Armitage? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10117465/site/newsweek/ -- Sources of Confusion The Plame drama thickens, as Washington once again tries to guess who Bob Woodward's been talking to. By Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff Newsweek Nov. 28, 2005 issue - Who was Bob Novak's source? It's a parlor game any Washington insider or media junkie can play—and most do. Novak, a conservative columnist sometimes called "the Prince of Darkness," was the journalist who kicked off the whole Valerie Plame imbroglio that has obsessed Washington and so far resulted in the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Scooter Libby, for perjury. It was Novak who identified Plame as the CIA operative who helped send her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Africa to check on reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from the country of Niger. Depending on whom you believe, the leak was (1) an insidious smear by the White House to retaliate against a critic of the Iraq war or (2) mildly interesting gossip. The game became more intriguing last week when the legendary Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward was dragged in. Woodward revealed that he had been told about Plame and her role before Novak had, but that in order to protect his source and avoid a subpoena from the grand jury, he had told no one, not even his editor, Leonard Downie. Woodward's admission, along with an unusual apology, set off a wave of journalistic clucking among news organizations, including his own. Woodward has long been an object of envy and resentment because he has been free to absent himself from The Washington Post newsroom while he reports his megaselling books. But more than journalistic schadenfreudewas at stake. Though he gave testimony to the special prosecutor, Woodward refused to publicly identify his source. But he has repeatedly emphasized on talk shows and in interviews that when all the facts become known, the Plame affair will be seen as much ado about very little. In private conversations with journalists, Novak has suggested the same. So who is Novak's source—and Woodward's source—and why will his identity take the wind out of the brewing storm? One by one last week, a parade of current and former senior officials, including the CIA's George Tenet and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, denied being the source. A conspicuous exception was former deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage, whose office would only say, "We're not commenting." He was one of a handful of top officials who had access to the information. He is an old source and friend of Woodward's, and he fits Novak's description of his source as "not a partisan gunslinger." Woodward has indicated that he knows the identity of Novak's source, which further suggests his source and Novak's were one and the same. If Armitage was the original leaker, that undercuts the argument that outing Plame was a plot by the hard-liners in the veep's office to "out" Plame. Armitage was, if anything, a foe of the neocons who did not want to go to war in Iraq. He had no motive to discredit Wilson. On "Larry King Live" last month, Woodward was dismissive of the special prosecutor's investigation, suggesting that the original leak was not the result of a "smear campaign" but rather a "kind of gossip, as chatter ... I don't see an underlying crime here." That doesn't mean special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will fold his tent. Last week he announced he would present evidence to a new grand jury. While Scooter Libby's lawyers exulted that Woodward's revelation helped their client's case, Libby still faces strong evidence that he lied to the Feds. And it's not clear that White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove is out of the woods. When and if the true identity of Novak and Woodward's source becomes known (if indeed they are one in the same), the two-year-old mystery may be resolved. But the game is not over yet.
Testimony from Rove's former assistant may solidify case that he misled leak inquiry, lawyers say 11/28/2005 @ 12:27 pm Filed by Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will present evidence to a second grand jury this week in his two year-old investigation into the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson that could lead to a criminal indictment being handed up against Karl Rove, President Bush’s deputy chief of staff, attorneys close to the investigation say. Advertisement Rove has remained under intense scrutiny because of inconsistencies in his testimony to investigators and the grand jury. According to sources, Rove withheld crucial facts on three separate occasions and allegedly misled investigators about conversations he had with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper. The attorneys say that Rove’s former personal assistant, Susan B. Ralston -- who was also a special assistant to President Bush -- testified in August about why Cooper’s call to Rove was not logged. Ralston said it occurred because Cooper had phoned in through the White House switchboard and was then transferred to Rove’s office as opposed to calling Rove’s office directly. As Rove’s assistant, Ralston screened Rove’s calls. But those close to the probe tell RAW STORY that Fitzgerald obtained documentary evidence showing that other unrelated calls transferred to Rove’s office by the switchboard were logged. He then called Ralston back to testify. Earlier this month, attorneys say Fitzgerald received additional testimony from Ralston -- who said that Rove instructed her not to log a phone call Rove had with Cooper about Plame in July 2003. Ralston also provided Fitzgerald with more information and “clarification” about several telephone calls Rove allegedly made to a few reporters, including syndicated columnist Robert Novak, the lawyers said. If true, this is perhaps the most significant evidence Fitzgerald has obtained suggesting Rove deliberately sought to mislead investigators. Her testimony may help Fitzgerald prove that there were inconsistencies in Rove’s account of his role in the leak and assess why he withheld a crucial fact from the prosecutor: that he had spoken with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper as well as Novak about Plame and confirmed that she was an undercover CIA agent. Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, maintains that his client did not intentionally withhold facts from the prosecutor or grand jury but simply forgot about his conversations with Cooper. But sources say Rove’s reasons for not being forthcoming have not convinced Fitzgerald that Rove had a momentary lapse. Rove 'to be charged or make plea' Those close to the investigation say Fitzgerald will present evidence to the grand jury later this week obtained from other witnesses who were interviewed by the Special Prosecutor or testified, showing that Rove made misleading statements to Justice Department and FBI investigators in an attempt to cover-up his role in the leak when he was first interviewed about it in October 2003. The most serious charges Rove appears to face are making false statements to investigators and obstruction of justice, the sources said. Rove does not appear to be in jeopardy of being charged with violating a law making it a crime to leak the name of a covert CIA agent because it’s unlikely that he was unaware that Plame was undercover, they added. Rove’s conversation with Cooper took place a week or so before Plame’s identity was revealed publicly in a July 14, 2003 column penned by conservative columnist Robert Novak. Cooper wrote his own story about Plame a few days later. In his grand jury testimony, Rove said he first learned of Plame’s name from reporters, and only after her named was published did he discuss her CIA status with other journalists. That sequence of events, however, turned out to be false. Plame, who is married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was targeted in effort to discredit Wilson, a vociferous critic of the administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence. After making a trip to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to obtain uranium there, Wilson declared the claims were spurious in a New York Times editorial. Rove, along with other senior Bush Administration officials, discussed Wilson’s wife in an attempt to discredit and silence the ambassador by positing that his wife had arranged the Niger trip. Two things are clear, the sources said: either Rove will agree to enter into a plea deal with Fitzgerald or he will be charged with a crime, but he will not be exonerated for the role he played in the leak. If Rove does agree to a plea, Fitzgerald is not expected to discuss any aspect of his probe into the President’s senior adviser because Rove may be called to testify as a prosecution witness against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was indicted last month on five counts of lying to investigators, perjury and obstruction of justice related to his role in the leak. On Sunday, Time reported that another one of its reporters, Viveca Novak, who bears no relation to Robert Novak, is cooperating with Fitzgerald’s probe and will give a deposition to Fitzgerald about a conversation she had with Rove’s attorney in May 2004. However, Viveca Novak did not write about the Plame leak under her byline between May and December 2004. The first time she authored or coauthored a story about the leak was in July 2005. Ralston previously worked as a personal secretary to Jack Abramoff, the Republican power lobbyist now under investigation for allegedly defrauding Indian tribes who was recently indicted on conspiracy and wire fraud charges. While working with Abramoff, Ralston arranged fundraisers and events at Washington MCI Center skyboxes for members of Congress and their staff. Ralston communicated with Rove on Abramoff’s behalf on tribal affairs, though she does not stand accused of any wrongdoing. http://rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/printstory.php?story=1507
The Post meanwhile reported Monday that Plame would retire from the CIA, where she has been recently working on non-covert matters, on December 9. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005112...Vo29rqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM- hum... The better to pursue lawsuits?
gif, what is "rawstory.com?" Do they have a track record? I'm just trying to be fair, since we frequently pound "the other side" about quoting blogs and obscure sources to prop up Bush. I'm just not very familiar with it. Can someone clue me in here? What you quoted was damned intriguing, and wouldn't surprise me a bit if it's on the level. I just want some info about the source. Thanks! Keep D&D Civil.
Deckard, Rawstory.com is a lefty news compendium site that has also been doing some original reporting. They seem to have some sources involved in the Plame case and I think they have been reasonably accurate in their reporting on the case.
Gifford, thanks for the feedback. I spend so much time here that I sometimes get "out of the loop," regarding sources such as these. I had heard of it... just couldn't remember it's level of credibility. It rings true to me, but I'm sure much of what basso posts rings true to him as well. I think we will see huge stories coming from Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation soon. More people being called in for testimony, and from places very close to Rove, etc. I can only imagine the anxiety hanging over the White House like a funeral shroud, waiting for the next shoe to drop. Heck, it may turn out to be one of Paul Bunyan's boots. The facade of "relief" following the Libby indictment, when Rove and others seemed to have skated by, looks to be full of cracks, and in imminent danger of coming apart. The facade is a rather large one, so when it collapses, the result will be of catastrophic proportions for the Administration, burying any number of underlings, and even "overlings," amongst the rubble, scurrying like rats on a sinking ship. The aftershocks will resound well into the '06 elections, and beyond. Groovy! Keep D&D Civil.
rawstory, their record in the plame kerfluffle is more like half-baked. a far more interesting read is tom macguire's justoneminute give it a try, he's no partisan gunslinger, say no more!
Conversation with Time reporter led Rove to change testimony A conversation between Karl Rove's lawyer and a journalist for Time magazine led Mr. Rove to change his testimony last year to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case, people knowledgeable about the sequence of events said Thursday, the New York Times reports Friday. Excerpts. Mr. Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, spoke in the summer or early fall of 2004 with Viveca Novak, a reporter for Time magazine. In that conversation, Mr. Luskin heard from Ms. Novak that a colleague at Time, Matthew Cooper, might have interviewed Mr. Rove about the undercover C.I.A. officer at the heart of the case, the people said. Time reported this week that the prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has summoned Ms. Novak to testify about a conversation she had with Mr. Luskin, but provided no explanation of what Mr. Fitzgerald might be looking for. The account provided Thursday by people with knowledge of the discussions between Ms. Novak and Mr. Luskin suggests that Mr. Fitzgerald is still trying to determine whether Mr. Rove was fully forthcoming with investigators and whether he altered his grand jury testimony about his dealings with reporters only after learning that one, Mr. Cooper, might identify him as a source. Ms. Novak declined to comment, as did Mr. Luskin and Randall Samborn, Mr. Fitzgerald's spokesman. Jim Kelly, Time's managing editor, said he would not comment on the matter. Mr. Cooper and James Carney, the magazine's Washington bureau chief, also declined to comment. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Conversation_with_Time_reporter_led_Rove_1201.html
Leak Ruling Has Mystery, 8 Blank Pages By ADAM LIPTAK Published: December 3, 2005 There are eight blank pages in the public version of a decision the federal appeals court in Washington issued in February. The decision ordered two reporters to be jailed unless they agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. What is in those pages is one of the enduring mysteries in the investigation. In a filing yesterday, the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told the court that he had no objection to the unsealing of parts of those pages, and he gave hints about what they say. The pages, in a concurring opinion by Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, analyze secret submissions by Mr. Fitzgerald. Judge Tatel suggested, in a terse and cryptic public summary of what he wrote in the withheld pages, that testimony from the reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, was needed to determine whether a government official committed a crime in identifying Ms. Wilson. Mr. Cooper avoided jail after his source, Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, gave him permission to testify. Ms. Miller spent 85 days in jail before agreeing to testify after receiving permission from I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Mr. Libby resigned after he was indicted in October on charges of obstructing the investigation and related crimes. Yesterday's filing, in response to a motion by Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, seemed at odds with Judge Tatel's summary. It made clear that the case against at least Mr. Libby had for some time concerned obstruction of justice rather than the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity. Mr. Fitzgerald told the court yesterday that he did not object to the unsealing of the parts of Judge Tatel's analysis concerning Mr. Libby because most of the facts in it had become public through the indictment and statements from grand jury witnesses. Mr. Fitzgerald said he did object to unsealing other parts of the analysis. Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for Dow Jones, said, "We are hopeful we can persuade the court to release the rest." Floyd Abrams, who represented Ms. Miller and Mr. Cooper before the appeals court, said Mr. Fitzgerald's filing was significant for the light it shed on the inquiry's progress. "The revelation," Mr. Abrams said, "that Mr. Fitzgerald advised the court as early as the spring and fall of 2004 that his focus on Mr. Libby related not to potential threats to national security but to possible violations of perjury and related laws raises anew the question of whether the need for the testimony of Judy Miller and Matt Cooper was at all as critical as had been suggested." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/p...824f35db9385c8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
From the horses' mouth... Newspaper columnist Robert Novak is still not naming his source in the Valerie Plame affair, but he says he is pretty sure the name is no mystery to President Bush. "I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't." "So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.' " http://www.newsobserver.com/722/story/377675.html
Leak probe not seen to end with Rove, lawyers say Jason Leopold Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is not expected to shut down his investigation into the leak of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson when he finishes his inquiry of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's role in the leak, lawyers close to the probe said. These sources indicated that if a grand jury returns an indictment against Rove it will include -- at the very least -- a charge that he made false statements to Justice Department and FBI investigators when he was first interviewed about his role in the case in October 2003. Individuals close to the probe say Fitzgerald is still investigating other unnamed White House officials. This part of the investigation, like that of Rove, is focusing on whether these officials committed perjury, obstruction of justice or lied to federal investigators during the early days of the investigation -- as opposed to violating an obscure law which makes it a crime to knowingly leak the name of an undercover CIA operative -- they say. When Fitzgerald announced the five-count indictment against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who is accused of perjury and obstruction for his role in the leak, he said the bulk of his investigative work had been completed. Shortly thereafter, however, he convened another grand jury. According to those close to the probe, the prosecutor plans to use the jury well into next year to determine if other officials played a role in the leak and whether any laws were broken. The second grand jury hearing evidence in the case convened for the first time earlier this month. Their term expires in 18 months. The investigation is expected to shift back to top officials in the Office of the Vice President, the State Department and the National Security Council, and may even shed some light on the genesis of the Niger forgeries, lawyers close to the case say. The forged documents, cited in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, claimed Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from the African country. It may also reveal how key players in the White House decided to expose Plame's undercover status and top secret front company, Brewster Jennings. Separately, these people said, the FBI's renewed interest in probing the Niger forgeries grew out of Fitzgerald's probe. A court filing posted on Fitzgerald's website in October revealed that when the prosecutor subpoenaed New York Times reporter Judith Miller, he had already decided to pursue flawed intelligence the Bush administration used to build support for the Iraq war. Miller was jailed 85 days for refusing to disclose who had told her about Plame. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Leak_probe_not_seen_to_end_1221.html
You gotta think Cheney is in Fitzgerald's sights. Hard believe that Libby did not get his marching orders from his boss.
Fitzgerald Eyes Plame-Niger Conspiracy Prosecutor Probing Niger Forgeries, Possible Conspiracy in CIA Leak By Jason Leopold Monday 23 January 2006 Over the past few months, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been questioning witnesses in the CIA leak case about the origins of the disputed Niger documents referenced in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address, according to several current and former State Department officials who have testified in the case. The State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because some of the information they discussed is still classified, indicated that the White House had substantial motive for revealing undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters. They said the questions Fitzgerald asked them about the Niger documents suggested to them that the special prosecutor was putting together a timeline. They said they believe Fitzgerald wants to show the grand jury how some people in the Bush administration may have conspired to retaliate against former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an outspoken critic of the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012306Z.shtml
Fitzgerald is meticulous to say the least ~ slowly, steadily, and without distraction - he just keeps building this case.
Hum... Has Fitz found the "18 minutes?" ----------------- Fitzgerald admits White House may have destroyed some emails potentially relevant to CIA leak case Published: February 1, 2006 RAW STORY has acquired a letter from CIA leak Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis Libby, who was indicted for allegedly obstructing justice and other charges for his role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. In the letter, Fitzgerald admits that he has been told some emails from the President and Vice President's offices have been deleted, though he cautions that "no pertinent evidence has been destroyed." "In an abundance of caution," he writes, "we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system." The New York Daily News' James Meek reported this morning that "CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald collected 10,000 pages of documents - including the most sensitive terrorism memos in the U.S. government - from Vice President Cheney's office, he said in court papers released yesterday. Libby's lawyers are seeking classified material to aid their defense, which many legal analysts see as an attempt to force the prosecutor's hand in dropping the case or reducing certain charges in the interests of national security. Meek added: "Fitzgerald, who is fighting Libby's request, said in a letter to Libby's lawyers that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy." The relevant page of that letter follows in image form. To download Fitzgerald's entire letter in PDF form, click here. http://rawstory.com/other/pdfs/RawStoryFitzLetter.pdf
