, September 30, 2003]
* McClellan - October 7, 2003: "Let me answer what the President has said. I speak for the President and I'll talk to you about what he wants." and "If someone leaked classified information, the President wants to know. If someone in this administration leaked classified information, they will no longer be a part of this administration, because that's not the way this White House operates, that's not the way this President expects people in his administration to conduct their business." - Scott McClellan [White House Press Briefing releases/2003/10/20031007-4.html, Savannah, Georgia, June 10, 2004]
* Bush: "If someone committed crime, they will no longer work in my administration." [USA Today, 7/18/05]
C.I.A. Leak Case Recalls Texas Incident in '92 Race
C.I.A. Leak Case Recalls Texas Incident in '92 Race
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - These hot months here will be remembered as the summer of the leak, a time when the political class obsessed on a central question: did Karl Rove, President Bush's powerful adviser, commit a crime when he spoke about a C.I.A. officer with the columnist Robert D. Novak?
Whatever a federal grand jury investigating the case decides, a small political subgroup is experiencing the odd sensation that this leak has sprung before. In 1992 in an incident well known in Texas, Mr. Rove was fired from the state campaign to re-elect the first President Bush on suspicions that Mr. Rove had leaked damaging information to Mr. Novak about Robert Mosbacher Jr., the campaign manager and the son of a former commerce secretary.
Since then, Mr. Rove and Mr. Novak have denied that Mr. Rove was the source, even as Mr. Mosbacher, who no longer talks on the record about the incident, has never changed his original assertion that Mr. Rove was the culprit.
"It's history," Mr. Mosbacher said last week in a brief telephone interview. "I commented on it at the time, and I have nothing to add."
But the episode, part of the bad-boy lore of Mr. Rove, is a telling chapter in the 20-year friendship between the presidential adviser and the columnist. The story of that relationship, a bond of mutual self-interest of a kind that is long familiar in Washington, does not answer the question of who might have leaked the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, to reporters, potentially a crime.
But it does give a clue to Mr. Rove's frequent and complimentary mentions over the years in Mr. Novak's column, and to the importance of Mr. Rove and Mr. Novak to each other's ambitions.
"They've known each for a long time, but they are not close friends," said a person who knows both men and who asked not to be named because of the investigation into a conversation by Mr. Novak and Mr. Rove in July 2003 about Ms. Wilson, part of a case that has put a reporter for The New York Times, Judith Miller, in jail for refusing to testify to the grand jury.
The two men share a love of history and policy, as well as reputations as aggressive partisans and hotheads.
People who have been officially briefed on the case have said Mr. Rove was the second of two senior administration officials cited by Mr. Novak in his column of July 14, 2003, that identified Ms. Wilson by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, and said she was a C.I.A. operative.
The larger question has been whether Mr. Rove might have been using the columnist to confirm Ms. Plame's identity to punish or undermine her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had accused the Bush administration of leading the nation to war with Iraq on false pretenses.
Mr. Novak, who stalked out of a live program on CNN on Thursday after uttering a profanity on the air, declined to be interviewed for this article.
The anchor of the program, "Inside Politics," Ed Henry, has said he was preparing later in the broadcast to ask Mr. Novak about his role in the leak case.
Mr. Rove also declined to be interviewed.
But Mr. Novak, through his office manager, Kathleen Connolly, provided the information about his first encounter with Mr. Rove. Mr. Novak, by his recollection, met Mr. Rove in Texas in the mid-80's, when Mr. Novak turned up to write columns about the state's shifting out of Democrats' hands into those of Republicans.
In those years, Mr. Rove regularly had dinner with Mr. Novak when the columnist went to Austin. Mr. Rove, in his mid-30's, was a rising political operator who in 1981 founded his direct-mail consulting firm, Karl Rove & Company. Gov. William P. Clements, a Republican, was one of his first clients.
Mr. Novak, in his mid-50's, was big political game for Mr. Rove. He was the other half, with Rowland Evans Jr., of a much read and increasingly conservative column that was syndicated by The Chicago Sun-Times and published weekly in The Washington Post. Evans and Novak, as it was called - Mr. Evans retired in 1993 -closely chronicled the Reagan era, and it would have been a sign of Mr. Rove's arrival on the national scene for Mr. Novak to mention him in print.
Still, a computer search of Mr. Novak's columns shows that Mr. Rove's name did not appear under his byline until 1992, when Mr. Novak wrote the words that got Mr. Rove into such trouble.
"A secret meeting of worried Republican power brokers in Dallas last Sunday reflected the reality that George Bush is in serious trouble in trying to carry his adopted state," the column began.
The column said that the campaign run by Mr. Mosbacher was a "bust" and that he had been stripped of his authority at the "secret meeting" by Senator Phil Gramm, the top Republican in the state.
Also at the meeting, Mr. Novak reported, was "political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher."
Specifically, Mr. Mosbacher told The Houston Chronicle in 2003 that he had given a competitor of Mr. Rove the bulk of a $1 million contract for direct mail work in the campaign.
"I thought another firm was better," Mr. Mosbacher told The Chronicle. "I had $1 million for direct mail. I gave Rove a contract for $250,000 and $750,000 to the other firm."
The other firm belonged to Mr. Rove's chief competitor, John Weaver, and Mr. Rove was so angry, Texas Republicans say, that he retaliated by leaking the information about Mr. Mosbacher to Mr. Novak.
Mr. Mosbacher fired Mr. Rove. As a result, Mr. Weaver, who later faced off against Mr. Rove as the political director of Senator John McCain's presidential campaign in 2000, walked away with Mr. Rove's $250,000, too.
"That's about the only time that a Novak column benefited me," Mr. Weaver said this week in a telephone interview.
Mr. Rove again turned up in Mr. Novak's columns in 1999, when Gov. George W. Bush was running for president. Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's national campaign strategist, was quoted briefly on the record in at least three columns, even though Mr. Novak has said on CNN, "I can't tell you anything I ever talked to Karl Rove about, because I don't think I ever talked to him about any subject, even the time of day, on the record."
Whether Mr. Novak forgot about the 1999 mentions is unclear. What is clear is that Mr. Rove has made frequent appearances in Mr. Novak's column in a positive light, often in paragraphs that imparted information about the inner workings of Mr. Bush's operation, feeding perceptions here that Mr. Rove is one of the columnist's most important anonymous sources.
In April 2000, under the headline "Bush Thriving Without Insiders," Mr. Novak wrote of the fears of the Republican old guard about the triumvirate of "rookies" in Austin - led by Mr. Rove - who were running Mr. Bush's "supposedly fading" presidential campaign.
"Actually," Mr. Novak wrote, "the Austin triumvirate has managed the most effective Republican campaign since Dwight D. Eisenhower's in 1952."
Last December, Mr. Novak wrote that the "retention of John Snow as secretary of the treasury was viewed in the capital's inner circles as a defeat for presidential adviser Karl Rove, who wanted a high-profile manager of President Bush's second-term economic program."
Although Mr. Novak did not directly debunk that view, he did suggest a different turn of events when he wrote that two Wall Street executives had said no to the position and that it was "decided at the White House to relieve Snow from his uncertainty and keep him in office."
These days, friends of the two men say they have not seen Mr. Rove and Mr. Novak at dinner together and note that there is little the two would have to celebrate. But in June 2003, The Chicago Sun-Times gave a party for Mr. Novak at the Army and Navy Club here to salute 40 years of his columns.
The biggest political celebrity guest, to no one's surprise, was Mr. Rove.
21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak
21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak
The cast of administration characters with known connections to the outing of an undercover CIA agent:
Karl Rove
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Condoleezza Rice
Stephen Hadley
Andrew Card
Alberto Gonzales
Mary Matalin
Ari Fleischer
Susan Ralston
Israel Hernandez John Hannah
Scott McClellan
Dan Bartlett
Claire Buchan
Catherine Martin
Colin Powell
Karen Hughes
Adam Levine
Bob Joseph
Vice President Dick Cheney
President George W. Bush
Karl Rove: Senior Advisor to President Bush (2001-2005); Deputy White House Chief of Staff (2005-Present)
ADMINISTRATION, ROVE ORIGINALLY DENIED ANY INVOLVMENT IN THE LEAK: Asked on 9/29/03 whether he had "any knowledge" of the leak or whether he leaked the name of the CIA agent, Rove answered "no." That same day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, after having "spoken to Karl," asserted that "it is a ridiculous suggestion" to say Rove was involved in the leak. In August 2004, Rove maintained, "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name." [ABC News, 9/29/03; White House Press Briefing, 9/29/03; RawStory; Newsweek, 7/11/05]
ROVE SPOKE WITH TIME REPORTER MATT COOPER: In a conversation with Time reporter Matt Cooper ?- a conversation that Rove insisted be kept on "deep background" ?- Rove instructed Cooper, "Don't get too far out on Wilson." Rove then identified Valerie Plame as "Wilson's wife" who "works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction]." According to Cooper, his conversation with Karl Rove was the first time he had heard anything about Wilson's wife. Additionally, Rove told Cooper that further information discrediting Wilson and his findings would soon be declassified and ended the phone conversation by saying "I've already said too much." [Time, 7/25/05]
ROVE SPOKE WITH COLUMNIST ROBERT NOVAK: A week prior to publishing his column which outed undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, Robert Novak spoke with Karl Rove. In the 7/8/03 conversation with Rove, Novak brought up Plame's role at the CIA, and Rove confirmed for the reporter that Plame worked at the CIA: "I heard that too," said Rove. [NYT, 7/15/05]
TESTIFIED "TWO TO THREE TIMES" BEFORE THE GRAND JURY: In his testimony to the grand jury, Karl Rove reportedly admitted "that he circulated and discussed damaging information regarding [Plame] with others in the White House, outside political consultants, and journalists" and "is said to have named at least six other administration officials" who were involved. From Rove's description of the administration's efforts, sources characterized the actions as "an aggressive campaign to discredit Wilson through the leaking and disseminating of derogatory information regarding him and his wife to the press, utilizing proxies such as conservative interest groups and the Republican National Committee to achieve those ends, and distributing talking points to allies of the administration on Capitol Hill and elsewhere." [American Prospect, 3/8/04; Newsweek, 7/11/05]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Rove was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the other individual who has been confirmed as a leaker, Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby: Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney (2001-Present)
CHENEY AND LIBBY PRESSURED CIA ON URANIUM: Cheney and Libby visited the CIA headquarters to engage the CIA analysts directly on this issue of uranium acquisition in Africa, "creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives." [Washington Post, 6/5/03]
LIBBY, ALONG WITH ROVE AND HADLEY, PREPARED TENET'S RESPONSE TO NIGER CRITICISMS: Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr., were helping to prepare what became the administration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been included in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address six months earlier. They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed statement by George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to explain how the disputed wording had gotten into the address. Mr. Rove, the president's political strategist, and Mr. Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coordinated their efforts with Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consulting with Mr. Tenet. [New York Times, 7/22/05]
LIBBY SPOKE TO JUDITH MILLER: "Two sources say Miller spoke with
Libby, during the key period in July 2003 that is the focus of Fitzgerald's investigation. The two sources, one who is familiar with Libby's version of events and the other with Miller's, said the previously undisclosed conversation occurred a few days before Plame's name appeared in Robert D. Novak's syndicated column on July 14, 2003."
"According to the appellate court's opinion, Fitzgerald knows the identity of the person with whom Miller spoke and wants to question her about her contact with that ?'specified government official' on or about July 6, 2003. Miller never wrote a story on the subject." [Washington Post, 7/15/05 | Washington Post, 2/15/05]
LIBBY SPOKE TO WALTER PINCUS: "Pincus answered questions about Libby as well. Both he and Cooper said they did so with Libby's approval, and both said that their conversations with Libby did not touch on the identity of Wilson's wife." [Washington Post, 9/15/04]
LIBBY SPOKE TO GLEN KESSLER: "Fitzgerald took a tape-recorded deposition that will be played to the grand jury from Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler. Kessler said he agreed to be interviewed, at the urging of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Cheney, about two telephone conversations he had with Libby. Kessler said he told the prosecutors that in conversations last July 12 and July 18, Libby did not mention Plame or Wilson." [Washington Post, 6/24/04]
LIBBY SPOKE TO MATTHEW COOPER: Libby tells Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that Dick Cheney had not been responsible for Wilson's mission. Speaking on the record, Libby denies that Cheney knew about or played any role in the Wilson trip to Niger. Speaking on background, Cooper asks Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger. Libby replies, "Yeah, I've heard that too." [Time, 7/25/05]
WHITE HOUSE DENIES LIBBY INVOLVEMENT: During press briefing, Scott McClellan says of Libby and others that "they assured me that they were not involved" in "leaking classified information." [White House, 10/10/03]
CHENEY ASKED ABOUT LIBBY BY PROSECUTORS: "Vice President Dick Cheney was recently interviewed by federal prosecutors who asked whether he knew of anyone at the White House who had improperly disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Mr. Cheney was also asked about conversations with senior aides, including his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby
. It was not clear how Mr. Cheney responded to the prosecutors' questions." [New York Times, 6/5/04]
LIBBY NOTES FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO BY PROSECUTORS: "One set of documents that prosecutors repeatedly referred to in their meetings with White House aides are extensive notes compiled by I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser. Prosecutors have described the notes as ?'copious.'" [New York Times, 2/10/04]
LIBBY TESTIFIED BEFORE GRAND JURY, MAY HAVE MISLED: Libby told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned Plame's identity from Tim Russert. Russert said in a statement last year that he told the prosecutor that "he did not know Ms. Plame's name or that she was a CIA operative" and that he did not provide such information to Libby in July 2003. [Bloomberg, 7/22/05]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Libby was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the other individual who has been confirmed as a leaker, Karl Rove. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Condoleezza Rice: National Security Advisor (2001-2005); Secretary of State (2005-Present)
RICE WAS ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: Rice was one of several senior administration officials on a July 2003 flight to Africa, during which it was decided that she would appear on the Sunday shows to "protect Cheney by explaining that he had had nothing to do with sending Wilson to Niger, and dismiss the yellowcake issue." [Newsweek, 7/17/05]
RICE RECEIVES TOP SECRET BRIEFING BOOK ON AFRICA TRIP: "To allow her to prepare on the long flight home to D.C., White House officials assembled a briefing book, which they faxed to the Bush entourage in Africa. The book was primarily prepared by her National Security Council staff. It contained classified information ?- perhaps including all or part of the memo from State. The entire binder was labeled TOP SECRET." [Newsweek, 7/17/05]
RICE SAYS SHE LEARNED OF WILSON'S TRIP FROM ABC NEWS APPEARANCE: "
[O]n Ambassador Wilson's going out to Niger, I learned of that when I was sitting on whatever TV show it was, because that mission was not known to anybody in the White House." [State Department, 7/11/03]
RICE CLAIMS NO KNOWLEDGE OF LEAKS: "I know nothing of any such White House effort to reveal any of this. And it certainly would not be the way the president would expect his White House to operate." [Fox News, 9/28/03]
RICE WAS MEMBER OF WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Rice was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Stephen Hadley: Deputy National Security Advisor (2001-2005); National Security Advisor (2005-Present)
ROVE COMMUNICATED HIS COVERSATION WITH COOPER TO HADLEY: After Karl Rove spoke to Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper about Joseph Wilson (according to Cooper, this was the first time he learned of Plame's identity), Rove wrote Hadley an email. The July 11, 2003 email said: "Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming. When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this." [Associated Press, 7/15/05]
HADLEY SEEN AS "EYES AND EARS" FOR CHENEY: In 1989, Hadley served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. Hadley admitted Cheney was "a factor" in his hiring as deputy national security adviser by President Bush in 2001. The Washington Post reported that some saw Hadley as Cheney's "eyes and ears" at the NSC. [Washington Post, 7/25/01]
HADLEY WAS WARNED NOT TO CITE URANIUM EVIDENCE: Hadley briefed reporters on July 22, 2003 to explain why the bogus intelligence should have been excluded from Bush's State of the Union. Hadley noted his receipt of a memorandum from the CIA, dated October 6, 2002, that explained why references to Iraq's pursuit of uranium was dropped from Bush's October 7 speech against Iraq. According to Hadley, the memo provided "some additional rationale for the removal of the uranium reference." The memo described "some weakness in the evidence, the fact that the effort was not particularly significant to Iraq's nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already had a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory
This memorandum was received by the Situation Room here in the White House, and it was sent to both Dr. Rice and myself." [Hadley/Bartlett Gaggle, 7/22/03]
HADLEY REVIEWED POWELL'S SPEECH TO U.N. WHICH DID NOT CONTAIN URANIUM REFERENCE: Prior to Powell's speech, Condoleeza Rice's deputy Stephen Hadley led "the White House effort to sift through the intelligence with the help of the CIA," and tried "to determine what can be released without damaging the agency's ability to gather similar information." The uranium reference mentioned in Bush's 2003 State of the Union just one week prior was deleted from Powell's speech to the U.N. because Powell said it did not stand "the test of time." [Washington Post, 1/30/03]
HADLEY COORDINATED WITH TENET ON TENET'S APOLOGY: The Washington Post reported, "Behind the scenes, the White House responded with twin attacks: one on Wilson and the other on the CIA, which it wanted to take the blame for allowing the 16 words to remain in Bush's speech. As part of this effort, then-deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley spoke with Tenet during the week about clearing up CIA responsibility for the 16 words, even though both knew the agency did not think Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, according to a person familiar with the conversation." [Washington Post, 7/27/05]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Hadley was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Andrew Card: White House Chief of Staff (2001-Present)
CARD GIVEN A 12 HOUR HEAD START ON THE INVESTIGATION: On September 29, 2003, the Department of Justice informed then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales that it was launching a criminal investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. Gonzales was instructed to notify the White House staff to preserve all documents related to the case. By his own admission, Gonzales didn't comply with the request immediately; he went to Chief of Staff Andrew Card and told him that the White House staff would be told to preserve all documents related to the leak the following morning. As a result, Card had a 12-hour window to tip off White House staff about the request ?- an amount of time that "would give people time to shred documents and do any number of things." [CBS, 7/24/05; Democracy Now; Fox News, 12/31/03]
CARD WAS ON AIR FORCE ONE: Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was on Air Force One accompanying President Bush on the July 2003 trip to Africa. A "senior State Department official confirmed that, while on the trip, Powell had a department intelligence report on whether Iraq had sought uranium from Niger." The State Department memo in question ?- a "key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation" ?- stated that "Wilson's wife had attended a meeting at the CIA where the decision was made to send Wilson to Niger." The memorandum "contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked ?'(S)' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified
" [Newsweek, 8/9/04; Washington Post, 7/20/05, 7/20/05; Knight Ridder, 3/5/04]
INSTIGATED CONVERSATION BETWEEN TENET, BUSH ABOUT INVESTIGATION: Two days into the Justice Department investigation, Card initiated a conversation between President Bush and then-director of the CIA George Tenet about the leak investigation. Though Tenet was not planning on discussing the issue with the President at the daily intelligence briefing, it was Card who brought up the subject. [New York Times, 10/5/03]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Andrew Card was the founder and a "regular participant" in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Alberto Gonzales: Chief White House Counsel (2001-2005); Attorney General (2005-Present)
INTERVIEWED BY THE GRAND JURY: Gonzales testified in front of the Grand Jury about the Plame leak on June 18, 2004. [Washington Post, 6/19/04]
THE MISSING 12 HOURS: On 9/29/03, the Department of Justice informed White House counsel Alberto Gonzales that it was launching a criminal investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. Gonzales was instructed to notify the White House staff to preserve all documents related to the case. Gonzales, however, waited 12 hours before informing White House staff about the investigation. Instead, he told only Chief of Staff Andrew Card about the inquiry, in effect giving Card a 12-hour window to tip off White House staff, including Karl Rove, about the request. [Face the Nation, 7/24/05]
LEGAL ADVISER: After the Justice Department launched its investigation into the Plame leak, Gonzales was the chief advisor to White House staffers on complying with the investigation. He also acted as "gatekeeper," invoking "executive privilege" in order to hold back certain sensitive White House documents from investigators. Gonzales personally spent days screening all requested documents before handing them over to investigators. [CBS, 10/7/03]
Mary Matalin: Senior Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney (2001-2002)
WORKED CLOSELY VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Mary Matalin was senior advisor in Vice President Dick Cheney's office at the time of the leak. While in the White House, she worked closely with Scooter Libby ?- the Vice President's chief of staff who was one of Matt Cooper's sources. [Washington Post, 2/3/01]
INTERVIEWED BY THE GRAND JURY: Matalin testified in front of the Grand Jury about the Plame leak on January 21, 2004. [Washington Post, 2/10/04]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Matlin was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Ari Fleischer: White House Press Secretary (2001-2003)
IN EARLY JULY, FLEISCHER READS MEMO ABOUT PLAME ON AIR FORCE ONE: "On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip." [Bloomberg, 7/18/05]
FLEISCHER TOLD GRAND JURY HE NEVER SAW THE MEMO: "Mr. Fleischer told the grand jury that he never saw the document, a person familiar with the testimony said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about not disclosing what is said to the grand jury." [New York Times, 7/23/05]
FLEISCHER AMONG FIRST GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO CRITICIZE WILSON: Newsday reported, "In the subpoenaed July 12 [2003] transcript of a briefing in Nigeria, then-press secretary Ari Fleischer called Wilson a "lower-level official" and said Wilson had made flawed and incomplete statements." The transcript of the briefing was pulled from the White House site but has since been restored. [Newsday, 3/6/04; White House, 7/12/03]
FLEISCHER TALKED TO NOVAK THE DAY AFTER HIS COLUMN WAS PUBLISHED: Fleischer's "telephone log showed a call on the day after Mr. Wilson's article appeared from Mr. Novak, the columnist who, on July 14, 2003, was the first to report Ms. Wilson's identity." [New York Times, 7/23/05]
FLEISCHER INTERVIEWED BY FBI ABOUT LEAK: [Washington Post, 2/10/04]
FLEISCHER A FOCUS OF FITZGERALD INVESTIGATION: "?'Ari's name keeps popping up,' said one source familiar with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe. Another source close to the probe added there is renewed interest in Fleischer, ?'based on Fitzgerald's questions.'" [New York Daily News, 7/15/05]
Susan Ralston: Personal assistant to Karl Rove (2001-Present)
RALSTON IS ROVE'S RIGHT-HAND: ABC News reported on August 2, 2005 that Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's long-time right-hand, testified before the grand jury. The National Journal reported, "If Karl Rove is Bush's main man, then it's Ralston who makes this White House go ?- because she's indispensable to Rove." According to Newsweek, Ralston was suggested to Rove by ethically-troubled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, for whom she previously served as a top aide. [ABC The Note, 8/2/05; Newsweek, 4/20/05; National Journal, 6/18/05]
Israel Hernandez: Personal assistant to President Bush (2001-2005)
ROVE AIDE HERNANDEZ TESTIFIED: ABC News reported on August 2, 2005 that Israel Hernandez, a Rove aide in July 2003 during the leak of Valerie Plame, testified before the grand jury. Hernandez was tapped as assistant secretary of commerce. [ABC The Note, 8/2/05; NY Daily News, 6/24/05]
John Hannah: Aide to Vice President Cheney
HANNAH A "MAJOR PLAYER" IN FITZGERALD PROBE: According to the UPI, "The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said. According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff Lewis ?'Scooter' Libby were the two Cheney employees. ?'We believe that Hannah was the major player in this,' one federal law enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned. Hannah and Libby did not return calls. [UPI, 2/4/04]
FITZGERALD PRESSURING HANNAH TO NAME SUPERIORS: The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah ?'that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time,' as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law enforcement official said.'" [UPI, 2/4/04]
Scott McClellan: Deputy White House Press Secretary (2001-2003); White House Press Secretary (2003-Present)
MCCLELLAN WAS NOT ON AFRICA TRIP: "Fleischer and Bartlett were with Bush on a July 7-12 trip to Africa just prior to publication of Novak's column, and McClellan, then Fleischer's deputy, was on vacation." [Associated Press, 2/11/04]
MCCLELLAN SAID THE PRESIDENT "KNOWS" KARL WASN'T INVOLVED: "Q All right. Let me just follow up. You said this morning, ?'The President knows' that Karl Rove wasn't involved. How does he know that? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. I saw some comments this morning from the person who made that suggestion, backing away from that. And I said it is simply not true. So, I mean, it's public knowledge. I've said that it's not true. And I have spoken with Karl Rove
" [White House, 9/29/03]
MCCLELLAN SAID THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE ANYONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE OR VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE WAS INVOLVED: "There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well." [White House, 9/29/03]
MCCLELLAN SAID IF ANYONE IN THE ADMINISTRATION WAS INVOLVED THEY'D BE FIRED: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." [White House, 9/29/03]
MCCLELLAN SAID ROVE, LIBBY AND ABRAMS WERE NOT INVOLVED: "Q Scott, earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA? MR. McCLELLAN: Those individuals ?- I talked ?- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands." [White House, 10/10/03]
MCCLELLAN REFUSES TO COMMENT FURTHER BECAUSE "THE INVESTIGATION IS ONGOING": Even though he made his previous comments while the investigation was ongoing. [White House, 7/11/05]
Dan Bartlett: White House Communications Director (2001-2005); Councelor to the President (2005-Present)
WAS ON AIR FORCE ONE: Bartlett was one of several senior administration officials on a July 2003 flight to Africa. During the trip, Bartlett gave a background briefing in which he urged reporters to look into the CIA's sole in sending Joe Wilson to Niger. The briefing has not drawn "substantial interest" the prosecutor's office recently. One source for a New York Times article on the subject said Prosecutor Fitzgerald knew about the briefing but was not pursuing it. A different source for the same article said the Mr. Bartlett did not see the State Department memo that was otherwise witnessed on the plane. [NYT, 7/27/05]
TESTIFIED BEFORE THE GRAND JURY: According to Anne Kornblut of the New York Times, citing "a person who has been briefed on the case," Bartlett told investigators that "he did not know who Ms. Wilson was" when her name was leaked. Bartlett's attorney has refused to discuss the case, citing requests by the special counsel. [[NYT, 7/27/05; Washington Post, 7/21/05]
HAS LONGSTANDING TIES TO KARL ROVE: Rove and Bartlett go way back, and the influence of the former still has a tendency to affect the later. As Newsweek reports: "Technically, Rove was in charge of politics, not ?'communications.' But, as he saw it, the two were one and the same-and he used his heavyweight status to push the message machine run by his Texas protege and friend, Dan Bartlett." [Newsweek July 25, 2005.] He has worked closely with both Bush and Rove since 1994, when he worked on Bush's first successful campaign for governor. Before that, Bartlett was an employee of Karl Rove and associates, a political consulting firm established by Karl Rove after the 1980 primary defeat of George HW Bush against Ronald Reagan. [Link; White House]
CONTRADICTORY EXPLANATIONS OF 16 WORDS: In July of 2003, Bartlett, referring the infamous "16 words" in Bush's State of the Union address, told reporters that "there was no debate or questions with regard to that line when it was signed off on." The very same week Condoleeza Rice told reporters that there was "discussion on that specific sentence, so that it reflected better what the CIA thought." [Washington Post, 7/15/03;=]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Bartlett was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Claire Buchan: Deputy Press Secretary (2001-2005)
ANNOUNCED THAT PRESIDENT BUSH HAD SPOKEN WITH A LAWYER REGARDING THE LEAK: On Wednesday, June 2, 2004, Buchan announced that Bush had consulted a lawyer, Jim Sharp, about the growing leak controversy. "The president has said that everyone should cooperate in this matter and that would include himself," said Buchan at the time. [Associated Press, 6/2/04]
TESTIFIED BEFORE THE GRAND JURY: Buchan testified on February 6, 2004?-the same day as Adam Levine, a former press office employee, and Scott McClellan. "I was pleased to cooperate," said Buchan at the time. She has declined to reveal any details of her testimony. [Fox News, 2/11/04]
CLAIMED THAT NO WHITE HOUSE STAFF HAD BEEN ASKED TO SIGN WAIVERS: Despite the fact that the White House is "fully cooperating," Buchan said that no one had been asked to sign a form waiving the right to privacy. White House officials said that privacy waivers were routinely sought from government employees in the course of investigations to find the sources of sensitive or classified information, even though the procedure was not widely known. [NYT, 1/3/04].
Catherine Martin: Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs (2001-2004)
DENIED THAT CHENEY HAD ANY KNOWLEDGE OF WILSON OR HIS REPORT: In response to claims that Joe Wilson had circulated his Niger report prior to the State of the Union Address, Martin denied that Cheney had any knowledge of it. "The vice president doesn't know Joe Wilson and did not know about his trip until he read about it in the press," said Martin. [The New Yorker, 10/20/03]
INTERVIEWED BY THE FBI: The FBI interviewed Martin about the leak. It is suspected, though uncertain, that Martin testified before the grand jury. [Newsday, 2/24/04; Washington Post, 11/26/04]
PROSECUTORS EXPRESS INTEREST IN CALLS MADE TO AND BY MARTIN: Prosecutors have reportedly asked about calls made to and from Martin's cell phone in July of 2003. [NYT, 2/10/03]
CLAIMED IGNORANCE OF WHETHER OR NOT LIBBY HAD TALKED TO NOVAK: According to a Newsweek article, Martin denied knowledge of whether or not Scooter Libby had talked to columnist Bob Novak. "I don't know the answer," Martin said when asked about Scooter's possibly involvement. Her response is considered part of a larger White House tactic to avoid answering such questions. [Newsweek, 10/8/03]
Colin Powell: Secretary of State (2001-2005)
WAS ON AIR FORCE ONE: Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was on Air Force One accompanying President Bush on the July 2003 trip to Africa. A "senior State Department official confirmed that, while on the trip, Powell had a department intelligence report on whether Iraq had sought uranium from Niger." The State Department memo in question ?- a "key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation" ?- stated that "Wilson's wife had attended a meeting at the CIA where the decision was made to send Wilson to Niger." The memorandum "contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked ?'(S)' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified
" There are also indications that Fitzgerald subpoenaed phone records from Air Force One ?- where the memo was first seen by many administration officials ?- to "determine whether presidential aides used the aircraft's phones to leak the name of a CIA employee to reporters." [Newsweek, 8/9/04; Washington Post, 7/20/05; Knight Ridder, 3/5/04]
TESTIFIED BEFORE THE GRAND JURY: Though not a subject of the inquiry, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the federal grand jury on July 16, 2004. Powell's appearance was seen "as the latest sign the probe being conducted by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald [was] highly active and broader than [had] been publicly known. Sources close to the case say prosecutors were interested in discussions Powell had while with President George W. Bush on a trip to Africa in July 2003, just before Plame's identity was leaked to columnist Robert Novak." Sources saw the decision to question Powell as indicative of "the thoroughness with which Fitzgerald is conducting the probe-and that knowledge about Plame was circulated at the highest levels of the administration." [Newsweek, 8/9/04]
Karen Hughes: White House Aide (2001-2002); Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy (2005-Present)
INTERVIEWED BY THE FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: In the questionnaire for her confirmation proceedings, Karen Hughes listed that she had been interviewed by the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. [New York Times, 7/22/05]
DECRIED LEAK, DENIED ROVE'S INVOLVMENT: In her book, Ten Minutes From Normal, Hughes discussed the leak, calling it "wrong" and "unfair" to Bush. Hughes earlier said the leak was "disruptive to democracy." In her book, she said whoever conducted the leak "should come forward and not hide behind journalistic ethics for his or her self-protection." She added, "The use of unnamed sources has become a convenient way for too many political operatives to hide and avoid accountability for their statements." Additionally, Hughes commented that she knew Rove wasn't involved in the leak because "Karl has said he was not involved." [Ten Minutes From Normal; POE News, 10/2/03]
INVOLVED IN DRAFTING 2003 STATE OF THE UNION WITH FALSE URANIUM CLAIM: In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush declared, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." It has been reported that Karen Hughes was "involved in drafting the speech." She said her primary goal in the process was to answer: "Why is Saddam Hussein's continued defiance a threat to our country and to peace in the world?" Intelligence from the CIA and the State Department at that time indicated Iraq was not attempting to acquire uranium from Niger. Furthermore, the inclusion of the false statement led to apologies from Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, Ari Fleischer, and George Tenet. Instead of addressing the allegations at the time they were made, Hughes defended the false intelligence and devised a communications strategy that questioned the motives of those who criticized the president. [President Bush, 1/28/03; The Houston Chronicle, 1/27/03; Baltimore Sun, 7/23/03; Washington Post, 7/20/05; MSNBC, 9/28/03; White House Press Briefing, 7/29/03; CNN, 7/11/03; USA Today, 3/14/02]
PREVIOUS HISTORY OF SMEARING WHITE HOUSE CRITICS: Hughes "was an advocate of the howitzer treatment" of the former Bush counter-terrorism chief and White House critic Richard Clarke. In an attempt to attack and smear the character of Richard Clarke, the White House released numerous pieces of information that were previously classified, including an email from Clarke to Condi Rice shortly after 9-11 and Clarke's resignation letter. The White House also revealed Clarke to be the source of an anonymous background briefing he had done on behalf of the president. However, the White House refused Clarke's request to declassify his correspondence with Rice prior to 9-11 about the threats that were being ignored. Hughes admitted on ABC's 20/20 that she was involved in these efforts against Clarke: "I'm involved in White House discussions about those issues
I think, from personal knowledge, that many of the things he said are not true." [New York Times, 3/28/04; CNN, 4/9/04; CNN, 3/4/04; ABC's 20/20, 3/29/04]
MEMBER OF THE WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP: Hughes was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of the Bush Administration's White House Iraq Group. The main purpose of the group was the systematic coordination of the "marketing" of going to war with Iraq as well as selling the war here at home. One clear example of this fact is that "the escalation of nuclear rhetoric" during the pre-war stage, "including the introduction of the term ?'mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation" of WHIG. The group included the two individual who have been confirmed as leakers, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. [Washington Post, 8/10/03]
Adam Levine: Communications Aide (2001-2003)
LEVINE WAS ONE OF FEW PRESS AIDES TO SPEAK TO REPORTERS DURING AFRICA TRIP: "Levine was one of the few press officials at the White House to answer reporters' calls [during the Africa trip]." [CNN, 2/10/04]
LEVINE AMONG THE FIRST WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS TO TESTIFY BEFORE GRAND JURY: Levine testified on February 6, 2004. "Levine's testimony was described as ?'brief' and non-combative, and followed several interviews with FBI agents.
The source said there were many questions about which reporters [Levine] and other senior officials talked to, suggesting investigators are trying to get as much information as possible from press officials, knowing the reporters are unlikely to talk." [Newsday 2/24/04; CNN, 2/10/04]
LEVINE SAID TO TESTIFY ABOUT ?'WHITE HOUSE PROCEDURES': "Dan French, former U.S. attorney for New York's Northern District, and Don Kinsella, the district's longtime criminal bureau chief, are representing a former White House press aide, Adam Levine
?'The President of the United States has asked his staff to cooperate, and even though Levine's no longer on the staff he's adhering to the President's request,' French said. ?'He has been called to testify before the federal grand jury concerning his knowledge of White House procedures, in particular phone calls with reporters. He was called to testify and we represented him in those proceedings.'" [The Times Union (Albany, NY) 2/12/04]
LEVINE LEFT ADMINISTRATION IN DECEMBER '03, BUT RELATIONSHIP CONTINUED: New York Times: "Levine left the Bush administration in December after working as the principal liaison between the White House and television networks." Later, the Washington Post describes Levine as "a former White House aide who portrayed Russert in mock sessions with administration officials," referring to White House prep for President Bush in advance of his Meet the Press appearance in early February '04. [NYT, 2/10/04; Washington Post, 2/5/04]
Bob Joseph: Director for Nonproliferation at National Security Council (2001-2005); Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs (2005-Present)
JOSEPH SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR INCLUSION OF URANIUM CLAIM IN STATE OF THE UNION: The New York Times reported that senior intelligence officials said that Alan Foley, a C.I.A. expert on weapons of mass destruction, said "he was asked by Bob Joseph, the director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council, whether the president's address could include a reference to Iraq's seeking uranium from Niger." [NYT, 7/18/03]
GUIDED THE W.M.D. ON IRAQ: Bob Joseph, "the senior director dealing with weapons of mass destruction, guided the process of building the case against Iraq" from the White House. Thus, it appears likely he would have seen the State Department memo that contained Plame's identity. [Newsweek, 9/30/03]
Dick Sheney: Vice President
CHENEY INTERVIEWED BY FEDERAL PROSECUTORS: "Vice President Dick Cheney was recently interviewed by federal prosecutors who asked whether he knew of anyone at the White House who had improperly disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Mr. Cheney was also asked about conversations with senior aides, including his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby
. In addition, those people said, Mr. Cheney was asked whether he knew of any concerted effort by White House aides to name the officer. It was not clear how Mr. Cheney responded to the prosecutors' questions.
[Cheney] was not questioned under oath and he has not been asked to appear before the grand jury." [NYT, 6/5/04]
CHENEY SEEMS TO BE THE COMMON DENOMINATOR: Four members of the Vice President's staff ?- "Scooter" Libby, John Hannah, Mary Matalin, and Catherine Martin ?- have either been implicated in the leak or testified before the grand jury. In addition, Stephen Hadley worked under Cheney at the Defense Department and is considered by some to be his "eyes and ears" on the NSC staff. [Washington Post, 7/25/01]
CHENEY AND LIBBY PRESSURED CIA ON URANIUM: Cheney and Libby visited the CIA headquarters to engage the CIA analysts directly on this issue of uranium acquisition in Africa, "creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives." [Washington Post, 6/5/03]
George W. Bush: President
WAS BUSH INVOLVED IN THE LEAK? In July 2005, the New York Times raised the possibility that Bush could be involved in the leak. "It is still not clear what the investigation into the leak of a C.I.A. operative's identity will mean for President Bush. So far the disclosures about the involvement of Karl Rove, among others, have not exacted any substantial political price from the administration. And nobody has suggested that the investigation directly implicates the president. Yet Mr. Bush has yet to address some uncomfortable questions that he may not be able to evade indefinitely
There is the broader issue of whether Mr. Bush was aware of any effort by his aides to use the C.I.A. officer's identity to undermine the standing of her husband, a former diplomat who had publicly accused the administration of twisting its prewar intelligence about Iraq's nuclear program." [NYT, 7/24/05]
BUSH QUESTIONED BY FITZGERALD FOR OVER AN HOUR: On June 24, 2004, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and several of his assistants questioned the president for about 70 minutes in the Oval Office. Bush retained a private lawyer, Jim Sharp, for the interview. A prominent First Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, said "It's hard to believe the special prosecutor would be burdening the president with an interview unless they had testimony to the effect that the president had information." [Washington Post, 2/25/04]
STARR DEPUTY SAID BUSH INTERVIEW SUGGESTED HIGH-LEVEL INVOLVEMENT IN LEAK: The New York Daily News reported, "The Bush interview ?'indicates there's obviously a belief that the leak was at a high level,' said Sol Wisenberg, a former [Ken] Starr deputy who questioned Clinton. ?'The President usually doesn't meet and knock around ideas with midlevel staffers.'" [New York Daily News, 6/25/04]
BUSH WAS ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO: A classified State Department report that contained Valerie Plame's identity was sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration officials who were aboard Air Force One with the president on July 7, 2003. The extent of the circulation of the memo is not known. [Washington Post, 7/21/05]
CLAIMED TO WANT TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LEAK: On September 29, 2003, a senior administration official told the Washington Post that Bush said, "I want to get to the bottom of this," during a daily staff meeting which Karl Rove attended. [Washington Post 9/30/03]
BUSH TOLD TENET HE WOULD COOPERATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION: A conversation between the president and Tenet about the investigation did not consume, according to Andy Card, "any significant amount of time or discussion or angst. It was basically, ?'We're cooperating, you're cooperating, I'm glad to see the process is moving forward the way it should.'" [NYT, 10/4/03]
Probe Accents Issue of What Rove Told Bush
Probe Accents Issue of What Rove Told Bush
By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 11, 2005; 10:22 PM
WASHINGTON -- Among the many questions surrounding the investigation into who in the Bush administration leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer is whether President Bush's top political adviser told his boss the truth about his connection to the case.
Two years ago, the White House denied that Karl Rove played any role, but revelations in the past month have shown that Rove spoke with two journalists about the operative, Valerie Plame. Whether Bush knew the truth while the White House was issuing its denials is not publicly known.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan was so adamant in his denials in September 2003 that he told reporters the president knew that Rove wasn't involved in the leak.
"How does he know that?" a reporter asked, referring to the president.
"I'm not going to get into conversations that the president has with advisers or staff," McClellan replied.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald questioned Bush a year ago and the prosecutor's office has questioned Rove repeatedly, so presumably investigators know the answer to what, if anything, Rove told Bush.
Whether Rove shaded the truth with Bush two years ago is a potential political problem. The president so far has stood by Rove's side, even raising the bar for dismissing subordinates. Two years ago, Bush pledged to fire any leakers, but now he says he would fire anyone who committed a crime.
If Rove didn't tell Bush the truth, that theoretically could be a legal problem for the presidential aide under the federal false statement statute.
Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said the false statement law covers statements made to all members of the executive branch, including the president acting in his official capacity. In contrast, a typical false statement case involves lying to investigators or writing false information on a form to the government.
The difficulties in bringing even a typical false statement case are considerable. Simply misleading someone isn't enough to bring a prosecution.
"If the president asks Rove, `Do we have anything to worry about here?' and Rove says `No,' that would not be a false statement," said Henning. "These two men have known each other a long time, the president is not going to question Rove closely as a law enforcement agent would, and that makes all the difference."
Henning is a former federal prosecutor in the Justice Department's fraud section in Washington and has written a law school textbook on white-collar crime.
What is clear about Rove is that after the White House's public denials in 2003 saying Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the presidential aide told investigators behind closed doors about his conversations regarding Plame.
Asked whether it wants to retract its earlier denials, the White House refuses to comment on the grounds that the criminal investigation is ongoing.
Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and apparently at least one other government official were involved in leaking information to reporters about Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Presidential scholars say a White House's refusal to comment can suggest an administration in political trouble.
"When under fire they suddenly hide behind the shield of secrecy as though they have no control over the matter," said Mark J. Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University who has written five books on the presidency.
"What we really don't know factually is whether Rove lied to the president or whether the president knew something about Rove's role and dissembled," said Rozell.
The White House decision not to answer the question makes sense from the standpoint of political damage control, says Steve Hess, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution.
The CIA leak story "has very little traction on Main Street," but all that would change, Hess said, if someone is indicted in Fitzgerald's criminal investigation.
The federal grand jury investigating the leak expires in October.
Career Lawyer Gets Oversight of CIA Probe
Career Lawyer Gets Oversight of CIA Probe
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 12, 5:40 PM ET
David Margolis, a lawyer at the Justice Department for 40 years, was named Friday to oversee a special prosecutor's investigation of who in the Bush administration disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer.
Margolis, whose title is associate deputy attorney general, is taking the place of Deputy Attorney General James Comey, whose last day of work was Friday. Comey will be Lockheed Martin's new general counsel.
Comey made the designation of Margolis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stepped aside from the probe because he was White House counsel when Valerie Plame's name was leaked in 2003 and he has testified to the grand jury investigating the unauthorized disclosure.
Comey gave broad discretion to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago when he was appointed to investigate the leak in December 2003. Margolis is not expected to alter Fitzgerald's mandate in what are likely to be the final months of his investigation. The grand jury ends its term in October.
No one has been charged in the Plame case. However, it's known that Karl Rove, a top aide to President Bush, and Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, discussed Plame with reporters before her name was first published by columnist Robert Novak in July 2003.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to tell prosecutors to whom she talked about Plame.
The departure of Comey, who had been second in command at the Justice Department since 2003, leaves vacancies in two key posts. Christopher Wray resigned as head of the Criminal division in May.
President Bush has nominated Timothy E. Flanigan, once Gonzales' deputy in the White House, to take Comey's job. Alice Fisher has been nominated to lead the criminal division.
Neither has been confirmed. Flanigan faced tough questioning in his Senate confirmation hearing about his role in allowing aggressive interrogation techniques be used on detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq and his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Judiciary Committee chairman, indicated he might oppose Flanigan's confirmation because he didn't like his answers. A committee vote on Flanigan has not been scheduled, and the committee will begin hearings on John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court when Congress returns to work in September.
Fisher's nomination had been held up through July by at least two senators, one Republican, one Democrat. Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, was seeking to question an FBI agent about a delay in obtaining a wiretap in a terrorism financing investigation. Grassley lifted his objection after meeting with Gonzales.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., also met with Gonzales, but he continues to hold up Fisher's nomination because he wants to talk directly to an agent who wrote an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility.
"In my weekly meetings with DOJ we often discussed (Defense Department) techniques and how they were not effective or producing intel that was reliable," the agent wrote. In his next sentence, he said Fisher, then the No. 2 in the criminal division, was among department officials who attended all the meetings.
Fisher has said she did not recall taking part in such discussions and Justice officials have said the agent did not intend to say she had. But Gonzales has refused to let senators question the agent, saying it violates long-standing policy.
After failing to persuade Levin to let Fisher's nomination proceed, Gonzales went public with the dispute, saying the vacancy was especially inopportune following terror attacks in England and Egypt in July.
Comey's departure "makes it imperative that key national security officials, such as Ms. Fisher, be confirmed so that the department is able to adequately respond to whatever emergencies may arise," Gonzales said in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
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