| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 5/25 |
| 2005/7/22-25 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:38780 Activity:nil |
7/22 Did the "moderate" delete the main Plame thread again, or was it the
guy who was yelling a lot?
\_ Yelling guy is probably freaking out about this:
http://csua.org/u/cti (nytimes.com)
and probably this:
http://csua.org/u/ctj (bloomberg.com)
and most likely this:
http://csua.org/u/ctk (bloomberg.com)
But I'm sure more yelling will make him feel better.
\_ I was yelling about people quoting secondary sources to prove
their point. The URL's above don't bother me in the slightest.
-yelling guy
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aY51e404Lx_8&refer=us
\_ Why did the post get deleted when three much better, more
relevant URLs were posted? |
| 5/25 |
|
| csua.org/u/cti -> www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/politics/22leak.html?ei=5094&en=67c9b3ba0b4f2f66&hp=&ex=1122091200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all Reprints By DAVID JOHNSTON Published: July 22, 2005 This article was reported by David Johnston, Douglas Jehl and Richard W Stevenson and was written by Mr Johnston. WASHINGTON, July 21 - At the same time in July 2003 that a CIA operati ve's identity was exposed, two key White House officials who talked to j ournalists about the officer were also working closely together on a rel ated underlying issue: whether President Bush was correct in suggesting earlier that year that Iraq had been trying to acquire nuclear materials from Africa. Two Years After Leak, Investigation Continues The two issues had become inextricably linked because Joseph C Wilson IV , the husband of the unmasked CIA officer, had questioned Mr Bush's assertion, prompting a damage-control effort by the White House that inc luded challenging Mr Wilson's standing and his credentials. A federal g rand jury investigation is under way by a special counsel to determine w hether someone illegally leaked the officer's identity and possibly into whether perjury or obstruction of justice occurred during the inquiry. People who have been briefed on the case said the White House officials, Karl Rove and I Lewis Libby, were helping prepare what became the admin istration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been in Mr Bush's State of the Union a ddress six months earlier. They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed stateme nt by George J Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to exp lain 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 J H adley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consul ting with Mr Tenet. At the same time, they were grappling with the fallout from an Op-Ed arti cle on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times by Mr Wilson, a former diplo mat, in which he criticized the way the administration had used intellig ence to support the claim in Mr Bush's speech. The work done by Mr Rove and Mr Libby on the Tenet statement during thi s intense period has not been previously disclosed. People who have been briefed on the case discussed this critical time period and the events surrounding it to demonstrate that Mr Rove and Mr Libby were not invol ved in an orchestrated scheme to discredit Mr Wilson or disclose the un dercover status of his wife, Valerie Wilson, but were intent on clarifyi ng the use of intelligence in the president's address. Those people who have been briefed requested anonymity because prosecutors have asked the m not to discuss matters under investigation. The special counsel in the case, Patrick J Fitzgerald, has been examinin g this period of time to determine whether the officials' work on the Te net statement led in some way to the disclosure of Ms Wilson's identity to Robert D Novak, the syndicated columnist, according to the people w ho have been briefed. It is not clear what information Mr Rove and Mr Libby might have collec ted about Ms Wilson as they worked on the Tenet statement. The effort was striking because to an unusual degree, the circle of offic ials involved included those from the White House's political and nation al security operations, which are often separately run. Both arms were d rawn into the effort to defend the administration during the period. In another indication of how wide a net investigators have cast in the ca se, Karen Hughes, a former top communications aide to Mr Bush, and Robe rt Joseph, who was then the National Security Council's expert on weapon s proliferation, have both told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee t hat they were interviewed by the special prosecutor. Ms Hughes is to have her confirmation hearing on Friday on her nominatio n to lead the State Department's public diplomacy operation. Mr Joseph was recently confirmed as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. As part of their confirmation proceedings, both had to fill out questionnaires listing any legal matters they had become involved in. Mr Rove and Mr Libby did not meet face to face while hammering out the critical points that were desired for the Tenet statement, the people br iefed on the case said. In its final version, the Tenet statement, through its language and tone, supported the contention that senior White House officials were focused on addressing the substance of Mr Wilson's claims. It did not mention Mr Wilson or his wife, and Mr Libby made it clear that Vice President Cheney did not send Mr Wilson to Africa, a notion some said Mr Wilson had suggested in his article. The defenders of Mr Rove and Mr Libby co ntend that the statement underscores that they were not trying to punish Mr Wilson. A former government official, though, added another element to how the st atement was prepared, saying that no one directed Mr Tenet to issue it and that Mr Tenet himself felt it was needed. IA's counterproliferation experts, on their own initiative, aske d an individual with ties to the region to make a visit to see what he c ould learn." In Mr Wilson's article, he recounted a mission he undertook to Niger in 2002 seeking information about a purported effort by President Saddam Hu ssein of Iraq to acquire uranium there, his conclusion that the effort h ad not occurred and the filing of his report. In his State of the Union address in January 2003, Mr Bush cited reports that Iraq had sought to acquire a form of uranium in Africa as evidence of Mr Hussein's intentions to gain weapons that he might provide to te rrorists, use to threaten the United States or employ against other nati ons in the Middle East. Lawyers with clients in the case said Mr Fitzgerald and his investigator s have shown interest in a classified State Department memo that was pro vided to Colin L Powell, then the secretary of state, as he left for Af rica on Air Force One with Mr Bush and his top aides on July 7, 2003, a day after Mr Wilson made his accusations public. The memorandum identified Ms Wilson by name and described her as having a role in her husband's selection for the mission to Niger. A government official said the paragraph in the memorandum identifying Ms Wilson wa s preceded by the letter S in brackets, a designation meaning that conte nts of the paragraph were classified secret. The designation was first r eported on Thursday by The Washington Post. The investigators have been trying to determine who else within the admin istration might have seen the memo or learned of its contents. Among those asked if he had seen the memo was Ari Fleischer, then the Whi te House press secretary, who was on Air Force One with Mr Bush and Mr Powell during the Africa trip. Mr Fleischer told the grand jury that h e never saw the document, a person familiar with the testimony said, spe aking on the condition of anonymity because of the prosecutor's admoniti ons about not disclosing what is said to the grand jury. Mr Fleischer's role has been scrutinized by investigators, in part becau se his 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 f irst to report Ms Wilson's identity. In his column, Mr Novak referred to her by her maiden name, Valerie Plam e, which she had used when first employed by the CIA Mr Fleischer ha s told the grand jury that he did not return Mr Novak's call, a person familiar with the testimony said. Mr Rove has also told the grand jury that he never saw the memorandum, a person briefed on the case said. Democrats who have been eager to focus attention on the case have urged reporters to look into the role of sev eral other administration officials, including John R Bolton, who was t hen under secretary of state for arms control and international security and has since been nominated by Mr Bush to be ambassador to the United Nations. In his disclosure form for his confirmation hearings, Mr Bolton made no mention of being interviewed in the case, a government official said. In the w... |
| csua.org/u/ctj -> www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aY51e404Lx_8&refer=us Rove, Libby Accounts on Plame Differ With Reporters' (Update2) July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, accordin g to people familiar with the case. Lewis Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, tol d special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC N ews reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administ ration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified befo re Fitzgerald that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according to a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was fi rst to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewha t different version to the special prosecutor, the person said. These discrepancies may be important because Fitzgerald is investigating whether Libby, Rove or other administration officials made false stateme nts during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genes is in whether anyone violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a covert intelligence agent. Twisted' Intelligence The CIA requested the inquiry after Novak reported in a July 14, 2003, co lumn that Plame recommended her husband for a 2002 mission to check into reports Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson, in a July 6, 2003 , article in the New York Times, had said President George W Bush's adm inistration twisted'' some of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons to ju stify the war. There also is a discrepancy between accounts given by Rove and Time magaz ine reporter Matt Cooper. The White House aide mentioned Wilson's wife - - though not by name -- in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Cooper, th e reporter said. Rove, 55, says that Cooper called him to talk about wel fare reform and the Wilson connection was mentioned later, in passing. Cooper wrote in Time magazine last week that he told the grand jury he ne ver discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call. Miller in Jail One reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, has been jailed on con tempt of court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury abo ut her reporting on the Plame case. said it would comply with Fitzgeral d's demands for Cooper's notes and reporting on the Plame matter, partic ularly regarding his dealings with Rove. The varying accounts of conversations between Rove, Libby and reporters c ome as new details emerge about a classified State Department memorandum that's also at the center of Fitzgerald's probe. A memo by the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research included P lame's name in a paragraph marked '' for Secret,'' a designation that indicated to anyone who read it that the information was classified , the Washington Post reported yesterday. State Department Memo The memo, prepared July 7, 2003, for Secretary of State Colin Powell, is a focus of Fitzgerald's interest, according to individuals who have test ified before the grand jury and attorneys familiar with the case. The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a CIA-s ponsored trip to Africa by his wife, who worked on the CIA's counter-pro liferations desk. Bush had said in his State of the Union message in January 2003 that Iraq was trying to purchase nuclear materials in Africa. Wilson said in his article that there was no basis to conclude that was the case and the ad ministration had exaggerated the evidence. At the time that Rove and Libby were talking with reporters, the two aide s also were working together to determine whether Bush's allegation was correct, the New York Times reported today, citing people who have been briefed on the case. Days after Wilson's article appeared, the White Hou se acknowledged that the assertion shouldn't have been included in Bush' s speech. Africa Trip The memo summarizing the Plame-Wilson connection was provided to Powell a s he left with Bush on a five-day trip to Africa. Fitzgerald is explorin g whether other White House officials on the trip may have gained access to the memo and shared its contents with officials back in Washington. One key to the inquiry is when White House aides knew of Wilson's connect ion to Plame and whether they learned about it through this memo or othe r classified information. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, speaking today at a meeting of House and Senate Democrats, said security clearances for Rove and Libby shoul d be suspended and Bush should fire anyone involved in the leak. Some Bush allies hope that the Fitzgerald investigation, which dominated the news in Washington for the first part of July, will subside as atten tion shifts to Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts to fill the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years. Fitzgerald's term of service lasts until October, which is also the lengt h of time remaining for the grand jury hearing evidence in the case. |
| csua.org/u/ctk -> www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aagJweX0XNCQ&refer=us Prosecutor's Probe Centers on Rove, Memo, Phone Calls (Update2) July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The fate of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may rest with the old Watergate question: What did he know and whe n did he know it? Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the leaking of a Central Intelligence Agency agent's name is now focused on how Rove, on e of President George W Bush's closest advisers, and other administrati on officials dealt with a key fact in an equally key memo. The memo, prepared by the State Department on July 7, 2003, informed top administration officials that the wife of ex- diplomat and Bush critic J oseph Wilson was a CIA agent. Seven days later, Wilson's wife, Valerie P lame, was publicly identified as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. On the same day the memo was prepared, White House phone logs show Novak placed a call to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, according to lawyers familiar with the case and a witness who has testified before t he grand jury. Those people say it isn't clear whether Fleischer returne d the call, and Fleischer has refused to comment. The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On the flight to Africa, Fleische r was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, ac cording to a former administration official who was also on the trip. In addition, on July 8, 2003, the day after the memo was sent, Novak disc ussed Wilson and his wife with Rove, who had remained in Washington, acc ording to the New York Times. Rov e told the reporter that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and had a hand in having Wilson sent to Niger in 2002 to check out reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium for a nuclear weapons program, Cooper said during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press'' program. Cooper, who recently testified before the grand jury after a long legal b attle to keep his sources secret, said Vice President Dick Cheney's chie f of staff, Lewis Scooter'' Libby, told him the same thing. Cooper sai d neither Rove nor Libby mentioned Wilson's wife by name. Waiting for Judgment Bush said today that he's waiting for the investigation to be completed b efore exercising judgment. If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration,'' Bush said in response to a question at a news conference. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, has said that Rove mentioned to Cooper th at Wilson's wife was a CIA agent but did not identify her by name. The memo was prepared by the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Rese arch at the request of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, according t o current and former government officials familiar with Powell's request . Powell asked for it on July 6, 2003, the same day Wilson published an opi nion article in the New York Times revealing his trip to Niger and his c onclusion that there was no evidence to support the claim that Hussein w as seeking uranium there. Wilson went on to accuse the Bush administrati on of ignoring his findings and similar intelligence to make a case for war in Iraq. The current and former government officials say that the report reached P owell sometime on July 7 It said Wilson had been approved for the Niger trip by mid-level CIA officials on the recommendation of his wife, a co unter-proliferation expert at the spy agency. Inner Circle A key question will be which officials received the report and when. The special prosecutor has subpoenaed telephone and fax records from Air For ce One and the White House. Fleischer, who saw the July 7 memo, wasn't part of Bush's inner circle du ring his tenure as press secretary, while Rove was at the heart of it. F leischer has already announced that he was leaving his post, and the Afr ica trip was one of his last White House duties. The July 7 memo was largely a reproduction of an earlier State Department report prepared around June 12. Another key question that Fitzgerald is interested in, according to the grand jury witness and the lawyers fami liar with the case, is whether Rove or Libby learned of this earlier rep ort and, if so, shared its content with reporters. Rove's defenders say the recent revelations in the case -- some of which have emanated from his camp -- serve to exonerate rather than implicate him. Five-Year Window They say those revelations show that Rove was not the original source of Plame's identity for either Novak or Cooper. They note that the 1982 law sets a high bar for prosecution: Fitzgerald would have to prove that th e person outing Plame did so knowingly and in awareness that the governm ent was trying to conceal her identity. In addition, the law only makes it illegal to divulge the identity of an agent who worked overseas within the past five years; Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday on Meet the Press' ' that recent newspaper stories have the effect of exonerating and vin dicating Mr Rove, not implicating him. It now has expanded beyond its original mission - - to determine if the 1982 law was violated -- to encompass whether any White House officials, including Rove and Fleischer, have testified fals ely about the case or obstructed justice by trying to cover up their inv olvement in the leak, according to people familiar with the case who cit e a pattern of questioning by Fitzgerald. In addition, there is strong reason to believe that Fitzgerald is hunting big game, according to several legal experts. They say that is demonstr ated by the fact that he has done something that no federal prosecutor h as done in 30 years: send a reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Time s, to jail for refusing to divulge with whom she spoke about the Wilson- Plame case. You wouldn't expect him to go to these lengths unless he thought he had something serious to look at,'' said Randall Eliason, the former chief of the public corruption section at the US Attorney's office in Washin gton. |
| www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aY51e404Lx_8&refer=us Rove, Libby Accounts on Plame Differ With Reporters' (Update2) July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, accordin g to people familiar with the case. Lewis Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, tol d special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC N ews reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administ ration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified befo re Fitzgerald that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according to a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was fi rst to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewha t different version to the special prosecutor, the person said. These discrepancies may be important because Fitzgerald is investigating whether Libby, Rove or other administration officials made false stateme nts during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genes is in whether anyone violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a covert intelligence agent. Twisted' Intelligence The CIA requested the inquiry after Novak reported in a July 14, 2003, co lumn that Plame recommended her husband for a 2002 mission to check into reports Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson, in a July 6, 2003 , article in the New York Times, had said President George W Bush's adm inistration twisted'' some of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons to ju stify the war. There also is a discrepancy between accounts given by Rove and Time magaz ine reporter Matt Cooper. The White House aide mentioned Wilson's wife - - though not by name -- in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Cooper, th e reporter said. Rove, 55, says that Cooper called him to talk about wel fare reform and the Wilson connection was mentioned later, in passing. Cooper wrote in Time magazine last week that he told the grand jury he ne ver discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call. Miller in Jail One reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, has been jailed on con tempt of court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury abo ut her reporting on the Plame case. said it would comply with Fitzgeral d's demands for Cooper's notes and reporting on the Plame matter, partic ularly regarding his dealings with Rove. The varying accounts of conversations between Rove, Libby and reporters c ome as new details emerge about a classified State Department memorandum that's also at the center of Fitzgerald's probe. A memo by the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research included P lame's name in a paragraph marked '' for Secret,'' a designation that indicated to anyone who read it that the information was classified , the Washington Post reported yesterday. State Department Memo The memo, prepared July 7, 2003, for Secretary of State Colin Powell, is a focus of Fitzgerald's interest, according to individuals who have test ified before the grand jury and attorneys familiar with the case. The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a CIA-s ponsored trip to Africa by his wife, who worked on the CIA's counter-pro liferations desk. Bush had said in his State of the Union message in January 2003 that Iraq was trying to purchase nuclear materials in Africa. Wilson said in his article that there was no basis to conclude that was the case and the ad ministration had exaggerated the evidence. At the time that Rove and Libby were talking with reporters, the two aide s also were working together to determine whether Bush's allegation was correct, the New York Times reported today, citing people who have been briefed on the case. Days after Wilson's article appeared, the White Hou se acknowledged that the assertion shouldn't have been included in Bush' s speech. Africa Trip The memo summarizing the Plame-Wilson connection was provided to Powell a s he left with Bush on a five-day trip to Africa. Fitzgerald is explorin g whether other White House officials on the trip may have gained access to the memo and shared its contents with officials back in Washington. One key to the inquiry is when White House aides knew of Wilson's connect ion to Plame and whether they learned about it through this memo or othe r classified information. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, speaking today at a meeting of House and Senate Democrats, said security clearances for Rove and Libby shoul d be suspended and Bush should fire anyone involved in the leak. Some Bush allies hope that the Fitzgerald investigation, which dominated the news in Washington for the first part of July, will subside as atten tion shifts to Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts to fill the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years. Fitzgerald's term of service lasts until October, which is also the lengt h of time remaining for the grand jury hearing evidence in the case. |
| nytimes.com The New York Times On The Web News Newspaper Current Event |