Yep, Busted for selling bongs over the internet. Well, he’s not actually in jail yet, but that’s just because the feds haven’t decided where to put him. Once they do, he’s looking at 9 months hard time.
Well, this story is all over the blogosphere, but a lot remains unclear. A good place to start is http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/000769.html which corrects or at least modifies some of the information cited by elf6c.
Among them:
a. Andrea Mitchell was apparently called * after * Novak broke the story in order to discuss it. She was not, apparently, one of the journalists leaked to.
b. There’s at least one claim that Plame’s role as a CIA analyst was well-known in Washington circles, sufficiently so that it was mentioned as a side-bar to trash-talking Wilson. (In other words, not a deliberate “outing” so much as an “as you know”.) This still may not excuse the retelling of classified information, but it may diminish it as an act of pure malice.
c. There’s the claim that Plame was an * analyst * for the CIA, not an operative, agent, or agent-handler. Someone who wouldn’t go out of their way to advertise their connection with the CIA, but not someone who would endanger others if they were outed.
d. Wilson has backpedaled significantly on his claim that Rove was directly involved, not indicating that he was using the term metaphorically to refer to the White House administration.
On the other hand, an (unnamed) administration official did claim this weekend that this was a deliberate smear job. And the CIA has asked the Justice Dept. to get involved.
So opinion in the blogging world is divided between “tempest in a teacup” and “maybe there’s something there”. In my view, there’re still too many unnamed sources and unidentifed journalists for the story to be completely credible.
Finally, Elucidator, I believe the word you were looking for is generally spelled “bupkiss”. “Butkus” is best known as a former player for the Chicago Bears; I have no idea if Rove knows him or not.
An oddity to note. Novak says big Admin honchos told him The Leak. That’s in July. Shortly thereafter CIA offhandedly remarks to DOJ that maybe something might be amiss. Information that, apparently, DOJ did not have, since nobody there reads Robert Novak. Right. Got it.
So then, today, almost October, DOJ requests the WH to due diligence, yadda blah yadda blah. Don’t shred any documents, guys. Today this happens. A rattlesnake bites the Brontosaurus’ tail, and six weeks from now the news gets to the brainstem. And nobody, nobody ever mentioned it to the WH. Because, if they had, that memo would have already gone out, would it not?
PS: Finagle is of course, correct. “Bupkiss”, quite so. I guess thinking about Bob Novak, “butt kiss” leaped to mind.
One thing that might become interesting is that Ashcroft has been recently insisting that all persons breaking federal law receive the maximum sentence allowable, (something even many conservative judges are opposed to). If this turns out to have been leaked by someone high up in the administraton, I wonder if Ashcroft will stick to that belief. I certainly hope so.
Drudge has a story about Larry Johnson, former CIA counter-terrorism official, claiming that Plame was undercover, and was not a “CIA analyst”. Includes link to audio of PBS interview. From the interview:
According to a guest on the PBS News Hour tonight: “LARRY JOHNSON: Let’s be very clear about what happened. This is not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been undercover for three decades, she is not as Bob Novak suggested a CIA analyst. But given that, I was a CIA analyst for four years. I was undercover. I could not divulge to my family outside of my wife that I worked for the Central Intelligence Agency until I left the agency on September 30, 1989. At that point I could admit it.”
Rove’s title is “Senior Advisor to the President.” Hence, part of the White House, and the Administration. See for example, here.
My favorite conspiracy theory so far is that George Tenet is out to pin the leak on Condi Rice, for making Tenet take the hit on clearing the 16 words that found their way into the State of the Union. Never fuck with a CIA Director…
Because it isn’t a crime to disclose information that you don’t have a security clearence to have in the first place.
To commit a crime you have to have legitimate access, and disclose deliberately. So the criminal here was the person in the White House who had clearance, and told someone who didn’t have clearence.
Novak clearly doesn’t have clearence. The person who he talked to may or may not have, but somewhere along the chain of communication, there was an illegal act.
And, given how few have access to secrets, the criminal is almost certainly a high official, or even Bush himself.
What I want to know is - Does Rove even have clearence?
Well, that certainly settles that! I mean, if you can’t trust an utterly non-partisan site like TownHall.com, I mean, who can you trust? Of course, if someone like Rush Limbaugh, who’s name is synonymous with total candor, were to weigh in on this, that could only make it more clear. And look! an opportunity to purchase Laura Ingrown’s latest book! My little heart goes pitter-pat!
Nothing to see here, you looky-loos, move along now.