We do not have access to classified information, some WH officials do
Anybody with AP newswires got the Novak plame story BEFORE the Cooper Rove phonecon ever occurred. Rove could have read the AP report or more likely Novak told Rove on the 8th, Plame is a CIA officer, I'm writing a story about it that will be distributed on the morning of the 11th after which is publicly available information. Rove waited until AFTER the AP report to tell Cooper ANYTHING. There is nothing illegal or wrong about telling somebody the contents of a publicly available news story. From Wikipedia:
9 July 03: Robert Novak, after being told of Plame's identity by an unspecified senior Bush administration official, has phone conversation with Karl Rove in which C.I.A. agent Plame is dicussed, according to an unnamed source who had been told not to talk about the case. Novak is reported to have told Rove the name of the agent and her role in Wilson's mission to Africa. Rove is reported to have told Novak something to the effect of, 'I heard that, too.' or 'Oh, so you already know about it.'. Rove reportedly told the grand jury that at this time he had already heard about Wilson's wife working for the CIA from another journalist, but is unable to remember who that was.
11 July, 2003: According to one source, Novak's regular syndicated column was allegedly distributed by Creators Syndicate on the AP wire on this date. --This means VP working for the CIA is now in the public domain.
11 July, 2003: Matt Cooper's internal Time email, bearing the time 11:07 a.m. was sent to his bureau chief. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation ..." . Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip." Rove also told Cooper that, "there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger". Cooper would later tell the investigating grand jury that Rove concluded the conversation by saying "I've already said too much."
Afternoon or evening of 11 July, 2003: CIA Director George Tenet takes responsibity for the misleading language concerning uranium in Bush's State of the Union Address, citing a failure of the agency's vetting process.
12 July 2003: Ari Fleischer discusses the uranium controversy.
12 July, 2003: Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus says an administration official told him, somewhat off topic, that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA analyst working on weapons of mass destruction and that Wilson's trip was a "boondoggle."
13 July 2003: Matthew Cooper's "A Question of Trust" is published at Time Magazine's website (publication date for the magazine July 21). The article traces the controversy surrounding President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech and the African uranium controversy. Anonymous sources of information are attributed to "two senior Administration officials," "another official," and "an intelligence official." Named sources include Vice President Dick Cheney's assistant Scooter Libby, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame's superior Alan Foley, and former State Department proliferation expert Greg Thielmann.
14 July 2003: "Mission to Niger" by Robert Novak: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger.... The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him." The story is published on Ari Fleisher's last day as White House Press Secretary. |
