Today's photo fun

Yes, that button does say, "I'm a source, not a target".

Thanks to the Frankfort, Indiana Times for the photo and the explanation.

In this photograph taken in June 2003, Karl Rove, senior advisor to President Bush and Robert Novak are pictured together at a party marking the 40th anniversary of Novak's newspaper column at the Army Navy Club in Washington DC. At the event a number of people wore buttons reading, 'I'm a source, not a target.' Rove is at the center of a controversy about the leaking of a CIA operative's identity which originally appeared in Novak's newspaper column. (AP Photo/Lauren Shay)

Despicable acts are jokes to these slime suckers. They're proud of their ability to get away with them. Like Buttwipe's little presentation at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association banquet.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

I heard that, too

Mr. Rove has told investigators that he learned from the columnist the name of the C.I.A. officer, who was referred to by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, and the circumstances in which her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, traveled to Africa to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq, [someone who has been officially briefed on the matter said.]

After hearing Mr. Novak's account, the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: "I heard that, too."

[...]

The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove's conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying that he had not disclosed Ms. Wilson's identity.

  NY Times article

Catapulting the propaganda.

Raw Story interviews Joe Wilson, who believes Scooter Libby is the other Novak source, and talks of a hand-written letter he received from Poppy Bush after the outing of his wife. I wonder if his wife got a hand-written letter.

The interview concludes with a discussion of America's future:

Raw Story: Do you think the American experiment is over and/or do you think America will survive the events of the last several years? I asked this same question of Scott Ritter, who believes that America is far too resilient not to survive, but that the process would be lengthy and painful. What do you think?

Wilson: The good thing about our system is that we are a nation of laws and it is hard to subvert those laws for an extended period of time. The difference between us and say, fascism in either Italy or Spain, is that we have a settled Constitution and a settled history and there have been challenges that have been beaten back. We also have institutions which have withstood the buffeting of the political winds. We have demonstrated that during the Civil War, during the McCarthy era, during Vietnam, and so forth. There is every reason to expect the pendulum to swing back, but it will not swing back on its own. Which is why it is so important for the citizens, the press, and the Congress to begin to speak up more loudly and begin to push the pendulum back.

Those who believe that the pendulum will swing back naturally have forgotten the lessons of the communists in Russia and the lessons of the fascists in Spain. In Russia, it took from 1917 to 1990 (circa) to drive the Communists out of power and in Spain it took from 1936-39 to 1975-76 and Franco's death to drive the fascists out of power. So we may be in for a long ride.

Raw Story: What do you do if the Congress is compromised or rather, paralyzed?

Wilson: I think the Congress needs to find its voice. One of the reasons I was so active in the 2004 campaign is that I believed that 2004 was a referendum on us as a country or certainly seen as that by the rest of the world. If President Bush had not won, I think the rest of the world would have understood that this administration was an aberration, operating largely outside of the parameters of the American political system. His reelection reinforces the notion that America has gone in a very different direction.

I think that the rest of the world, despite the differences it had with specific U.S. policies in the past, still saw the United States as a land of opportunity and something to aspire to. I think that is over now. They see us now as they see other nations with imperialist notions who are willing to drive their own soldiers across foreign lands.

Raw Story: And now we see that Iraq and Iran have just signed a military treaty. Is that what we wanted?

Wilson: Iran is the big winner in this.

Raw Story: Is the goal a fundamentalist military conglomerate? Is that what we wanted?

Wilson: Sitting right on the border of the Kuwait and eastern Saudi oil fields...

Raw Story: Right, if that is what we wanted…

Wilson: Then we have achieved it.

Novak squealed?

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Washington D.C.-- Columnist Robert Novak provided detailed accounts to federal prosecutors of his conversations with Bush administration officials who were sources for his controversial July 11, 2003 column identifying Valerie Plame as a clandestine CIA officer, according to attorneys familiar with the matter.

Novak's attorney, James Hamilton, declined to comment earlier this morning. An assistant for Novak told me: "Mr. Novak, per his lawyer's instruction, does not comment on any aspect of that case." Kim Nerheim, a spokesperson for Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the leak of Plame's name said: "We do not confirm or deny any anything regarding an ongoing investigation."

[...]

Also of interest to investigators have been a series of telephone contacts between Novak and Rove, and other White House officials, in the days just after press reports first disclosed the existence of a federal criminal investigation as to who leaked Plame's identity. Investigators have been concerned that Novak and his sources might have conceived or co-ordinated a cover story to disguise the nature of their conversations. That concern was a reason-- although only one of many-- that led prosecutors to press for the testimony of Cooper and Miller, sources said.

Lending credence to those suspicions was that a U.S. government official questioned by investigators said Novak specifically asked him whether Plame had some covert status with the CIA. The official told investigators that Novak appeared uncertain whether she was undercover or not. That account, on one hand, might lend credence to the claims by Rove and other Bush administration officials that they did not know Plame was a covert CIA officer. Conversely, however, the fact that Novak asked the question in the first place appeared to indicate that he might have indeed been told Plame was a covert operative, and was seeking confirmation of that fact.

  Whatever Already! post

Actually, that Novak told Fitzgerald everything is the obvious conclusion, since Novak was never threatened with jail time.

Also, a retired CIA agent explains Plame's situation here:

A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.

The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.

The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically identified a CIA NOC.

Josh Marshall is keeping track of the GOP and media bamboozle-palooza. Don't expect your neighbors to be aware of the truth behind the Rove scandal.

Read Josh's recent posts for a good recap of what's happening and what lies are now being told and retold. (The Wall Street Journal even has a headline calling Rove a 'whistleblower'!)

I have a webpage where I've been keeping track of this affair since the story blew open, with links to current articles, if you're interested. And a page of Marshall's links, with a key to the topics he's discussing in each post.

Are they afraid, or are they just shameless WH whores?

For the fourth straight time since his lawyer admitted that Rove was one of Matt Cooper’s sources, no member of the White House press corps asked a question about Rove’s role.

  Think Progress post

There's a comment to this TP post that I think is interesting:

It has long been rumored that Miller is CIA or with some intelligence group within the pentagon. It was rumored, during the invasion of Iraq, that her activities when she was embedded went far beyond reporting. She was identified as actually calling the shots at certain points so that some military within her group wondered who she really was.

This rumor would dovetail with the notion that her source is someone other than Karl Rove. That her source is someone actually in intelligence. The rumor is that Fitzgerald is pursuing a crime far more serious than just revealing the identity of a CIA covert operative.

  full comment

I don't know where this information comes from, because I have not been paying much attention to Judith Miller. It does make sense, however, in light of the fact that she was the "reporter" who got all the exclusive (false) material from Ahmad Chalabi. CIA plants at major newspapers? No doubt. So why not Miller? Or maybe it's not CIA. Maybe it's Rumsfiend's Office of Special Plans or another of the Pentagon's secret intel ops.

Or, maybe she's just another press whore. One of the top tier.

Now, as far as the question that seems to be on many people's minds about why Miller and Cooper were threatened with jail, but Novak was not....

David Corn has an answer.

While other reporters have resolved to be imprisoned to protect their sources—whether these sources deserve protection or not—what has Novak done? The obvious answer: He has squealed.

Yeah, that'd be the obvious one.

Novak either burned his sources, or he named them with their permission. (White House aides, such as Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, have signed waivers allowing reporters to testify about their conversations with them.)

So who was Cooper's recent "source" that gave him permission to talk to the grand jury so he didn't have to go to jail?

Corn thinks that the whole thing will go away with the technicality that Rove and whoever else spilled the beans will claim that they didn't know Valerie Plame was undercover, thereby relieving them of anything illegal in telling Novak about her.

I'm doing a lot of "wondering out loud" here. And I further wonder when Fitzgerald will be ready to bring his case - whatever it's going to be - to court.

It's all going to be a surprise to me.

Except the part about Karl Rove being a lying, mean son-of-a-bitch dirtbag trying to nail Joseph Wilson to the wall.

And I'm still waiting to find out whether White House Press Whore-for-real James Guckert (or whatever his name is) was spending nights at the White House with Buttie or Karl - or maybe both. That story sure suffered sudden death syndrome.