Oh boy. I haven’t even opened my newsreader to see what everyone else has to say about this, but the first news item I see upon opening my browser is that Karl Rove spoke with Robert Novak via telephone, on the eve of the latter’s column outing CIA operative Valerie Plame. Rove claims to have learned of Plame’s identity from Novak.
Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser, spoke with the columnist Robert D. Novak as he was preparing an article in July 2003 that identified a C.I.A. officer who was undercover, someone who has been officially briefed on the matter said. Mr. Rove has told investigators that he learned from the columnist the name of the C.I.A. officer, who was referred to by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, and the circumstances in which her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, traveled to Africa to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq, the person said.
After hearing Mr. Novak’s account, the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: "I heard that, too."
The previously undisclosed telephone conversation, which took place on July 8, 2003, was initiated by Mr. Novak, the person who has been briefed on the matter said.
Six days later, Mr. Novak’s syndicated column reported that two senior administration officials had told him that Mr. Wilson’s "wife had suggested sending him" to Africa. That column was the first instance in which Ms. Wilson was publicly identified as a C.I.A. operative.
It gets better. The Post indicates that Rove got the info from a reporter prior to talking to Novak, but doesn’t clear up how Novak got the info, which Rove apparently corroborated. By one count, that makes at least two leaks by Rove; one to Cooper and one to Novak.
So now we have Rove leaking to Novak AND Matt Cooper, and Bush still hasn’t fired him,, no one has revoked his security clearance, and in fact Rove was walking side by side with Bush today. Could we have a bigger threat to our national security that a walking sieve attached at the hip of our president?
So, Rove told Novak and Cooper, but "a reporter" told Rove? The Plame Blame Game is in full swing, but there’s one party — a certain reporter sitting in Viginia jail cell — who hasn’t spoken up yet. Did she tell Rove?� And if so, who told her?
And of course the big question is : what did the president know, and when did he know it?
I’ve been wondering whether the reason Judith Miller has been so willing to go to the mat to protect her ‘source’ is that she may have played a bigger role in the disclosure than previously thought.