Heat grows on Rove over CIA leak

WASHINGTON -- Faced with reports linking senior adviser Karl Rove to the disclosure of a CIA operative's identity, the White House yesterday stepped back from months of assurances that anybody in the administration involved in the leak would be fired.

In an unusually contentious briefing, even by White House press standards, spokesman Scott McClellan was pelted with 35 questions on the topic.

He declined to answer them all -- including invitations to repeat previous denials of Rove's involvement -- by citing a special prosecutor's request for public silence on the investigation of who revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of administration critic Joseph Wilson, was an undercover operative for the CIA.

The latest approach came amid revelations potentially troubling for President Bush who, after vowing to get to the bottom of it, is finding out the answer may be near the top.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, told The New York Times that Rove referred to Plame in a July 2003 conversation with a Time reporter.

McClellan said the special prosecutor in the case has asked the White House not to discuss it.

Democrats moved quickly yesterday to urge congressional hearings on the matter, as well as calling on Bush to strip Rove, his longtime top political adviser, of his security clearance and ban him from classified discussions.

"If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is about our national security," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, calling on Bush to follow through on his promise to fire anybody involved.

At issue is who disclosed Plame's identity, possibly as retribution for Wilson's criticism of Bush's rationale for the war in Iraq or to undermine his credibility by suggesting he got the assignment only because of his wife.

Wilson traveled to Niger to look into an assertion Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein tried to buy materials there for weapons of mass destruction. Wilson said he found no evidence to support that.

Revealing the identity of a CIA operative is a federal offense and is among the topics being looked at by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

After months of simmering controversy, the situation escalated last week when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to reveal the confidential administration source who had talked to her about Plame. Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper avoided incarceration after a source freed him to speak to the grand jury under Fitzgerald's guidance.

Time Inc. turned over Cooper's e-mail and notes and these confirm Rove as one of his sources, The New York Times reported.

In August 2003, Wilson fingered Rove as the culprit who outed his wife, saying, "It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

At the time, McClellan vehemently and specifically denied any involvement by Rove; I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff; and Elliott Abrams, deputy national security adviser.

Rove, in a CNN interview during last year's Republican National Convention, said, "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name."

The comment now raises the question whether Rove referred to her in another way, a possibility raised by a Cooper e-mail to his editors, according to a Newsweek report.

"It was, K.R. said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip," Cooper said in the e-mail about his July 11, 2003, conversation with Rove. At issue was who assigned Wilson to go to Niger to check out Bush's comment.

Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, told The New York Times his client "was not afraid of what Cooper is going to say and is clearly trying to be fully candid with the prosecutor."

"A fair reading of the e-mail as well as the context in which the conversation took place makes it clear that the information conveyed was not part of an organized effort to disclose Plame's identity," Luskin said, asserting that Rove was merely trying to warn Cooper against writing an inaccurate account of Wilson's involvement.

The Cooper-Rove conversation came three days before syndicated columnist Robert Novak reported that two administration officials had told him that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.

The brief conversation came five days after The New York Times published a Wilson commentary in which he said, "I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

In refusing yesterday to answer questions about it, McClellan would not say if Bush stands by his promise to fire anybody involved in leaking a CIA operative's name.

Bush yesterday took a pass on a chance to discuss the issue. On the White House South Lawn, after his helicopter arrived from his morning speech at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., a reporter who wanted to question Bush about Rove's involvement asked Bush to stop to respond to one question.

"No such thing," Bush said as he continued to the Oval Office.

But congressional Democrats seem eager to discuss it now. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., urged the Committee on Government Reform to force Rove to testify.

"A congressional hearing at which Mr. Rove testifies under oath remains the simplest and most effective means for Congress and the public to learn the truth about this disgraceful incident," Waxman said in a letter to Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Bush should suspend Rove's security clearance and ban him from classified meetings.

Questions, Denials On Rove Involvement

Some of the denials, and other comments, at news briefings by White House spokesman Scott McClellan when asked by reporters whether President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was involved in the leak of a CIA officer's identity:

Sept. 29, 2003

Q: You said this morning, quote, "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved." How does he know that?

A: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. ... I've said that it's not true. ... And I have spoken with Karl Rove.

Q: It doesn't take much for the president to ask a senior official working for him, to just lay the question out for a few people and end this controversy today.

A: Do you have specific information to bring to our attention? ... Are we supposed to chase down every anonymous report in the newspaper? We'd spend all our time doing that."

Q: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, "Did you ever have this information?"

A: I've made it very clear, he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was.

Oct. 7, 2003

Q: You have said that you personally went to Scooter Libby (Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff), Karl Rove and Elliott Abrams (National Security Council official) to ask them if they were the leakers. Is that what happened? Why did you do that? And can you describe the conversations you had with them? What was the question you asked?

A: Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C., at a time like this there are a lot of rumors and innuendo. There are unsubstantiated accusations that are made. And that's exactly what happened in the case of these three individuals. They are good individuals. They are important members of our White House team. And that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved. I had no doubt with that in the beginning, but I like to check my information to make sure it's accurate before I report back to you, and that's exactly what I did.

Oct. 10, 2003

Q: Earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliott Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands.

Q: So none of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: They assured me that they were not involved in this.

Q: They were not involved in what?

A: The leaking of classified information.

July 11, 2005

Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?

A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we're not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Q: But Rove has apparently commented, through his lawyer, that he was definitely involved.

A: You're asking me to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Q: I'm saying, why did you stand there and say he was not involved?

A: Again, while there is an ongoing investigation, I'm not going to be commenting on it nor is. ...

Q: Any remorse?

A: Nor is the White House, because the president wanted us to cooperate fully with the investigation, and that's what we're doing.