Second thoughts on leak case

[Rombaldi]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editor ... leak_case/

Second thoughts on leak case

By Robert Kuttner
July 13, 2005

LAST WEEK in this space, I implied that the special counsel in the Valerie Plame leak case, Patrick Fitzgerald, might be protecting the Bush administration. It made no sense, I argued, that New York Times reporter Judith Miller was going to jail for protecting a source, while columnist Robert Novak, who first published the leak, either had revealed his source to Fitzgerald and thus solved the case or should be under similar threats but wasn't. Ergo: Fitzgerald was going after the press rather than the White House.

Wrong on all counts.

In 20 years of writing columns for the Globe, I've had to print minor corrections, but this is the first story I really booted. I owe readers and prosecutor Fitzgerald an explanation and an apology.

Here's what we've learned:

First, Fitzgerald is playing it straight. Novak has apparently testified -- otherwise he'd be in jail with Miller. Fitzgerald has extensively investigated Bush officials. Karl Rove has likely testified, too.

I reasoned that Fitzgerald needn't subpoena other reporters because Novak could tell all. But after doing more reporting, I've learned that the reality is far more complicated.

Under the CIA nondisclosure law, an illegal disclosure has to be deliberate and knowing, and the CIA agent clandestine. Other published reports suggest that Fitzgerald is pursuing a possible case against Rove and other suspected leakers for perjury or obstruction of justice, which are easier to prove, especially if Rove was not entirely truthful in his testimony.

Fitzgerald would need others to corroborate the leaks Rove was peddling. Hence the effort to compel Miller and Matt Cooper of Time Magazine to testify.

The response of Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, to recent reports in Newsweek, which somehow got hold of reporter Cooper's subpoenaed memos fingering Rove, is highly instructive. Rove had previously insisted that he had never disclosed Valerie Plame's ''name." Now his lawyer admits that Rove, in trying to discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson, told Cooper that Wilson's ''wife" was a CIA agent but didn't mention her by name.

So Rove is playing word games. What he said was literally true -- but a lie, since a reporter given this tip could easily identify Wilson's wife. Whether or not he used her name, Rove was deliberately outing Plame. If he played the same word games before the grand jury, he's in trouble.

The White House spinners also contend that Plame was not really a clandestine and protected CIA agent because she worked at CIA headquarters. This is also nonsense. Plame, a specialist on weapons of mass destruction, was under cover when she undertook sensitive missions. She was not identified as CIA. Blowing her cover harmed her career and put her at risk.

This all recalls two other famous cases where an administration fell afoul of a special prosecutor. Bill Clinton tried to persuade a grand jury and public opinion that oral sex wasn't sex. He nearly lost the presidency, not for his dumb affair with an intern but for lying. Richard Nixon was disgraced, not for the original Watergate break-in but for the coverup. George Bush, who doesn't know much about history, should take notice.

After a week's reporting and reflection, I also suggest a different view of press privilege and the public interest. In the Alice in Wonderland world of the Plame-Rove story, Judith Miller, who worked hand in glove with the Bush administration to publish bogus stories about Saddam Hussein's alleged nuclear program, is a hero -- for going to jail to protect, once again, her friends in the administration. And Time-Warner, which turned over Matt Cooper's notes (for the wrong reasons -- Time-Warner's corporate interests -- but that's another story) is the villain. Yet it may be Cooper's testimony that finally sinks Rove. So who's the hero and what's the public interest?

As Michael Kinsley has observed, not all leaks are created morally equal. It's one thing for reporters to protect a brave whistle-blower who has taken personal risks to serve the public interest. It is another thing for reporters to collude with the powerful to punish the whistle-blower, in this case Joseph Wilson, and his wife, an innocent bystander.

Is the public good served by helping Fitzgerald learn who at the White House broke the law? Or is it served by having reporters protect Karl Rove? We need a public interest test, not an absolute privilege.

The other journalistic moral of the story: Do your reporting before you write the column. I hope it's another 20 years before I have to write another such apology.

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears regularly in the Globe.

[Laird]

As I've posted before it didn't start with Watergate.

For another perspective try reading "Spying for America" by
Nathan Miller. Turn to page 303 to read what the OSS did
back in 1945. I promise you its an eye opener!
If you ask me it should be manditory reading for all FBI/CIA/US Marshals/Secret Service/NSA and all publishers.

[Iris]

It's great to see a reporter actually admit when they've made a mistake and make it good, isn't it?

I'm wondering if there's any way that McClellan might be seen as an accessory to the crime by lying to hide it? Wonder if he's hired a lawyer too?

Rove's lawyer is claiming that Rove didn't actually "name" Ms. Plame. Note that the law uses the terms "identifies," "identifying," and "identity"; it does not use the term "name." If Rove wouldn't have identified Plame if Wilson were a bigamist. Otherwise, it appears he did. Here's the relevant law, if anyone wants to check it.

Rove not only outed a CIA agent, he also outed an entire CIA operation (Brewster Jennings). He's done serious damage to our national security, since Plame and her associates were working against nuclear proliferation.

Where is Rove these days? Where is Cheney and is he the second source? I wonder if Bush will keep his appointment for a monthly press conference this month? Sure has gotten quiet at the top lately. Are they all hiding under the bed?

And how does Gannon figure in all of this? The details and extent of that interaction will never be known because of Sensenbrenner's refusal to investigate.

Oh well. Look at the light side. Judith Miller doing time -- gives new meaning to "It's Miller time!"

[Cherry Kelly]

Keep digging - you will find that Plame was "outed" as a CIA agent some 9 yrs prior -- see Russian incident-CIA. That was why she was working at the office in coordinatiing and disseminating information regarding nukes/WMDs(??). In accordance to Wilson's own testimony - she OUTED herself to Wilson when they were first dating.

Now we get back to Cooper. He called ROVE on another matter entirely, then toward the end of conversation Rove attempted to "warn" Cooper about printing a false story about Wilson. As it turns out Wilson was NOT a CIA agent as Wilson claimed nor was he sent by the CIA to act as such in Niger-nuke material discovery bit. Wilson was sent by his wife's initiatives.

Could it be that all this media hype is centered on the wrong person - but should be looking into both Plame and Wilson.

WHY is Miller so willing to sit in jail? She was given immunity - so why is she taking the fall? Did she even WRITE an article that was published about this? Something "fishy" here.

[Ninerism]

It's great to see a reporter actually admit when they've made a mistake and make it good, isn't it?

I'm wondering if there's any way that McClellan might be seen as an accessory to the crime by lying to hide it? Wonder if he's hired a lawyer too?

Rove's lawyer is claiming that Rove didn't actually "name" Ms. Plame. Note that the law uses the terms "identifies," "identifying," and "identity"; it does not use the term "name." If Rove wouldn't have identified Plame if Wilson were a bigamist. Otherwise, it appears he did. Here's the relevant law, if anyone wants to check it.

Rove not only outed a CIA agent, he also outed an entire CIA operation (Brewster Jennings). He's done serious damage to our national security, since Plame and her associates were working against nuclear proliferation.

Where is Rove these days? Where is Cheney and is he the second source? I wonder if Bush will keep his appointment for a monthly press conference this month? Sure has gotten quiet at the top lately. Are they all hiding under the bed?

And how does Gannon figure in all of this? The details and extent of that interaction will never be known because of Sensenbrenner's refusal to investigate.

Oh well. Look at the light side. Judith Miller doing time -- gives new meaning to "It's Miller time!"

Iris, "It's Miller time!" I'll drink to that!

Ok, seriously, on the Gannon angle, what bed is he hiding under now, and who is protecting him from being investigated? It's very stran-jey bed-fellows in this administration that has become so immune, unlike the bed hopping of a former president. Hey, I guess if they are at home, it makes a big difference. Gannon must know a lot in that special belt-loop, so to speak. Who know's what he's strapping down these days? It must be a hard-core challenge to keep this all under covers in the White House?

Ninerism