Yesterday’s explosive report in the New York Daily News (see article
here) of
George Bush having prior knowledge to of Rove’s involvement in the leak has
sparked a firestorm on Capital Hill. Senator Charlie Schumer of New York has
already written the President asking him to come clean to congress and the
American people on his knowledge of the leak (view the complete letter at
The Talking
Points Memo).

Now we are once again hearing rumors that Karl Rove actually got Plame’s
identity from Robert Novak and when he was told of her Rove just said “yeah I
heard that too”. Rove is also going on that he heard the information from Tim
Russert which conflicts with testimony Mr. Russert gave at an earlier time.

On July 9, 2003, columnist Robert Novak told Rove he was writing a column
that would report that Plame worked for the CIA, and Rove told the columnist
he had heard similar information, according to his testimony.

Novak published a column the next week that said Plame worked for the CIA
and had suggested that her agency send Wilson, a former ambassador, on a
mission that raised questions about prewar intelligence the Bush
administration used to justify invading Iraq.

Rove testified he told Libby about his contact with Novak about two days
after it occurred.

In testimony shown to Rove, Libby stated Rove had told him about his
contact with Novak and said he had told Rove about information he had gotten
about Wilson’s wife from NBC newsman Tim Russert, according to a person
directly familiar with the information shown to Rove.

Prosecutors, however, have a different account from Russert. The network
has said Russert told authorities he did not know about Wilson’s wife’s
identity until it was published and therefore could not have told Libby
about it.

See full article

here.

This once again proves that Rove confirmed information to Novak that was
classified. This goes back to the non-disclosure (Standard Form 312) agreement
which all employees of the White House must sign (You can read the PDF version
of S.F. 312
here).
SF 312 is a boring read. It is mostly just copies of United States Code that
deals with classified information, but to make it a little less harsh on the new
employee it does break things down into a simple “question and answer” format at
the end of the booklet. Perhaps Karl Rove should of looked at question 19 before
saying “yeah I heard that too” to Novak:

Question 19: If information that a signer of the SF 312 knows to
have been classified appears in a public source, for example, in a newspaper
article, may the signer assume that the information has been declassified
and disseminate it elsewhere?

Answer: No. Information remains classified until it has been
officially declassified. Its disclosure in a public source does not
declassify the information. Of course, merely quoting the public source in
the abstract is not a second unauthorized disclosure. However, before
disseminating the information elsewhere or confirming the accuracy of what
appears in the public source, the signer of the SF 312 must confirm
through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been
declassified. If it has not, further dissemination of the information or
confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure.

Now we know that the C.I.A., who would of been responsible for declassifying
this information, in fact did not do so. The White House was even told to keep
Plame’s identity a secret (meaning she was a covert asset they were trying to
protect).

Now that we found out Bush knew that Rove had contact with Novak about
classified information, this puts him in the hot seat. President Bush knew that
a federal law had been broken. Further more he has tried to cover it up to the
American people by saying such things as “If anyone leaked classified
information in my Administration I would like to know about it”. (see article at
CNN).

As I stated in yesterday’s post regarding Bush’s knowledge of the case, his
reaction appears to be more focused at the fact that Rove got caught leaking and
not that he actually leaked. This means that the President of the United States
sees no wrong doing in the actual crime of leaking classified secrets.
Furthermore, the information leaked was pertaining to a person who worked for
our intelligence agency on WMD, the very reason for our war in Iraq. This should
send a loud message to Congress that the President was going to “fix the
intelligence” in any way he could find. It also is further proof of the lies
Bush told Congress and the American people in the build up to the invasion of
Iraq.

With 50% of the people supporting impeachment of the President if it is
proven he lied about the war, it is no wonder why they are working so hard to
cover this story up. The truth needs to come out about the invasion. It is
something the American People, and more importantly, the soldiers have earned.
With mid-term Congressional elections a year away, now is the time to push for a
full inquiry. If they do not want to conduct it, then they will be replaced at
the polls next fall.