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Taegan Goddard's Political Wire October 20, 2005 Rove Fingers Libby Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that Scooter Libby "may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed," the Washington Post reports. "Rove has also testified that he also heard about Plame from someone else outside the White House, but could not recall who."

"The account is the first time a person familiar with Rove's testimony has provided clues about where the deputy chief of staff learned about Plame, and confirmed that Rove and Libby were involved in a conversation about her before her identity became public. The disclosure seemed to further undermine the White House's contention early in the case that neither man was in any way involved in unmasking Plame." "But it leaves unanswered the central question of the more than two-year-old case: Did anyone commit a crime in leaking information about Plame to the media?" However, the AP reports "some evidence prosecutors have gathered conflicts with Libby's account of dealings with reporters."

The Big Picture:

Secrets, Evasions and Classified Reports The CIA leak case isn’t just about whether top officials will be indicted. A larger issue is what Judith Miller’s evidence says about White House manipulation of the media.

WEB EXCLUSIVE By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball Newsweek Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2005

Oct. 19, 2005 - The lengthy account by New York Times reporter Judy Miller about her grand jury testimony in the CIA leak case inadvertently provides a revealing window into how the Bush administration manipulated journalists about intelligence on Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

Whatever the implications for special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe, Miller describes a conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, on July 8, 2003, where he appears to significantly misrepresent the contents of still-classified material from a crucial prewar intelligence-community document about Iraq.

posted by Frederick  # 10/20/2005 08:29:00 AM