csua.org/u/cok -> news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation_14;_ylt=AoX9PxHjle3Ykxqrs4KQ.ktZJ_wA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
President Bush , at an Oval Office photo opportunity Tuesday, was asked directly whether he would fire Rove in keeping with a pledge in June, 2004, to dismiss any leakers in the case. For the second day, White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused t o answer questions about Rove.
Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium for nuclear weapons, according to a July 11, 2003, e-mail by Cooper obtained by Newsweek magazine. The e-mail is now in the hands of federal prosecutors who are hunting dow n the leakers inside the Bush administration who revealed the name of Va lerie Plame to the news media. The revelation about Rove prompted Democratic calls for President Bush to follow through on his promise to fire leakers of Plame's identity, and triggered 61 questions during two press briefings Monday by McClellan. It was McClellan who provided the previous assurances about no role for R ove, but he refused to repeat those assurances Monday. "This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation," McClellan repl ied. McClellan gave the same answer when asked whether President Bush has conf idence in Rove, the architect of the president's successful political ca mpaigns. The investigation was ongoing in 2003 when McClellan assured the public R ove wasn't involved, a reporter pointed out, but the spokesman refused t o elaborate. In September and October 2003, McClellan said he had spoken directly with Rove about the matter and that "he was not involved" in leaking Plame's identity to the news media. McClellan said at the time: "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved," "It was a ridiculous suggestion" and "It's not true." Rove's own public denials at the time and since have been more narrowly w orded: "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name," Rove said last year. "The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame aff air, they would no longer be in this administration," said Senate Minori ty Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is a bout our national security." Democratic consultant Paul Begala, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning Ameri ca" Tuesday, said Rove has both a legal problem and a political problem. He said the legal issue should be resolved by the grand jury. Cooper had also planned to go to jail rather than talk, but at the last m inute he agreed to cooperate with investigators when a source, Rove, gav e him permission to do so. One of the e-mails was a note from Cooper to his boss in which he said he had spoken to Rove, who described the wife of former US Ambassador an d Bush administration critic Joe Wilson as someone who "apparently works " at the CIA, Newsweek magazine reported.
The purpose was to check out rep orts that Iraq had tried to obtain yellowcake uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Plame's husban d suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. Wilson's trip to Africa provided the basis for his criticism. Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said his client did not disclose Plame's na me. Luskin declined to say how Rove found out that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and refused to say how Rove came across the information that it was Wilson's wife who authorized his trip to Africa. "In the conversation, Karl is warning Cooper not to get too far out in fr ont of the story," Luskin said. "There were false allegations out there that Vice President Cheney sent Wilson to Niger and that Wilson had repo rted back to Cheney about his trip to Niger. Luskin added, "A fair-minded reading of Cooper's e-mail is that Rove was trying to discourage Time magazine from circulating false allegations ab out Cheney, not trying to encourage them by saying anything about Wilson or his wife."
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