I’m puzzled. When Karl Rove finally spoke in public about the Plame Affair last week, he said that Armitage was the one who “used her name.” But didn’t Novak look it up in Who’s Who?
Aha. I see you subscribe to the immaculate leak theory of Plameogenesis.
It’s true that Novak started making that claim after the investigation began, but a couple of months earlier he told some reporters from Newsday, “I didn’t dig it out; it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name, and I used it.”
They?
The “two senior administration officials” who were the sources for his original column.
And who were they again?
Armitage and Rove.
But how did Armitage and Rove know about Valerie?
Well, Armitage first heard about the Wilson affair from Marc Grossman, an Undersecretary of State. I’m not sure who told Rove.
And how did Mr. Grossman know?
Marc learned the details from a Mr. Ford and a Mr. Kansteiner, who were a couple of other State Department employees whose business it was to know those kinds of things. On May 29, 2003, Grossman sent them an email asking about Wilson’s trip to Niger.
Why was Mr. Grossman interested in that?
Because, earlier that day, Scooter Libby had asked him about it. Very urgently.
Why was Scooter in such a hurry?
Because Cheney was very, very angry.
Cheney? Angry? No!
It was because of the Kristof article. NY Times, May 6, 2003. Mr. Kristof used Wilson’s trip to Africa as evidence that Cheney had manipulated intelligence to bamboozle the country into invading Iraq.
But if Cheney hadn’t done that, why would he get so mad? Why not just ignore his critics like he usually does?
Well, the forged documents were pretty embarrassing.
You mean we went to war based on forged documents?!? Who forged them? Wasn’t there an investigation?
Oh, the FBI got right on the case. After a two-year inquest, they concluded that it was a moneymaking operation. But somehow, they never interviewed the prime suspect, who just happened to be a former agent of Italian military intelligence. A couple of months later, there was a report that the FBI had reopened the investigation, but that was a year and a half ago, and there’ve been no new developments since. I think everybody’s pretty much forgotten about it. You know how we’re always moving on from one new reality to the next.
Well I, for one, am eager to learn the outcome. It’s so mysterious and exciting–forgeries, black ops, wars– where will it all end? Go FBI! You can do it!!!
Why is no one picking up on this from that Slate article linked here. Rove is still lying:
“And Rove is still trying to minimize and revise his Plamegate history. In the Aspen interview Rove forgot about Cooper again. He told Isaacson, “my contribution to this was to say to a reporter—and this tells you something about talking to reporters—the words: ‘I heard that too.’ ” He was referring to his conversation with Bob Novak, only one part of his contribution to the drama. Rove’s lawyer has said that Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA, but when Isaacson mentioned Cooper in a follow-up, Rove talked about everything but that. “I don’t remember the conversation with Matt Cooper,” he said. “But even his own notes of it are that it’s an off-the-record conversation on Friday morning when I know that Novak’s column has been written and is going to be published, and that the CIA is coming out with a statement that says Joe Wilson was not sent at the direction of the CIA or the CIA director, or the Vice President, and is not dispositive, not conclusive, in fact added to the case, didn’t detract from the case and was suspect because of the methods he used to collect the data, and I’m trying to tell Matt Cooper—by his own notes—don’t get ahead of yourself on this, don’t be writing about this thing for Time magazine.”
The one who used her name…
I’m puzzled. When Karl Rove finally spoke in public about the Plame Affair last week, he said that Armitage was the one who “used her name.” But didn’t Novak look it up in Who’s Who?It’s true that Novak started making that claim after the i…
According to Novak, Armitage said the name Valerie. I just can’t believe that Rove is still pretending he didn’t talk to Cooper about it.
…ignipott was here!
ignipott.blogspot.com
[Yes, but why? ... ed]