Memo Marked Plame's Identity as Secret
Posted on Thu Jul 21, 2005 at 04:47:46 AM EST
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The Washington Post leads today with an article about the June 9, 2003 State Department memo that identified Valerie Wilson as the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson:
A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.
The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.
Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said.
Given that Colin Powell had the memo with him on July 7, 2003 on Air Force One when the President and his entourage left for Africa, and that Fitzgerald subpoenaed phone records for Air Force one during that period, Fitzgerald may be assuming that someone leaked information from the memo. So, who saw the memo on Air Force One besides Colin Powell?
Remember Karl Rove's statement to investigators that he first learned Valerie Plame Wilson's identity from a reporter but he didn't remember which one? And how that made investigators skeptical?
Is the fact that the memo was secret a smoking gun against Karl Rove? I don't think so. But it may be against others. The Washington Post reports,
Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account. Rove has also testified that the first time he saw the State Department memo was when "people in the special prosecutor's office" showed it to him, said Robert Luskin, his attorney...."He had not seen it or heard about it before that time," Luskin said.
Karl Rove wasn't on the plane to Africa....he had left the White House early on the 11th, after his e-mail to Stephen Hadley about his conversation with Cooper, for a family vaction.
I'm leaning towards thinking unless there is a conspiracy to commit perjury or obstruct justice by Rove, Libby or other individual members of Cheney's staff or the White House Iraq Group, whose meetings Rove attended, Rove is going to get a pass.
Later in the article, WaPo reports:
The material in the memo about Wilson's wife was based on notes taken by an INR analyst who attended a Feb. 19, 2002, meeting at the CIA where Wilson's intelligence-gathering trip to Niger was discussed.
Libby and Cheney may have attended that meeting. Remember, Vince Cannistraro testified that on at least two occasions starting in January, Libby and Cheney went out to CIA headquarters to meet with desk policy analysts, which he termed most unusual.
So I do think indictments are possible, and as I've said many times before, I think they will focus on false statements to federal officials under 18 USC 1001, perjury and if the White House Iraq Group is involved, obstruction of justice and possibly, conspiracy to out a covert agent.
Bottom line: The Post article is exciting and a step forward, but it may not be a smoking gun as to Karl Rove - unless Fitzgerald can show a conspiracy between Rove and Libby and/or the White House Iraq Group.
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