How we are spun

The White House has said that Rove did not leak the fact that Plame was an operative and that Bush knows this. You might think that if Rove did tell Novak and the other journalists that she was an operative, that the White House would get caught in a lie. You might also think that if Bush claims to know that Rove did not leak the name, that he must know who did. Here is how you could be wrong.


Karl Rove is a political advisor. As such, it is highly unlikely that he has the required clearance to have information on CIA operatives. The White House may be playing a semantics game. Their logic may be that since Rove does not clearance, then it is technically impossible for him to leak the information. It is the person with clearance who revealed the story to Rove either directly or indirectly that technically leaked the story.

Also, if they explained this technicality to Bush, then he could know that Rove did not leak the story without really knowing any specifics.

My understanding is that Plame was an operative in the past, but is now just an analysts. So, when they say that she is an analysts and not an operative, they are technically telling the truth. It all depends on what the definition of "is" is.

When they say that everyone knew. They could mean that everyone knew she had become an analysts recently, even if no one knew she was an operative.

and joe wilson just went public with the niger story.

you're sitting around the sit room with condi, colin, and the gang. someone remembers that wilson is married to someone in the CIA. fair game, right? because the CIA refuses to roll over re the iraq mess.

so, dick, what do you do? do you send out for mrs. wilson's file or not?

later, after reading the file, what do you do?

Someone released Classified information which is a crime.