[Joe Wilson] leaked the contents of his own report to the CIA--in the pages of the New York Times!--only he lied about his own report. He "peddled disinformation," falsely claiming to have found no evidence of an Iraqi effort to buy uranium from Niger, in order to "harm a political adversary," President Bush. The Times didn't mind that particular disinformation, however, since it fit the paper's political agenda. In fact, the Times has never issued a correction of the misstatements in Wilson's op-ed. On the contrary, today's editorial links to Wilson's 2003 piece and repeats its central allegations, without even mentioning that Wilson's op-ed has been found to be fraudulent by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee!
...as Cheney pointed out at the time, and as the Senate Intelligence Report confirmed. Contrary to false statements made by Wilson and his wife, it was Valerie Plame who suggested her husband for the Niger venture, and the Vice-President's office had nothing to do with it. This is precisely what Karl Rove told Matt Cooper, but the Times demurely fails to quote Cooper's email to that effect.
As usual, the Times's editorial will sound plausible only to the uninformed.
Tom Maguire at Just One Minute
Lorie Byrd at Polipundit
Consider the facts. The revelation of Karl Rove’s contact with Matt Cooper is not sufficient to result in the feeding frenzy (to put it mildly) that erupted today. What the partisan David Gregory and Terry Moran were reacting to was not the contents of Matt Cooper’s notes and email, but to the very name of Karl Rove.
The New York Times
"It is clear that Karl Rove's conversation with Matt Cooper does not fall into that category" of criminal conduct, Mr. Sanford said. "That's not 'knowing.' It doesn't even come close."
There has been some dispute, moreover, about just how secret a secret agent Ms. Wilson was.
"She had a desk job in Langley," said Ms. Toensing, who also signed the supporting brief in the appeals court, referring to the C.I.A.'s headquarters. "When you want someone in deep cover, they don't go back and forth to Langley."
The Confederate Yankee points out:
As a matter of fact, it might be rather easy to prove that Rove did not leak classified information.
Valerie Plame was a lot of things--a CIA employee, an Ambassador's wife, a socialite in the pages of Vanity Fair--but she was far from a secret agent who had her cover blown.
In fact not one source that I've seen has ever been able to conclusively establish that she had a secret identity to blow.
Valerie Plame was a WMD analyst who drove from her cushy estate in Georgetown through the gates of CIA headquarters at least twice a day, five days a week. "Secret agent?" I think not. Johnny English could have found her.
Karl Rove may have told a journalist that "Joe Wilson's wife" was an analyst in the CIA, but that was hardly a breach of national security. She wasn't undercover. Period.
Baldilocks gives some background:
First, we have two raging narcissists—the former covert agent, Valerie Plame, and the former ambassador, Joseph Wilson--married to each other and trying to live out/relive their political intrigue fantasies. The wife sees that the husband’s career is waning, so she uses whatever pull she has to give it a boost. However, because of his inability to tell a story and stick to it, the move backfires on him. And, like narcissists everywhere, he wants to point the finger at everyone but himself.
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