Karl Rove Withheld Information from FBI Investigating CIA Agent Betrayal and Damage to National Security

In 2003 when Karl Rove was being interviewed by the FBI about someone in the White House revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative, he withheld the fact that he had revealed the information to Time Magazine’s Matt Cooper in addition to discussing it with columnist Robert Novak. The article includes this paragraph:

Novak's column came during a period of time when senior White House officials were attempting to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was then asserting that the Bush administration had relied on faulty intelligence to bolster its case to go to war with Iraq. Wilson had only recently led a CIA-sponsored mission to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was covertly attempting to buy enriched uranium from the African nation to build a nuclear weapon. Wilson reported back that the claims were most likely the result of a hoax. But President Bush had still cited them during a State of the Union address as evidence that Hussein had an aggressive program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Novak used the term “agency operative” to describe Valarie Plame (Mrs. Joe Wilson). A term that is reserved for describing undercover operatives. Novak is now backpedaling that he uses the term “agency operative” to describe anyone working at the CIA, but experts combing through his past columns show that he has only used this term to describe undercover operatives as is the common usage among Washington journalists. Novak identified the sources of the leak as two “senior administration officials” a term usually reserved for either members of the President’s cabinet, the Vice President or others very close to the President. Rove is the Bush’s chief political adviser and the “architect of his campaign” according to the President. He is also deputy chief of staff for the White House. The article also explaines the following:

Finally, also driving Fitzgerald's investigation has been Rove's assertions that he only found out about Plame's status with the CIA from a journalist -- and one whose name he does not recall. But as The New York Times first disclosed on July 16, senior Bush administration officials first learned that Plame worked for the CIA from a classified briefing paper on July 7, 2003, exactly a week before Novak's column naming Plame appeared and at the time that senior Bush administration officials were devising a strategy to discredit Wilson. .

Novak followed up his first column with a second that not only included her maiden name but her middle initial and the name of the CIA front company where she worked. That information allowed enemy nations to search their records to find any instance where she or members of her “company” visited our nations plants (undercover contacts) in those enemy nations. All of those individuals lives are now at risk. That “company” was keeping weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) out of the hands of terrorists and enemy nations. After those columns came out the CIA had to close up the front company, sacrifice all work they were doing, and the careers of all of the undercover operatives at that company were over. The damage to US National Security and our ability to eliminate WMDs is incalculable.

Back in October of 2003 about three months after this betrayal of our country occurred, four current and former CIA operatives testified before congress on how damaging this betrayal of our nation is. They declared before Congress that the individuals involved in this betrayal are our enemy and have sent a clear message to all U.S. intelligence officers that they are at risk in order to allow political vindictiveness by the Bush Administration. Their testimony before Congress can be found here. Supporters of Rove try to paint Wilson as a life long democrat which is not true. Remember that Joe Wilson and his wife were Republicans before all this and had voted for George W. Bush in 2000. Naturally they decided to vote against him in 2004 after their lives were endangered for political purposes.