The other Valerie Plame
Murray Waas’s new column in the National Journal,
sheds a bright light into the PlameGate investigation and the ties between Rove, Libby, Addington and Robert Novak’s involvement in the case. Robert, (not related to Viveca) was the designated smear merchant working two sides of similar campaigns. One was to discredit Joseph Wilson (with Rove and Libby) and his criticism of the administration’s use of prewar intelligence by releasing personal information about his wife. The other to derail Frances Fragos Townsend’s appointment to be "deputy national security adviser" for combating terrorism whom Scooter Libby and David Addington were adamantly opposed. They sought to release confidential information against her as well.
They felt she wouldn’t sign on to aggressive and controversial tools against terror suspects known as "extraordinary rendition," in which terror suspects are taken to foreign countries, where they can be interrogated without the same legal and human-rights protections afforded to those in U.S. custody, including the protection from torture." The parallels between Townsend and Plame are incredible and the use of personal information as well as the media was the instruments of choice.
The article also hurts Rove’s recent claims of memory lapse to deflect a possible perjury indictment. In his conversations with Novak on July 9th, he did confirm Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, but with a different phrase that had been previously reported. When Novak raised Plame’s name, saying he had heard that "Wilson’s wife" had worked for the CIA and had been responsible for having her husband sent on the Niger mission. Rove said,
"Oh, you know about it."
Novak indicated to Rove that he was still going to write a column about Townsend, but signaled to Rove that Plame was not far behind. Bob said,
" I think that you are going to be unhappy with something that I write, and I think you are very much going to like something that I am about to write."
On July 11, 2003, Rove offered Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson. because "it was Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip."
Karl is going to have a hard time claiming memory loss at this point and Viveca Novak’s leak to Luskin is just a smoke screen to try and deflect attention from a man that is as meticulous as Rove is at keeping records. He has no defense to the fact that it took him ten months to finally disclose his conversation with Matt Cooper to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
Scooter Libby’s role is highlighted by Waas, as he details the great lengths that Libby used to try and discredit both Wilson and Townsend. "Nepotism" was the favored method of attack for Scooter and family members were fair game to him.
"Libby, he sought information from State Department and CIA officials on Plame’s CIA employment. Libby also wanted to learn whether Plame had played a role in her husband’s selection for the Niger mission."
" Libby inquired about obtaining confidential personnel information from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, which screens high-level political appointees, and from a federal agency where Townsend had previously been denied a job...Libby suggested both inside and outside the White House that Townsend was being considered as a national security adviser to the president because her husband had been a classmate of George W. Bush's at Andover and Yale. "
There’s so much information in this article that you need to read it carefully. I've only scratched the surface. Robert Novak is a tool of the government and should have been ostracized from the journalistic community a long time ago. He can’t say enough "Hail Mary’s" and "Our Fathers," to redeem his shattered soul. The administrations use of husbands and wives against people they disliked is dispicable.
Reddhedd is reporting, "Fitzgerald is back before the Grand Jury this morning." Rove might possibly be in a world of hurt very soon. Updates to be added later.
