White House advisor Karl Rove has been named as the person who leaked undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press for political reasons. Exposing a CIA agent is a serious violation of federal law. Democratic congressmen are already using words like treason. There is a grand jury inverstigation going on to determine who broke the federal law. George Bush declared last year that he would tolerate no leaks from the White House, welcomed the investigation, and would deal with anyone found guilty. Exposing a CIA agent during wartime could be considered collaborating with the enemy. Bush aide Rove was Time reporter's Source July 10, 2005 WASHINGTON - Top White House advisor Karl Rove was one of the secret sources that spoke to reporters about a covert CIA operative whose identity was leaked to the media, Newsweek magazine reported in its latest edition. The rest of the story Democrats attack Bush aide over CIA leak charges Mon Jul 11, 2005 WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) "The White House faced fierce questioning on Monday over top political aide Karl Rove's involvement in a CIA leak scandal and Democratic calls mounted for President George W. Bush to sideline the adviser. One Democratic lawmaker said the intentional disclosure of a covert agent's identity amounted to an "act of treason." Others urged Bush to sideline Rove by suspending his access to classified information and said the aide should "clear the air" by answering questions from Congress. After publicly defending Rove two years ago, the White House responded to a barrage of pointed questions on Monday by saying that it would not comment at the request of the prosecutors investigating who leaked the identify of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame." Rest of the Story
This is open and shut for me, and not just because of my political affiliation. He has to be fired and immediately. Bush himself said, "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. If there's leaks out of my Administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of." He acted in a stupid, arrogant way trying to score points against a political foe and jeopardized these two individuals. It's borderline criminal, and at least can be characterized as serious wrongdoing. He needs to get the boot before he has a chance to resign. What really peeves me is no public apology to the Wilson's yet. A fun fact is that Ari Fleischer abruptly resigned as Bush's press secretary on May 16, 2003, about the same time the White House became aware of Ambassador Wilson's plans to go public. (Wilson's article appeared July 6.) Did Fleischer quit because he didn't want to act as spokesman for Rove's plan to betray CIA agent Plame? Another interesting coincidence: Novak published his Plame column on July 14, Fleischer's last day on the job.
I've always found Fleischer's sudden resignation to be quite interesting. It certainly didn't get much attention. On the Rove note, Bush hasn't made a habit out of firing those individuals who screw up colossally. Rove was the strategist that won him reelection, so who knows. Maybe he'll give him a medal like he gave Condi, Tenet, and all the other kooks that cooked up Iraq.
This should be a great test to see how many standards of behavior are at work in Washington. Hopefully the facts of this story come out with as little political spin as possible.
Rove didn't give up the agent. If you notice, the Newsweek reporter gave up his source in grand jury testimony. But the NY Times reporter has gone to jail to not reveal her source. She didn't go to jail as some sort of civil disobedience........she's gone to jail because her source actually gave up the agent's name and is a Democrat. She went to jail to defend her source......a liberal. If it were Rove she would have given that up in the first 2 minutes of questioning........all these reporters hate the evil Rove. He didn't give up anything about an agent to a reporter or he would have been jailed by now.
You are absolutely 100% wrong. Rove was Cooper's source and this was stated by Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin. Additionally, Rove signed a waiver last week which is why Cooper changed his mind and will testify ... and will keep him out of jail. There is no question about this fact. The only question is did Rove violate any laws. Either way, his ass should be unemployed. Judith Miller has a different source and she's not willing to give it up. It'll be interesting to see who her source is, assuming we ever find out. I'm curious to know how Novak has escaped all of this ... he must be cooperating with the special prosecutor.
Yet giving aid and comfort to the enemy by sowing dissension and spreading false propaganda the way scum like Michael Moore does is just plain ol' free speech, right Red? Yet lying about his mission and it's findings the way Joseph Wilson did, in a time of war, simply because he's a partisan hack, is OK...right Red? It would seem you have a rather skewed interpretation of what "treason" consists of. I'd really like to have your definition of the word. If it can be proven that Karl Rove exposed this woman (and exposure of what is still in question...there seems to still be some controversy over what Valerie Plame's actual role within the CIA was) out of pure political spite, then I'll be the first to say 'off w/ his head'. But you'd better be able to prove that it was done with malice aforethought. This is all I have to say. I'll wait for all the liberal hacks here (Mystikalillusion, Contained Chaos, etc.) to go ahead and pile on.
Don't get too excited out there... You might lose another election such as the first exit polls showing Kerry to win and then only to lose. I think this is much to do about nothing but we will see... Red, the democrats always collaborate with the enemy these days
Michael Moore, as full of crap as he is, is only a moviemaker, not a high-ranking government official. Further, dissent does not necessarily aid the enemy. Since I don't fit into your oversimplified label, I guess I can't pile on. :bncry:
