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Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950 in Denver, Colorado) is an American political consultant, and (as of 2005) U.S. President George W. Bush's senior advisor, chief political strategist, and deputy chief of staff in charge of policy.

Rove has been a frequent target of critics of the Bush administration, and is presently embroiled in controversy concerning his alleged involvement in alleged leaking of the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame, allegedly in retaliation for her husband's criticisms of the administration.

Early life and political experiences

Rove was raised in Colorado and Nevada. His family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when Rove was in high school. At Olympus High School, Rove began his involvement in politics in 1968: In a 2002 Deseret News interview, Rove explained, "I was the Olympus High chairman for (former United States Senator) Wallace F. Bennett's re-election campaign, where he was opposed by the dynamic, young, aggressive political science professor at the University of Utah, J.D. Williams." Williams then took Rove under his wing, leading to Rove's internship with the Utah Republican Party.

According to a 2003 New Yorker profile, Rove, the second of five children, found out at nineteen during his parents' divorce negotiations that the man who raised him was not his biological father. Rove's mother would later commit suicide (in Reno, Nevada, in 1981).

In 1970, at the age of nineteen and while a protege of Donald Segretti (later convicted as a Watergate conspirator), Rove snuck into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole some letterhead, which he used to print fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing," and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters. Admitting to the incident much later, Rove said, "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank." (The Nation).

Rove dropped out of the University of Utah in 1971 to become the Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee and held this position until 1972 when he became their National Chairman (1973-1974). As Chairman, Rove had access to many powerful politicians and government officials of the Republican party, and formed ties with George H. W. Bush, then Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974).

Work for Bush family

For the next few years, Rove worked in various Republican circles and assisted George H. W. Bush's 1980 vice-presidential campaign. There is unproven speculation that he was subsequently fired from the campaign for leaking information to journalist Robert Novak. Rove introduced Bush to Lee Atwater. A signature tactic of Rove was to attack an opponent on the opponent's strongest issue - a tactic also used by Democrat political advisers.

In 1981, Rove founded direct mail consulting firm, Karl Rove & Co., based out of Austin, Texas. This firm's first clients included Republican Governor Bill Clements and Democratic Congressman Phil Gramm, who later became a Republican Congressman and United States Senator. In 1993, Rove began advising George W. Bush's gubernatorial campaign. He continued, however, to operate his consulting business until 1999, when he sold the firm to focus his efforts on Bush's bid for the presidency.

In 1986, just before a crucial debate in the election for governor of Texas, Karl Rove announced that his office had been bugged by the Democrats, but no proof was provided. Critics speculate that it was a publicity stunt, however they provide no proof for this allegation.

Consulting business and work in politics in 1990-2000

In 1993, according to the New York Times, Karl Rove & Co. earned $300,000 in consulting fees from John Ashcroft's successful senate campaign. In 1999, Karl Rove & Co. earned $2.5 million in fees from the successful George W. Bush campaign. According to Rove, "About 30 percent of that is postage."

In 2000, it is suspected that Rove masterminded a push poll during the South Carolina primaries which asked potential voters "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?". Since McCain was campaigning with his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, an image quickly gathered around that statement.

After the presidential elections in November 2000, Karl Rove organized an emergency response of Republican politicians and supporters to go to Florida to assist the Bush campaign's position during the recount.

George W. Bush was inaugurated in January 2001. Rove accepted a position in the Bush administration as Senior Advisor to the President. The President's confidence in Rove is such that during a meeting with South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun on 14 May 2003, President George W. Bush brought only Rove and then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Other Republican politicians who have sought Rove's advice include Arnold Schwarzenegger, who met with Rove on 10 April 2003, to discuss whether the actor should run for Governor of California in 2006.

George W. Bush Administration

Political opponents allege conflict of interest

In March 2001, Rove met with executives from Intel, successfully advocating a merger between a Dutch company and an Intel company supplier. Rove owned $100,000 in Intel stock at the time. In June 2001, Rove met with two pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. At the time, Rove held almost $250,000 in drug industry stocks. On 30 June 2001, Rove divested his stocks in 23 companies, which included more than $100,000 in each Enron, Boeing, General Electric, and Pfizer. On 30 June 2001, the White House admitted that Rove was involved in administration energy policy meetings, while at the same time holding stock in energy companies including Enron.

Political opponents allege use of 9/11 tragedy for political gain

June 23, 2005, marked another statement from Rove that his political opponents consider controversial, when he said "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Many Democrats reacted angrily, demanding an apology or resignation, given that the U.S. Senate, including liberals, voted unanimously to authorize the use of military force in retaliation for the September 11th terrorist attacks. .

Others saw it as masterful baiting, with the Democrats falling into Rove's trap.

The White House stood behind Rove. Families of September 11, a nonprofit organization founded in October 2001 by families of those who died in the 9/11 attacks, issued a statement requesting Rove "stop trying to reap political gain in the tragic misfortune of others."

Plame affair

See main articles Valerie Plame, Plame affair and for additional information and background, see Yellowcake forgery and Downing Street memo.

Origins

On 29 August 2003, retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a career diplomat who had worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, alleged that Rove leaked the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. The leak was a potential violation of federal law.

Wilson, who in February 2002 investigated claims of attempted 1990s uranium ore purchases by Iraq from Niger, wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, published 6 July 2003, suggesting that the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence findings to justify war against Iraq. Wilson said that his African diplomatic experience led to his selection for the mission: He is the former ambassador to Gabon, another uranium-producing African nation, and was once posted in the 1970s to Niamey, Niger's capital. Wilson, who was open about the CIA's sponsorship of his trip (which he called "discreet but not secret"), wrote that he had been "informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report" relating to the sale of uranium yellowcake from Niger (see also Yellowcake Forgery). Of his trip to Niger Wilson wrote, "I spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place." Wilson also noted that U.S. Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick "knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington."

On 11 July 2003, five days following the publication of Wilson's Op-Ed piece, the CIA issued a statement discrediting what he called "highly dubious" accounts of Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium from Niger. In the press release, CIA Director George Tenet said it should "never" have permitted the "16 words" relating to alleged Iraqi uranium purchases to be used in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, and called it a "mistake" that the CIA allowed such a reference in the speech Bush used to take the United States to war.

Publication of the leak

Eight days after publication of Wilson's article, syndicated columnist Robert Novak wrote that the choice to use Wilson "was made routinely at a low level without Director George Tenet's knowledge." Novak went on to identify Plame as Wilson's wife: "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 to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him." Although Wilson wrote that he was certain his findings were circulated within the CIA and conveyed (at least orally) to the office of the Vice President, and George Tenet himself had written not only of his familiarity with the report but that it "was given a normal and wide distribution" in intelligence circles, Novak questioned the accuracy of Wilson's report and added that "it is doubtful Tenet ever saw it."

Nearly a year after Wilson's editorial was published (12 July 2004), the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Report on the US Intelligence Community's Prewar Assessments on Iraq stated that Plame "offered up name" for the trip. Several high ranking CIA officials disputed this claim, however, and indicated that the person who made the claim was not present at the meeting where Wilson was chosen. "In an interview with Time, Wilson, who served as an ambassador to Gabon and as a senior American diplomat in Baghdad under the current president's father, angrily said that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Africa. 'That is bullshit. That is absolutely not the case,' Wilson told Time. 'I met with between six and eight analysts and operators from CIA and elsewhere . None of the people in that meeting did I know, and they took the decision to send me. This is a smear job.'"

Spreading the leak

Walter Pincus, a Washington Post columnist, has written that he was told in confidence by an (unnamed) Bush administration official on 12 July 2003, two days before Novak's column appeared, that "the White House had not paid attention to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s CIA-sponsored February 2002 trip to Niger because it was set up as a boondoggle by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction." Because he did not believe it to be true, Pincus did not report the story.

Days after Novak's initial column appeared, several other journalists, notably Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, published Plame's name citing unnamed government officials as sources. In his article, titled "A War on Wilson?", Cooper, with no proof, speculated that the White House had "declared war" on Wilson for speaking out against the Bush Administration.

In the October 13 Newsweek, Wilson is reported to have received a call from Chris Matthews, of MSNBC's "Hardball," who told him, "I just got off the phone with Karl Rove, who said your wife was fair game."

NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell also has been mentioned in the press as having early knowledge of the Plame leak, although her and Matthews' conversations may have taken place after Novak's article was published. Two Newsday reporters who also confirmed and expanded upon Novak's account, Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, were also mentioned in October 2003 in connection to an ongoing judicial inquiry.

Anger from the CIA, Special Counsel investigatioy n

Though the president's political opponents claimed Plame's exposure was retaliation for Wilson's outspokenness, the White House denied any involvement. Wilson and both current and former CIA officials claimed the leak not only damaged his wife's career, but arguably endangered and ruined the ability to operate of many other CIA agents who worked abroad like Plame under nonofficial cover (as "NOCs"), passing as private citizens. Plame, who worked undercover for the CIA for nearly 20 years, was identified as an NOC by New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller (among others) on 5 October 2003. Articles in the The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications have pointed to Plame's association with Brewster Jennings & Associates, nominally an oil exploration firm, but in fact a CIA front company (now defunct) spying on Saudi and other interests across the Middle East. Under certain circumstances, disclosure of the identity of a covert agent is illegal under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, though the language of the statute raises the issue of whether Rove is within the class of persons to whom the statute applies.

In September 2003, the CIA requested that the Justice Department investigate the matter. Rove was identified by the New York Times in connection to the Plame leak on 2 October 2003, in an article that both highlighted Attorney General John Ashcroft's employment of Rove in three previous political campaigns and which pointed to Ashcroft's potential conflict of interest in investigating Rove. After recusing himself from the case, Ashcroft appointed Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on 31 December 2003 to pursue an investigation into the leak, working initially from White House telephone records turned over to the FBI in October 2003.

Both Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush have been interviewed by Fitzgerald. Colleagues of Rove who have testified before the grand jury include current White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Deputy Press Secretary Claire Buchan, former White House communications aide Adam Levine, former advisor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. On 13 May 2005, citing "close followers of the case," The Washington Post reported that the length of the investigation, and the particular importance paid to the testimony of reporters, suggested that the counsel's role had expanded to include investigation of perjury charges against witnesses. Other observers have suggested that the testimony of journalists was needed to show a pattern of intent by the leaker or leakers.

Supreme Court decision, testimony of journalists

New York Times investigative reporter Judith Miller, who (according to a subpoena) met with an unnamed White House official on July 8 2003, two days after Wilson's editorial was published, never wrote or reported a story on the Wilson/Plame matter, but nevertheless refused (with Cooper) to answer questions before a grand jury in 2004 pertaining to sources. Both reporters were held in contempt of court. On 27 June 2005, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on the reporters' request for appeal, Time magazine said it would surrender to Fitzgerald e-mail records and notes taken by Cooper. Miller and Cooper faced potential jail terms for failure to cooperate with the independent counsel's investigations. Columnist Robert Novak, who later admitted that the CIA attempted to dissuade him from revealing Plame's name in print, "appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special prosecutor" (according to Newsweek).

Miller was jailed on 7 July 2005, and is expected to remain there until October 2005. She is being held in Alexandria, VA in the same facility as Zacarias Moussaoui.

Allegations of illegal activities

Up front, it can be noted that Mike McCurry, White House press secretary to President Clinton, recently described Rove's role in the entire affair as "a two-minute call such as the one now reported is basically to get the signals straight -- green, yellow, red." McCurry continues, "Rove seems to have been telling Cooper that the yellowcake story was a flashing yellow and needed to be cautious." Coming from McCurry, a staunch democratic partisan, such an analysis undercuts the premise of allegations made by Rove's detractors.

On 1 July 2005 Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, on the McLaughlin Group stated: "And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time Magazine's going to do with the grand jury." The document dump has since occurred.

On 2 July 2005, Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said that his client spoke to Time reporter Matt Cooper "three or four days" before Plame's identity was first revealed in print by commentator Robert Novak. (Cooper's article in Time, citing unnamed and anonymous "government officials," confirmed Plame to be a "CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." Cooper's article appeared three days after Novak's column was published.) Rove's lawyer, however, asserted that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." This second statement has since been called into question by an e-mail, written three days before Novak's column, in which Cooper indicated that Rove had told him Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. If Rove were aware that this was classified information at the time then both disclaimers by his lawyer would be untrue. Furthermore, Luskin said that Rove himself had testified before the grand jury "two or three times" (three times, according to the Los Angeles Times of 3 July 2005 ) and signed a waiver authorizing reporters to testify about their conversations with him and that Rove "has answered every question that has been put to him about his conversations with Cooper and anybody else." Rove's lawyer declined to share with Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff the nature or contents of his client's conversations with Cooper.

On 6 July 2005, Cooper agreed to testify, thus avoiding being held in contempt of court and sent to jail. Cooper said "I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions for not testifying," but told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance at court he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" an indication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep his source's identity secret. For some observers this called into question the allegations against Rove, who had signed a waiver months before permitting reporters to testify about their conversations with him (see above paragraph).

Cooper, however, stated in court that he did not previously accept a general waiver to journalists signed by his source (whom he did not identify by name), because he had made a personal pledge of confidentiality to his source. The 'dramatic change' which allowed Cooper to testify was later revealed to be a phone conversation between lawyers for Cooper and his source confirming that the waiver signed two years earlier included conversations with Cooper. Citing a "person who has been officially briefed on the case," The New York Times identified Rove as the individual in question, a fact later confirmed by Rove's own lawyer. According to one of Cooper's lawyers, Cooper has previously testified in August 2004 before the grand jury regarding conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, after having received Libby's specific permission to testify.

Attorney and Watergate whistleblower John W. Dean observed that even if Rove didn't technically break the specific law barring the exposure of a covert agent, the administration has almost certainly run afoul of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.

Rove's White House security clearance, governed by Executive Order 12958, apparently required both a criminal background check as well as training in the protection of classified information. Rove's agreement specifically forbids the confirmation of classified information to individuals (including reporters) not authorized to have it. Rove's attorney's public statements have indicated that Rove has admitted to violating his SF-312 Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement.

Rove's role revealed

On 10 July 2005, Newsweek posted a story from its forthcoming July 18 print edition which quoted one of the e-mails written by Time reporter Matt Cooper in the days following the publication of Wilson's Op-Ed piece. Writing to Time bureau chief Michael Duffy on 11 July 2003, three days before Novak's column was published, Cooper recounted a two-minute conversation with Karl Rove "on double super secret background" in which Rove said that Wilson's wife was a CIA employee: "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip." In a Time article released 17 July 2005, Cooper says Rove ended his conversation by saying "I've already said too much." If true, this could indicate that Rove identified Wilson's wife as a CIA employee prior to Novak's column being published. Some believe that statements by Rove claiming he did not reveal her name would still be strictly accurate if he mentioned her only as 'Wilson's wife', although this distinction would likely have no bearing on the alleged illegality of the disclosure. The White House repeatedly denied the Rove had any involvement in the leaks. Whether Rove's statement to Cooper that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA in fact violated any laws has not been resolved.

In addition, Rove told Cooper that CIA Director George Tenet did not authorize Wilson's trip to Niger, and that "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an suspect but so is the report" which Wilson made upon his return from Africa. Rove "implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate Iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro Niger," and in an apparent effort to discourage Cooper from taking the former ambassador's assertions seriously, gave Cooper a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Cooper recommended that his bureau chief assign a reporter to contact the CIA for further confirmation, and indicated that the tip should not be sourced to Rove or even to the White House. Rove's reported claim that Wilson's mission to Niger was "authorized" by his wife was not strictly true, as Valerie Plame did not have the authority to authorize such a trip. However, CIA sources still differ on the extent of Valerie Plame's involvement in her husband's selection.

Cooper testified before a grand jury on 13 July 2005, confirming that Rove was the source who told him Wilson's wife was an employee of the CIA. In the 17 July 2005 Time magazine article detailing his grand jury testimony, Cooper wrote that Rove never used Plame's name, nor indicated that she had covert status: "Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the C.I.A. and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the 'agency' on 'W.M.D.'? Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know. Is any of this a crime? Beats me." Cooper also explained to the grand jury that the "double super secret background" under which Rove spoke to him was not an official White House or Time magazine security designation, but an allusion to the 1978 film Animal House, in which a college fraternity is placed under "double secret probation."

Rove email

In an email sent by Rove to top White House security official Stephen Hadley immediately after his discussion with Matt Cooper (obtained by the Associated Press and published on 15 July 2005), Rove claimed that he tried to steer the journalist away from allegations Wilson was making about faulty Iraq intelligence. "Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming," Rove wrote to Hadley. "When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this." Rove made no mention to Hadley in the e-mail of having leaked Plame's CIA identity. Although Rove wrote to Hadley (and perhaps testified) that the initial subject of his conversation with Cooper was welfare reform and that Cooper turned the conversation to Wilson and the Niger mission, many months later Cooper disputed this suggestion in his grand jury testimony and subsequent statements: "I can't find any record of talking about with him on July 11 , and I don't recall doing so," Cooper said.

Reactions of members of Congress

91 members of Congress signed a letter on July 15, 2005 calling for Rove to explain his role in the Plame affair, or to resign. 13 Democratic Members of the House Judiciary Committee have called for hearings on the matter.

A Resolution of Inquiry has been offered by Rush Holt (D-NJ) and John Conyers (D-MI), requesting that the Bush Administration release all documents concerning the outing of Ms. Plame.

Barney Frank (D-MA) and John Conyers (D-MI) have authorized the Library of Congress to research legal precedent for the impeachment of White House staffers.

As of 18 July 2005, Republican members of Congress remained silent on the possibility that the White House had betrayed national security, expressing little public concern about Rove's continued role in the Bush Administration. As of 18 July 2005, not a single elected Republican member of the Republican-led House of Representatives or Senate had called for Rove to be fired, impeached, or disciplined.

A series of nationwide town hall meetings has been scheduled for July 23 to review the 'Downing Street Minutes', 'Rovegate', and the 'ongoing deception in Iraq' .

White House reaction

In the beginning, the White House called the allegation that Rove deliberately disclosed classified information "totally ridiculous" and "simply not true." However, after Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper agreed to testify to the grand jury, the White House switched "we do not comment on ongoing investigations" stance which apparently turned the normally passive White House Press Corps into a near mob.

Mr. Bush, who has repeatedly denied knowing the identity of the leaker, called the leak a "criminal action" for the first time on 6 October 2003, stating "f anybody has got any information inside our government or outside our government who leaked, you ought to take it to the Justice Department so we can find the leaker." Speaking to a crowd of journalists the following day, Bush said "I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is -- partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers." On 8 October 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that "no one has more of an interest in getting to the bottom of this than the White House does, than the President does." On 10 October 2003, after the Justice Department began its formal investigation into the leak, McClellan specifically said that neither Rove nor two other officials whom he had personally questioned – Elliot Abrams, a national security aide, and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff – were involved. On 10 June 2004, eight months after the formal outside investigation was begun and five months after the appointment of an Independent Counsel, President Bush responded affirmatively when asked by a reporter if he stood by his earlier pledge; the earlier pledge, made on September 30, 2003, and widely reported at the time was that "if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of."

On 11 July 2005, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who had since become a grand jury witness himself, refused at a press conference to answer dozens of questions, repeatedly stating that the Bush Administration had made a decision not to comment on an "ongoing criminal investigation" involving White House staff. McClellan declined to answer whether Rove had committed a crime. McClellan also declined to repeat prior categorical denials of Rove's involvement in the leak, nor would he state whether Bush would honor his prior promise to fire individuals involved in the leak. Although Democratic critics called for Rove's dismissal, or at the very least immediate suspension of Rove's security clearances and access to meetings in which classified material was under discussion, Rove remained working in the White House.

Neither Rove nor the President offered immediate public comment on the unfolding scandal. Rove was vociferously defended by Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman and by many conservative news outlets and commentators, some of whom followed cues laid out in a "talking points" memo, circulated among Republicans on Capitol Hill, which questioned Joseph Wilson's credibility. Among others, David Brooks, conservative New York Times editorialist and NPR commentator, attacked Wilson on 14 July 2005 by falsely alleging that Wilson had claimed Cheney sent him on the Niger mission, and that in speaking to Cooper, Rove was merely correcting a misconception about the Vice President's possible involvement. In an even more extreme example of partisanship, the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal praised Rove on 13 July 2005 for leaking Plame's identity, referring to him as a "whistleblower.", and Fox News's John Gibson said that Rove deserves a medal for it, "Valerie Plame should have been outed by somebody"

On September 30, 2003, Mr. Bush said "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." His spokesman later explained that "appropriate action" meant that the guilty party "will no longer be a part of this administration," and Mr. Bush has never denied that he meant that.

On 18 July 2005, Mr. Bush said "f someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

On its face it appears to be an expansion of the criteria, i.e. that Mr. Bush now reserves the right to fire only in the event of an actual conviction, which clearly requires a higher standard of proof and would take much longer. In fact great pains have been taken to remind people that Mr. Rove identified her by marriage, not by name, and that he did not have clearance to know the identity and so cannot be punished for disclosing it.

Newsmax and Fox News counter by picking only quotes that seem to imply that conviction for violation of the law was the criterion all along, such as a statement was that he would "take care of" any person "who has violated law," and a Q&A session in which Mr Bush was asked "And do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?" to which Bush responded, "Yes."

On 18 July 2005, President Bush reiterated his previous pledge saying "f someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." This was widely interpreted by the president's detractors as a deviation from what they consider a prior pledge to fire anyone "involved" in the leak itself. The exact wording of Bush's previous statement was that he would "take care of" any person "who has violated law," which can be considered consistent with his latest statement. These same detractors point to the question and answer session in which Bush was asked, "Given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, suggesting that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leak the agent's name? And do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?" To this lengthy question, Bush responded with "Yes," although Bush clearly had never made the promise suggested by the reporter.

A poll conducted by ABC News revealed that 53% of respondents were following this story closely, and 47% were not following the matter closely. In the same poll, 47% indicated the White House is not cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation, 28% had no opinion and 25% thought the White House was fully cooperating.

Legal opinions

The unusual circumstances of this case led lawyers representing 36 news media organizations to file a friend of the court brief in federal court on behalf of the journalists who were subpoenaed (Matthew Cooper, Judith Miller and Time Inc.). In this brief all 36 organizations, to include ABC News, AP, CNN, CBS News, WSJ, Fox News, USA Today, NBC News, Newsweek, and Reuters, argue to the court that "there exists ample evidence in the public record to cast serious doubt as to whether a crime has even been committed under the Intelligence Protection Act in the investigation underlying the attempts to secure testimony from Miller and Cooper."

Contrary to this official view of such media powerhouses, many of these same news outlets continue to assert that Rove may have violated the law. Some reporters speculate that Rove's (future) legal defense might be built upon testimony that he was ignorant of Plame's protected status at the time he outed her as a CIA employee; if it could be proven that he had heard of her CIA covert status before speaking to journalists, however, Rove could face far more serious charges. A New York Times story of 16 July 2005 suggested that the Independent Counsel grand jury has questioned whether a particular top secret State Department briefing which named Plame in connection to Wilson may have been the source of Rove's information.. Colin Powell was photographed carrying the briefing during a visit to Africa, in the company of the President, in the days following the 6 July 2003 publication of Wilson's Op-Ed piece. (According to Time, Powell received the briefing, dated 10 June 2003, nearly a month later on 7 July 2003.) The Wall Street Journal reported on 19 July 2005 that the briefing "made clear that information identifying an agent and her role in her husband's intelligence-gathering mission was sensitive and shouldn't be shared."

Although some legal pundits felt that Rove was unlikely to have been in violation of the Intelligence Identities And Protection Act, others argue that by compromising Valerie Plame's position he may have broken one or more federal laws. According to John W. Dean, a FindLaw columnist and former presidential counsel, Rove is likely to have violated Title 18, Section 641 of the United States Code, which prohibits the theft or conversion of government records for non-governmental use. In 2003, this law was successfully used to convict John Randel, a Drug Enforcement Agency analyst, for leaking the name of a DEA agent (Lord Ashcroft) to London media. In a statement to Randel, United States District Court Judge Richard Story wrote, "Anything that would affect the security of officers and of the operations of the agency would be of tremendous concern, I think, to any law-abiding citizen in this country." Due to pleading guilty, Randel's sentence was reduced from 500 years in a federal prison, to a year of imprisonment and three years of probation.

This may be seen by Bush's political opponents as setting precedent for the prosecution of similar leaks, and Karl Rove is likely to face greater consequences than Randel if indicted for violating Section 641. Whereas Randel leaked sensitive information about a DEA agent, unlikely to affect the national security of the United States, it is argued that Rove may have leaked the identity of a CIA agent, an expert on weapons of mass destruction, at a time when the United States had gone to war based on the perceived threat from such weapons.

Damage caused by the leak

While the breaking of Valerie Plame's cover as a NOC operative of the CIA may be regarded as serious in and of itself, there has been debate over the damage caused by the leak, and the areas into which that damange may extend, particularly in relation to Plame's work with her cover company, Brewster Jennings & Associates. Legal filings by Independent Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald contain many pages blanked out for security reasons, leading some observers to speculate that Fitzgerald has pursued the extent to which national security was compromised by the actions of Rove and others. On 18 July 2005, The Economist reported that Valerie Plame had been dissuaded by the CIA from publishing her own account of her outing, suggesting that such an article would itself be a breach of national security. The Economist also reported that "affirmative measures" by the CIA were being taken to protect Plame's identity at the time Rove revealed her CIA affiliation to journalists.

Unnamed CIA officials maintain that Novak was asked not to publish Plame's name "for security reasons." However, Novak has stated that prior to naming Plame in his column, a CIA official informed him only that "if her name was printed, it might be difficult if she was traveling abroad," and that "they said they would prefer I didn't use her name." Novak considered this to be a "very weak request," adding that "if it was put on a stronger basis, I would have considered it."

Other interpretations

Saudi conspiracy

While a preponderance of evidence to date appears to suggest that Wilson's public contradiction of the Bush Administration claim (that Iraq had attempted to obtain enriched uranium) was the motive for the alleged leak, another explanation holds that the leak was in retaliation for, or to sabotage a possible investigation by Plame into whether the Saudi oil fields had passed their peak of productivity. In this view, the leak was an attempt to block the CIA from informing the Bush Administration of the peak oil problem. Still others speculate that the "leak" in fact was simply the publishing of an open Washington secret by a media hungry for a scandal involving the president's most trusted aide, Rove.

Trivia

• On 8 December 2004, Rove was named by Barbara Walters as the "Most Fascinating Person" of the year.

• George W. Bush has referred to Karl Rove as "The Boy Genius", "The Architect" and "Turd Blossom," a Texan term for a flower which grows from a pile of cow dung.

• Karl Rove is known for careful management of the press, including the use of humor to put reporters at ease.

• Karl Rove is a Norwegian-American. According to Bob Woodward's recent book, Rove is obsessed with the "historical duplicity" of the Swedes, who seized Norway back in 1814. According to Woodward, this nationalism manifested itself as hatred for Swedish weapons inspector Hans Blix.

• Rove is also fascinated by Mark Hanna, President William McKinley's political adviser.

• Karl Rove's alleged reputation for political dirty tricks is such that, among both his supporters and critics the phrase "Rovian" has come to be used as a synonym for "Machiavellian". The documentary Bush's Brain “…depicts Rove as the most powerful political consultant in American history and, in essence, a co-president” according to USA Today.

• The television show American Dad depicted Rove as a shadowy figure clad in a red robe and cowl, a visual allusion to the villainous Star Wars character Emperor Palpatine. Whenever his name is said a wolf howls (In much the same way that horses whinny when in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, Frau Blücher's name is said). When he tried to enter a church, he began to burn; when he later departed the scene, he transformed into a swarm of bats.

Further reading

• Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, Lou Dubose, Jan Reid and Carl Cannon, 2003, Paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 1586481924.
• Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, James C. Moore and Wayne Slater, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0471423270.
  • made into a film of the same name

External links

Biographical data

• Rotten.com - 'Karl Rove' (critical biography), Rotten.com
• SourceWatch.org - 'Karl Rove' (wiki profile)
• TheAtlantic.com - 'Karl Rove in a Corner: Karl Rove is at his most formidable when running close races, and his skills would be notable even if he used no extreme methods', Joshua Green, Atlantic Monthly (November, 2004)

Legal Links

• An amicus brief filed by 36 news organizations asserting that "there exists ample evidence on the public record to cast serious doubt that a crime has been committed."

Editorials

• Creepier than Nixon
• New York Times - Paul Krugman - 'Karl Rove's America,' (July 15, 2005)
• Salon.com - 'It's time for Karl Rove to go: The president needs to ask for a special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case', Congressman John Conyers Jr., Salon.com (October 15, 2003)
• Wall Street Journal editorial - 'Karl Rove, Whistleblower'
• CNN - 'It Doesn't look good for Rove' contains a legal assessment by John Dean regarding the state of the Plame scandal.
• New York Times - Frank Rich - 'Follow the Uranium'
• New York Times - John Tierney - 'Where's the Newt?' where he christens the Plame scandal "Nadagate" due to his opinion that there is no scandal.

Media accounts

• New York Times - 'Reporter Says He First Learned of C.I.A. Operative From Rove,' Lorne Manly and David Johnston (July 18, 2005)
• BBC.co.uk - 'Drawing up Blueprints for Bush Victory', Rachel Clarke, BBC (November 6, 2004)
• BNFP.org - 'The Controller: Karl Rove is working to get George Bush reelected, but he has bigger plans' (profile), Nicholas Lemann New Yorker (May 12, 2003)
• EditorAndPublisher.com - 'MSNBC Analyst and a Newsweek Reporter Say Karl Rove Named in Matt Cooper Documents', Greg Mitchell (July 2, 2005)
• FoxNews.com - 'White House 'Puzzled' Over Rove Flap', Fox News (June 24, 2005)
• PBS.org - 'Karl Rove The Architect' (documentary), PBS Frontline (April 12, 2005)
• WashingtonTimes.com - 'Rove rejects charges he was CBS source', Stephen Dinan, Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times (July 2, 2005)
• National Review - 'Lawyer: Cooper "Burned" Karl Rove' - Byron York.
• Transcript from CNN interview with Joseph Wilson, where he states that "my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," causing much speculation about his intended meaning from both sides.
• Washington Times - 'Rove Fight Escalates,' includes quotes from a former CIA agent who claims that Plame's 'nonofficial cover' did not qualify her as 'a covert agent'.
• Star Tribune - 'The Plame blame: What do we know so far?' contains a recap of what is known to date (July 17, 2005)
• National Review - 'Andrew C. McCarthy on Valerie Plame' - Links to an amicus brief and details Plame's name being outed by the CIA prior to Novak's article.
• National Review - Mark R. Levin - 'Valerie's No Victim.'
• Wall Street Journal - Staff - 'Memo Underscored Issue of Shielding Plame's Identity' - CIA memo at the center of the leak scandal was marked 'sensitive'

News compilation

• MediaMatters.org - 'Karl Rove Controversy', Media Matters for America, a liberal/progressive media watchdog group.

Satire and blogs

• ILoveKarlRove.com - 'I Love Karl Rove! Are you a Roveho, too?' (satirical blogsite)
• TakeItToKarl.blogspot.com - 'Taking the Fight to Karl: American Service Men and Women Mad at Karl Rove'
• Powerline Blog - 'Closing in on Karl,' about the possible legal implications, written by lawyer John Hinderaker.
• The Godless Liberal - 'The Godless Liberal- By John McDonald' (satirical blogsite)
• HuffingtonPost.com - "Rove Blew CIA Agent's Cover", Lawrence O'Donnell, The Huffington Post (July 2, 2005)
• How To Talk To A Conservative About Karl Rove (If You Must) Debunks talking points on Rove/Plame.
• Kerry's Karl Rove - Live during the 2004 presidential campaign. "If only one candidate has a Karl Rove, it's not a fair presidential race."
• Our Karl Rove - Follow-on to KerrysKarlRove.com, where the anonablogger channels the savvy of Karl Rove to help the opposition party. "If Only One Party Has a Karl Rove, We Risk Living in a One Party America."

Search compilations

• LookSmart.com - 'Karl Rove' (search engine category)
• Newsmeat.com - 'Campaign Contribution Search' (Karl Rove's individual political campaign donations of $200 or more, since 1977)
• Yahoo.com - 'Karl Rove' (search engine category)
• Karl Rove Sampler - 'What we know and when we knew it'

White House media

• WhiteHouse.gov (video) - RealVideo of Karl Rove's tour of the White House Roosevelt Room

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