NEWS: Rove's lawyer acknowledges he was Time reporter's source

A Newsweek article has quoted the lawyer of White House aide Karl Rove as saying that he was the source of the information that may have lead to the outing of an undercover CIA agent. Rove attorney, Robert Luskin, further confirmed that it was Rove who gave Time reporter Matt Cooper permission to testify before a grand jury despite a pledge of confidentiality. Luskin however emphasized that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA."




Damage control or the truth? Its hard to tell. But at any rate unless they can really spin this well, Rove is gone. Or at least he had better be. Even if this was inadvertent, a slip at this level could get people killed. But Bush has stuck with Rumsfield to this point, perhaps he thinks he will be able to gut this one out as well?


[edit on 11-7-2005 by John bull 1]

[edit on 12-7-2005 by John bull 1]

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*summoning my psychic powers*
*puting on my turbin*

"I see that it will be found that no crime was commited, because the leak was unintentional"
"It was a tiny, tiny, little boo boo"
*we hear the tiniest 'oops, did i do all that big mess?' in the known Universe*

For those of you who now understand my magnificent powers, please send donations to [email protected]

Credit & Debit card numbers and Checking accounts including pin numbers are all readily accepted.

The great MullahHauler thanks and blesses you, my anointed ones.
.

wow those are some awesome powers

i predict that the RW choir that is hannity and limbaugh will pronounce 'so what? this is old news' and it will be swept under the rug. Rove will be there for thanksgiving turkey in the oval office this year

drfunk

I break out my Karl Rove Voodoo Doll(TM) and sit it in my USB 2.0 Electric Chair(TM)
and apply voltage!

Burn Rove Burn. Muahahaha.

I predict that someone, soon, in this very thread, will mention Sandy Berger as a way to muddy the waters and absolve Karl Rove of wrong doing.

Just once, I'd like see SOME of my GOP friends say, "ya know, if this wasn't completely malicious, then it was really stupid. Let's actually hold somebody accountable for this".

Obviously, that's a generalization. I'll wait for the grand jury to convene and listen to the evidence. Karl Rove deserves his day in court, just like everyone else, regardless of whether or not I like the outcome.

But, a real question to ask here. If it does come out that Karl Rove intentionally leaked her name, thus putting her life in danger, and endangering the operations that she was involved in...will the same people who support the war, who call democrats and liberals TRAITORS, also consider Karl Rove a traitor?

I'd be interested to see how that shakes out.

Originally posted by brimstone735
I predict that someone, soon, in this very thread, will mention Sandy Berger as a way to muddy the waters and absolve Karl Rove of wrong doing.

Why would anyone want to compare Karl Rove's actions here to those of a criminal?

The Newsweek article says "Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative."

That would be a requirement for his actions to be criminal under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Originally posted by slank
"I see that it will be found that no crime was commited, because the leak was unintentional"
"It was a tiny, tiny, little boo boo"

There is no such thing as an unintentional leak when it comes to classified information. If classified information was leaked, whoever did it will pay a price. The best anyone could hope for is a Presidential pardon, if that happens. If Rove is guilty of a crime in this matter, that would not necessarily make him a traitor, depending on his intent, but it would definitely make him a felon.

The best thing to do would be to wait and see what happens, but that would spoil all the fun.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Why would anyone want to compare Karl Rove's actions here to those of a criminal?

Is Ollie North back in the White House?

"never knowingly."

hmm, lessee .... "I never knowingly had sex with that woman..."

nah, wouldn't have worked.

I say the investigation should begin by compiling a list of those people who were privvy to Ms. Plame's role as a CIA agent.

If Rove is on that list, then look into it further. If not, then it's a pretty large waste of time.

It is my personal opinion that someone in the Bush Admin was responsible for leaking this woman's name and risking her and her family's lives, but let's not lay the blame on people before thorough investigations are complete. I know how eager some folks here are to throw the blame for everything under the sun at Rove, but why not give the investigation the time it deserves. Hey maybe he did it, if he did he should rot, but let it be proven beyond any doubt who it was.

Then why in the hell hasn't the Justice Department arrested anybody, Karl Rove, or for god's sake, at least his attorney needs to go to jail, to hell with him stepping down or apologising, the man broke federal Law, and pretty obviously did so to avenge the reports of a man we sent to Niger which proved the crap they tried to hand us in regards to Iraq in regards to their attempts to purchase Yellow Cake Uranium were faslified. It's illegal to mislead congress, it's illegal to reveal CIA agent Identities, and it's illegal to pre-emptively invade anybody's country. That's just US Laws, not to mention the World Courts, which Bush pulled us out of (wonder why now in retrospect eh?)... Bush Cheney should have went to jail with Ken Lay to begin with and we wouldn't be in this debacle. As a matter of fact, Prescott Bush and Allen Dulles should have been hanged at the Hague, and we would have saved ourselves alot of grief in the past 60 years.

.
My crystal ball is getting another message,

*closes eyes*
*fingertips on ball*
*spases in chair*

"Yes,
Even though they wrote no story and no crime will have been found, I can see someone with the initials 'JM' as the only one serving any time behind bars."

"The deeper reasons for this are not clear even to my powerful magic."

"And unless Rove has lost some weight and is doing drag it appears to be a woman.
I see Rove with complete uninterupted run of the Whitehouse well into the future. . . are those pumps he's wearing ? . . . ."

I also see love and money in all your futures.

"just drop your money in the barrel by the door on your way out."
"Checks will need accomanying ID for approval"
.

Now here's the real question.

How did Rove know? Who told HIM?

The NOC list is the most sensitive secret information any intellgence agency has, except maybe the alien bodies in the freezer if you're inclined to believe that way.

How does a (vile) political hack like Rove even have ANY idea? Mrs Wilson is just Mrs Wilson, as she was to everybody else. It was certainly not common knowledge.

This was clearly Top Secret/SCI type information and there was NO need to know.

Somebody with a very very high level clearance leaked it for punitive political purposes, and seriously damaged the national security of the nation by doing so.

Screw em. I want indictments and impeachments.

Originally posted by brimstone735
I predict that someone, soon, in this very thread, will mention Sandy Berger as a way to muddy the waters and absolve Karl Rove of wrong doing.

Ya know if all these GOP dittoheads (and they call us liberals knee jerk

yeah right) had actually been raised to be decent and truly moral instead of being raised as conservatives

they would realize that there are no apples and oranges comparisons. To say that just because Sandy Berger (or Bill Clinton or whoever) did something illegal, that it makes it alright if they do so, is not only faulty logic it is a faulty morality. And to say that Karl Rove didn't know is not only bull# it is evasive. Rove has been around the halls of power long enough now to have known what he was doing, and after all this time, if he really didn't know then he doesn't deserve to be there at all. If any of us tried this defense the courts would tell us ignorance of the law is no excuse and that should apply doubly to those involved in government.

Just like the Fake Draft controversy, the only ones saying anything about "Sandy Burglar" are the hard core Demo-gogues, pointing fingers saying, "I'll bet they'll do this!"

Reminds me of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons where Bugs dresses as the referee, telling the big boxing brute opponent things he can't do, while hitting him with those same outrageously violent attacks.."no hitting below the belt, like *this*!" BAM!

Love the personal attack about conservatives. If you can't supply information to add to your manufactured argument, throw in a personal attack. Thought for a minute Mike Savage had gone liberal.

Real conservatives despise Rove as well. Real conservatives despise the Republicrats as well as the Demicans. Real conservatives don't buy the artificial partisan BS. I've said it before, I'll say it again-they are *all* crooks, *all* dangerous to the people and the culture that is America.

Originally posted by grover

Originally posted by brimstone735
I predict that someone, soon, in this very thread, will mention Sandy Berger as a way to muddy the waters and absolve Karl Rove of wrong doing.

Ya know if all these GOP dittoheads (and they call us liberals knee jerk

yeah right) had actually been raised to be decent and truly moral instead of being raised as conservatives

they would realize that there are no apples and oranges comparisons. To say that just because Sandy Berger (or Bill Clinton or whoever) did something illegal, that it makes it alright if they do so, is not only faulty logic it is a faulty morality. And to say that Karl Rove didn't know is not only bull# it is evasive. Rove has been around the halls of power long enough now to have known what he was doing, and after all this time, if he really didn't know then he doesn't deserve to be there at all. If any of us tried this defense the courts would tell us ignorance of the law is no excuse and that should apply doubly to those involved in government.

This thread is becoming too silly.

Whoever leaked this information should face execution since the nation is at war.

The journalists that forwarded this information for publication should also be tried for treason and executed as well.

We're at war people, so ruck up!

[edit on 11/7/05 by Intelearthling]

Yet another canned response: This is the News forum, please don't circumvent the censors.

Originally posted by intrepid
Yet another canned response: This is the News forum, please don't circumvent the censors.

My bad.

As I was watching things unfold on this, my response was that the journalists in question are committing treason by withholding vital information.

I couln't care less about their "rights", not at this time.

I'll watch myself on the next go 'round.

How did Rove know? Who told HIM?

That is the point. The real issue here is a leak in the intelligence community. Not Rove. I do not believe Rove's position gives him access to a ream of names that are undercover secret agents. That information was received from elsewhere.

Let go of the political dislikes and strive for the real answers. Someone deserves to get nailed for this.

Rove should hang, in public.