Text 14218, 128 rader
Skriven 2005-07-22 06:50:26 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOHN HULL
Ärende: CIA responsible...
==========================
It is about far more than revealing the name of a covert agent John. 
Apparently Fitzgerald (BTW, when will you start bashing him?) is building 
a case for perjury, obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct.  The press,
including the WSJ doesn't seem to want to let this one go.

From:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/21/breaking-bloomberg-reporting-that-rove-libby-may-be-subject-to-perjury-charges/



BREAKING: Bloomberg Reporting That Rove, Libby May Be Subject To Perjury
Charges

Below is a Bloomberg article which is reporting that Karl Rove, senior
adviser to the President and deputy chief of staff, and Lewis Libby, chief
of staff to Vice President Cheney, are being investigated for having lied
to a federal grand jury about how they learned the identity of a covert CIA
agent, Valerie Plame (Murray Waas at the American Prospect wrote a similar
story yesterday).

    Rove, Libby Accounts in CIA Case Differ With Those of Reporters

    July 22 (Bloomberg) — Two top White House aides have given accounts to
a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a
CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to
people familiar with the case.

    Lewis “Scooterö Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff,
told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC
News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency
operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush
administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified
before a federal grand jury that he didn’t tell Libby of Plame’s identity,
the person said.

    White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he
first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist
Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was
first to report Plame’s name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewhat
different version to the special prosecutor, the person said.

    These discrepancies may be important because Fitzgerald is
investigating whether Libby, Rove or other administration officials made
false statements during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has
its genesis in whether any administration officials violated a 1982 law
making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a covert intelligence
agent.

    ‘Twisted’ Intelligence

    The CIA requested the inquiry after Novak reported in a July 14, 2003,
column that Plame recommended her husband for a 2002 mission to check into
reports Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson, in a July 6, 2003,
article in the New York Times, had said President George W. Bush’s
administration “twistedö some of the intelligence on Iraq’s weapons to
justify the war.

    Robert Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said yesterday that Rove told the grand
jury “he had not heard her name before he heard it from Bob Novak.ö He
declined in an interview to comment on whether Novak’s account of their
conversation differed from Rove’s.

    There also is a discrepancy between accounts given by Rove and Time
magazine reporter Mat Cooper. The White House aide mentioned Wilson’s wife
— though not by name — in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Cooper, the
reporter said. Rove, 55, says that Cooper called him to talk about welfare
reform and the Wilson connection was mentioned later, in passing.

    Cooper wrote in Time magazine last week that he told the grand jury he
never discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call.

    Miller in Jail

    One reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, has been jailed on
contempt of court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury
about her reporting on the Plame case.

    Cooper testified only after Time Inc. said it would comply with
Fitzgerald’s demands for Cooper’s notes and reporting on the Plame matter,
particularly regarding his dealings with Rove.

    Libby, 54, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

    The varying accounts of conversations between Rove, Libby and reporters
come as new details emerge about a classified State Department memorandum
that’s also at the center of Fitzgerald’s probe.

    A memo by the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research included
Plame’s name in a paragraph marked “(S)ö for “Secret,ö a designation that
indicated to anyone who read it that the information was classified, the
Washington Post reported yesterday.

    State Department Memo

    The memo, prepared July 7, 2003, for Secretary of State Colin Powell,
is a focus of Fitzgerald’s interest, according to individuals who have
testified before the grand jury and attorneys familiar with the case.

    The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a
CIA-sponsored trip to Africa by his wife, who worked on the CIA’s
counter-proliferations desk.

    Bush had said in his State of the Union message in January 2003 that
Iraq was trying to purchase nuclear materials in Africa. Days after
Wilson’s article — in which he said there was no basis to conclude that
Iraq was trying to buy nuclear material in Africa and that the
administration had exaggerated the evidence — the White House acknowledged
that the Africa assertion shouldn’t have been included in the speech.

    The memo summarizing the Plame-Wilson connection was provided to Powell
as he left with Bush on a five-day trip to Africa. Fitzgerald is exploring
whether other White House officials on the trip may have gained access to
the memo and shared its contents with officials back in Washington. Rove
and Libby didn’t accompany Bush to Africa.

    One key to the inquiry is when White House aides knew of Wilson’s
connection to Plame and whether they learned about it through this memo or
other classified information.

    Some Bush allies hope that the Fitzgerald investigation, which
dominated the news in Washington for the first part of July, will subside
as attention shifts to Bush’s nomination of Judge John Roberts to fill the
first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years.

    Fitzgerald’s term of service lasts until October, which is also the
length of time remaining for the grand jury hearing evidence in the case. 
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