The Plame Blame Game
Plame Truth *
As the CIA
leak investigation heads toward
its expected conclusion this
month, it has become
increasingly clear that two of
the most powerful men in the
Bush administration were more
involved in the unmasking of
operative Valerie Plame than the
White House originally
indicated.
Judith Miller - Journalist?
There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal. And that is Ms. Miller's revelation that she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003. This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised. It is all the more puzzling that a reporter who as a matter of principle would sacrifice 85 days of her freedom to protect a source would so willingly agree to be officially muzzled and thereby deny potentially valuable information to the readers whose right to be informed she claims to value so highly. One must assume that Ms. Miller was required to sign a standard and legally binding agreement that she would never divulge classified information to which she became privy, without risk of criminal prosecution. Editor & Publisher, 10/16/05 MORE
Media Rove/Plame Cover-Up *
In an article in the September issue of Vanity Fair (not yet online), Michael Wolff, in probing the Plame/CIA leak scandal, rips those in the news media -- principally Time magazine and The New York Times -- who knew that Karl Rove was one of the leakers but refused to expose what would have been “one of the biggest stories of the Bush years.” Not only that, “they helped cover it up.” You might say, he adds, they “became part of a conspiracy.” . . . So in the end, he concludes, “the greatest news organizations in the land had a story about a potential crime that reached as close as you can get to the president himself and they punted, they swallowed it, they self-dealt.” And why did they do it? Well, “a source is a source who, unrevealed, will continue to be a source.” Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, 8/11/05 MORE
What did Bush Know; When Did he Know It? *
The Administration sources may have testified before the grand jury [investigating the Plame leak], or at least talked to the special counsel, but in their long public silence they have let Miller and Cooper twist in the wind. . . What’s the explanation for it? . . . As for President Bush wanting to get to the bottom of it: Well, he has had plenty of time to do that; there has been no need for him to wait for court action. In February 2004, Bush told reporters, ”If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is." He’s been waiting all this time to find out? Do you think the leakers would still be around if the leaks were damaging to Bush, instead of supportive? So as stories begin to flow from whatever court action takes place, one important feature should be: What did Bush know and when did he know it, and what did he do about it? Barry Sussman, Neiman Watchdog, 7/4/05 MORE
Rove
Illegally Leaked Covert CIA Agent Name for Political Gain *
Now
that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, revealing who
its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie
Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source.
Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, now claims that at
least two sources have confirmed that the name is--top White House
mastermind Karl Rove. . . According to published reports, Patrick
Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the case, has interviewed
President Bush and Vice President Cheney and called Karl Rove, among
others, to testify before the grand jury. "The breadth of Fitzgerald's inquiry has led to speculation that it has
evolved into an investigation of a conspiracy to leak Plame's identity,"
the Chicago Tribune observed on Friday, "or of an attempt to cover up
White House involvement in the leak."
Greg Mitchell
Editor & Publisher, 7/2/05
MORE
What did Bush Know; When Did he Know It? *
The Administration sources may have testified before the grand jury [investigating the Plame leak], or at least talked to the special counsel, but in their long public silence they have let Miller and Cooper twist in the wind. . . What’s the explanation for it? . . . As for President Bush wanting to get to the bottom of it: Well, he has had plenty of time to do that; there has been no need for him to wait for court action. In February 2004, Bush told reporters, ”If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is." He’s been waiting all this time to find out? Do you think the leakers would still be around if the leaks were damaging to Bush, instead of supportive? So as stories begin to flow from whatever court action takes place, one important feature should be: What did Bush know and when did he know it, and what did he do about it? Barry Sussman, Neiman Watchdog, 7/4/05 MORE
How Bush
Uses the Courts *
The grand jury
investigation into the illegal leak of Valerie Plame's covert CIA
identity still has not led to the public revelation of any suspect who
might be responsible for the leak. . . ., the suspects are two "senior"
Bush Administration sources - who may be high-profile. . . Though few
believe the Supreme Court will rule for the reporters, as Hoyle note,
the High Court might place the case "on its docket, which conceivably
could push the resolution into 2006.". . .if it takes the case - and
further delays it - the Special Counsel can do nothing. For this reason,
a Court decision to docket the case should raise deep suspicions. This,
after all, is the Court that installed Bush and Cheney in the White
House with its dubious Bush v. Gore ruling. Delaying this case until the
backside of Bush's second term could give the White House a pass through
the mid-term elections as well.
John Dean, Find Law,
5/19/05 MORE
Plame Game Quandary*
It's hard to fathom the continuing legal squeeze on Time Magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller to reveal their sources in a White House leak investigation. Unless, that is, the real concern of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald isn't just the leak, . . . .Here's where it gets complicated: Fitzgerald's legal quest makes little sense to me as a leak investigation. The law is fuzzy, the evidence is ambiguous and the case would be hard to prove. But every good prosecutor hates perjury, above all. And on its face, this case raises the possibility that one of the senior administration officials who talked with Cooper or Miller has denied doing so, under oath. Otherwise, Fitzgerald would have been finished months ago. David Ignatius, The Daily Star, 5/14/05 MORE
Libby, Cheney and Plame
Bush: the Plame Blame Game*
RNC Interference in Plame Investigation *