Cooper/Rove Emails revealed

This weekend, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has provided us with the latest chapter in the Karl Rove witch hunt. 

Here is a little review for those who don't understand what this "scandal" is about.  In 2002, Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger by the State Department in order to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein was trying to purchase uranium ore.  In July 2003, Wilson wrote a New York Times op-ed column which claimed that he uncovered no evidence whatsoever that Iraq had been trying to purchase material for a nuclear weapons program.  According to conspiracy theorists, this angered the White House so much that Karl Rove personally set out on a quest to destroy Wilson.  Rove's diabolical plan revolved around leaking the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who was a not-so-secret CIA agent.

The conspiracy theorists charged that Rove leaked Plame's name to numerous sources, including Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and possibly to Robert Novak, who actually published Plame's name in a story related to the Wilson op-ed.  So far, Novak has been mum regarding his role and appears to have worked out an immunity deal with Federal prosecutors who are investigating the leak.

This week, amid pressure from the Federal prosecutors following a Supreme Court ruling which gave courts the right to punish reporters who will not reveal sources when a criminal investigation is ongoing, Matt Cooper obtained permission from Karl Rove to release the content of their conversation regarding the Wilson editorial.  The conversation was summarized and recorded in the form of an email.

So what was in "THE EMAIL"?

In a brief conversation with Rove, Cooper asked what to make of the flap over Wilson's criticisms.

... Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."

The email concludes,

"... not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger ... "

Notice anything missing?  Valerie Plame's name, perhaps?

Notice also that Rove attempted to correct a number of inaccurate assumptions and charges that were being peddled by the media at the time, namely that the Vice President had authorized the Wilson mission and was somehow involved in a "coverup" of his findings.  A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation later proved that it was Valerie Plame who picked Wilson to travel to Niger in 2002.  Wilson denied that Plame had anything to do with the trip.  Wilson was outed as a liar, and the objectivity of his work was permanently tarnished.  The Senate investigation also revealed that Wilson's own report suggested that Iraqis had visited Niger.  His reputation was damaged so badly that he refused to be interviewed live on television about the Senate report.

Isikoff sites an anonymous source close to Rove who explains,

"A fair reading of the e-mail makes clear that the information conveyed was not part of an organized effort to disclose Plame's identity, but was an effort to discourage Time from publishing things that turned out to be false," the source said, referring to claims in circulation at the time that Cheney and high-level CIA officials arranged for Wilson's trip to Africa.

In other words, Karl Rove told the truth.

More good blogging on this from Rob Port, who is guest-blogging at WizBang.

UPDATES:

And here's a great write-up from John Hinderaker at PowerLine that deeply explores the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.  It also includes a report of the reluctant confession by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell (wife of Alan Greenspan, for all you conspiracy nuts out there) that, well before the infamous July 2003 Robert Novak article was published, she knew Valerie Plame, and that she also knew that Plame worked for the CIA.

Here is Michelle Malkin's blogger roundup on the Rove/Plame/Cooper/Gannon/Wilson/Downing Street/etc. scandal.  She reproduces a paragraph from Red State which pretty much sums up Joseph Wilson's complete lack of credibility:

So let's review - Wilson lied about how he got to Niger, he lied about seeing a report that didn't even exist at the time, he lied about the conclusions of his own report(!), he lied about what the administration had been told, and his wife, Valerie Plame, specifically sent him on a mission to intentionally debunk a claim, not to find facts or perform inspections...

Also, it certainly gives life to the question of why the heck these two lied so darn much in absence of a clear and compelling political agenda driving their every move. Let's not rush to make these partisan hacks into saints - they attempted to cook the books against the administration and got busted for being the compulsive liars that they are.

...

I regard to my previous entry on this story, I'd like to make a few things clear.

First, outing a government agent who is working undercover is a crime - a very serious one - and when it happens, it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  In any secret operation the lives of operatives are at stake, and so are the contacts and information networks that may have taken years to set up, as well as the actual intelligence data that the operatives have gathered.  This is not a frivolous subject by any means.

But to insist that Valerie Plame was a "secret agent" is foolishness.  If you didn't read the article about Plame that I linked above, and in my previous post, then read it now.  And read the superb PowerLine piece, too.

Wilson and Plame have milked this incident in a shameful fashion, appearing in Vanity Fair magazine twice and turning themselves into celebrities on the MoveOn.org circuit - this very fact destroys any assumption that Plame was a covert operative or was working on anything sensitive.

I feel about as sorry for Valerie Plame as I do for Monica Lewinsky.

Another thing, Democrats have little reason to tar and feather Karl Rove, with their own party's sad legacy of leaks and security breaches, including the dismal record of Sen. Patrick Leahy and former National Security Advisor Sandy Burglar.  So there.

CUE "SECRET AGENT MAN"

Comments

[David V]

I can ID you without mentioning your name too, e.g., be sure to read this pile of garbage by an unamed author at http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/noisepage/2005/07/cooperrove_emai.html
I think that is tantamount to saying, I don't know her name, but she's married to Joseph Wilson.

Additionally, since when are conservative "christians" exempt from the ten commandments they so often seek to enshrine in government buildings? I think that, "thou shall not steal, thou shall not lie, and thou shall not bear false witness against they neighbor" are some of them this white house and its supportors continually breach. --white house apologist, "Oh wait, perhaps we should define "neighbor" because last time we checked Joseph Wilson didn't live anywhere near KR."

[rob]

One thing you arent posting here is that Rove sure didnt mean Mrs. Wilson Dennis the Meneces nextdoor neighbor, or the fact that Rove spoke to Novak 4 full days before the story came out. Or that by talking to Nobal about a CIA agent at all is just wrong.Rove should have said no comment . Bush said he will fire ANYONE involved not that they beed to be charged wuth anything. Its clear to thinking people Rove was involved in her outing.