Rove Was A Source

Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source: "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip" (referring to Joe Wilson's Niger trip involving yellowcake uranium / Iraq connections). Rove spoke to Cooper July 11, 2003. "Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative."

Rove waived confidentiality, allowing reporters to testify about conversations with him, in Dec, 2003 and again last week for Matt Cooper. Protestations from reporters about source revelation in regard to Karl Rove have no significance.

Rove did not mention Wilson's wife's name (Valerie Plame), and Rove probably didn't know Wilson's wife was covert -- IF she is indeed covert. Therefore, Rove did not intentionally "out" an undercover CIA agent and did not violate any laws.

If Rove was Bob Novak's source, then the special prosecutor already knows because it appears Novak has cooperated with federal investigators -- no contempt charges yet for Novak. Novak asserted Plame was CIA in his column of July 14, 2003.

If Rove was Judith Miller's source, she is "protecting" a confidential source who has waived confidentiality. It takes a nutcase to go to jail to protect someone who doesn't want to be protected.

Basically, Rove wanted Cooper to know that neither George Tenet nor Dick Cheney recommended Joe Wilson for the Niger trip, and to know that Wilson's now infamous op-ed piece (published July 6, 2003) was merely a piece of crappola. Crappola that Rove was defending the administration against. Crappola that hit the fan and was exposed as lies by the Senate intelligence committee and reported in the Washington Post on July 10, 2004.

RedState.org reminds us that Joe Wilson is a lying liar who tells lies:
"The WaPo explains below the fold that Joe Wilson lied about virtually everything he said in connection with Niger, and that his wife was also complicit in the falsity: So let's review - Wilson lied about how he got to Niger, he lied about seeing a report that didn't even exist at the time, he lied about the conclusions of his own report(!), he lied about what the administration had been told, and his wife, Valerie Plame, specifically sent him on a mission to intentionally debunk a claim, not to find facts or perform inspections. I'd say the WaPo's conclusion is pretty sound on this one."

Power Line notes: "Andrea Mitchell was asked, on MSNBC, whether it was generally known to news people, before the hullabaloo, that Ms. Plame worked for the CIA. She answered, somewhat reluctantly, that it was. In the light of this, I don't understand the ensuing fuss."

Just One Minute has an excellent post
(hattip: Instapundit).

Michelle Malkin has a Stark Rove-ing Mad roundup.

Captain's Quarters weighs in.

WSJ assesses that Rove as Cooper's source "amounts to a political embarassment for Rove and the White House".

Special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has said Rove is not a target of the investigation. Perhaps, Fitzgerald is probing to find out if Rove lied to the grand jury. So far, there is nothing to indicate he did. Rove's lawyer has said there is nothing inconsistent between Cooper's e-mail and Rove's grand jury testimony.

Bob Novak is the person who publicly "outed" Valerie Plame. But on Oct 1, 2003, Novak wrote: "First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret". Clifford May asked: "Who didn't know?" (that Plame was CIA). As Andrea Mitchell reluctantly admitted, news people in general already knew Plame was CIA.

The so-called "leak" was that Plame recommended Wilson for the trip.

Related:
Miller / Cooper
Who Outed Plame?