mirrorpool: Rovegate

It doesn't matter if he is indicted or not, Karl Rove has admitted to discussing Valerie Plame (as Joseph Wilson's wife) with journalists. Statements made two years ago to the FBI don't jibe with the current story told through his lawyer. If he really did mean to just innocently protect the President from libel, then that should have been claimed in the first place. Instead it was insisted repeatedly that Rove never talked to reporters about Wilson's wife. We know now that he at least confirmed her identity, and that's a crime even of mere negligence.

This is a reheating of the story involving the exposure of a CIA agent in apparent retaliation for her husband's publication of an op-ed disputing the Bush administration's claim that Iraq was obtaining uranium ore from Niger in order to restart their nuclear programs. This plan was based on a proven forgery about which the administration deigns complete innocence. More information about the forged document would be instructive; why a full investigation hasn't been held is curious.

The reason all this is coming back to the fore is that two journalists faced jail for refusing to name their sources for the leak. Matt Cooper got a last second reprieve from his source (Rove), the other is (far from) rotting in a minimum security prison. Judith Miller isn't protecting the First Amendment; she's protecting someone in the White House, and possibly herself, from criminal prosecution. Since Miller was one of the main disseminators of Iraq war propaganda in the mainstream media, her intentions here should be looked at credulously.

This scandal goes to the heart of the whole rationale for going to war with Iraq. It will be interesting to see if the mainstream press gathers the threads together, since we receive new revelations almost daily. Another memo has surfaced implicating someone aboard Air Force One, proving that key White House officials knew of Plame's occupation and that it was Top Secret. Either Rove lied to Bush about his involvement, or Bush lied when he told the nation that he would find and dismiss the leaker.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald probably won't announce any indictments before October, and even that deadline could be extended another six months if necessary. This story will likely fade until then, but it never should have been forgotten in the first place. It relates to the struggle of protecting our national security from political opportunists. Let's keep this on the forefront, while continuing to juggle the previous scandals, and it's inevitable that some kind of justice will prevail.

Sources:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8635385/

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0715-01.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0717-20.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0719-32.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0719-20.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0724-20.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0729-25.htm

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001000732

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/232

http://www.perrspectives.com/resources/documents.htm#plame

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10016