emptywheel, Plamologist Extraordinaire, has taken on the close reading of Scott McClellan’s book What Happened. In a rapid fire series of posts, she takes us back to those days when the Investigation of the C.I.A. Leak got underway in September 2003 [linked below from early to recent]:
She seems focused on two points: Is Scott McClellans being truthful? and What does McClellan’s narrative add to what we already know? Her answer to the first point seems to be that he’s being truthful but telling the story in a way that paints the President in the best light. The second point is a decided yes too. The part that I’ll summarize briefly is the evolution of Karl Rove’s story. On September 16th, Rove denied any involvement in the Leak to McClellan. On September 27th, Rove acknowledged talking to Novak on the phone, being asked about Valerie Plame, but said he couldn’t confirm because he didn’t know.On September 29th, Bush told McClellan that Rove didn’t do it [the leak]. Marcy [emptywheel] has the details from the book, but also from the WaPo articles they were responding to, the Press briefing transcrits, and an encyclopedic understanding of the details of those days.
What we know is that Rove’s story will later morph into that he told Novak, "Yeah, I heard that too." And that he would confirm her identity for Matt Cooper too, but deny doing so under oath, only later to recant after the supposed discovery of a lost email to Hadley. We know that the truth is that Viveka Novak, a reporter with Time Magazine, tipped off Robert Luskin, Rove’s lawyer, to the fact that Cooper had told Fitzgerald about Rove, and Rove went back to Fitzgerald to undo his lie with the "jogged memory" story. He would later answer the question about Plame’s identity that she was "Fair Game." And then there’s the ridiculous Rove denial, "I never said her name" [but he had said Wilson’s Wife]. There is no question about Rove’s role. He was involved, he did confirm that Valerie Plame, Joseph Wilson’s wife, was a C.I.A. Agent, multiple times, and that he lied about doing that, multiple times.
emptywheel is on the path of figuring out if this truth can ever be taken into a courtroom. It’s easy to get cought up in that sleuthing and forget what we already know for sure. In response to Joseph Wilson’s op-ed questioning the Administration’s doctoring the pre-war intelligence and leading us to war with a Public Relations Campaign, they embarked on a deliberate and focused attempt to discredit him by outing his wife, a Secret C.I.A. Agent, and impling that she sent him on a "junket." They also leaked the National Intelligence Estimate as part of their scheme. People involved were the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the President’s Chief of Staff, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, the National Security Adviser, and the Deputy National Security Adviser. Having done this, each one of them lied about doing it at one or multiple times. emptywheel, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Congessman Henry Waxman, Congressman John Conyers, and others are trying to find a way to force this truth into the open – now fueled by Scott McClellan’s book. But we already know it’s true. The evidence is available, catalogued, and publicly on display.
What is the point of exhuming it again in a Congressional Hearing with the witnesses under oath? To put the principals in a situation where they either acknowledge this truth, or perjure themselves and end up in a courtroom for real. Behind the crime of Valerie Plame’s outing is a second, bigger crime. The President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the President’s Chief of Staff, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, the National Security Adviser, and the Deputy National Security Adviser, the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and a host of others under them directly lied to the American People to get us into an unprovoked, unjust War that cost us more than we yet know in human lives, money, world reputation, and moral pride. No greater crime from within our own government seems possible. As hard as it is to really admit, this ranks with the crime of the 9/11 attack on New York. I have trouble saying that because it seems almost like heresy, it makes me wince. But if a crime is measured by the actual damage done, what I say is true…
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