The Leak Grows

Time Magazine’s Matthew Cooper was on Meet The Press on Sunday to talk about his article in this week’s Time Magazine detailing his grand jury testimony. Cooper says that he first learned of Valerie Plame from Karl Rove. Mr. Cooper also stated that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby (pictured above) also confirmed Valerie Plame’s identity. Libby is Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. Rove and Libby’s conversations with Cooper were a part of a larger effort to deflect speculation that Cheney had anything to do with sending Joseph Wilson on his Africa trip that found no evidence that Hussein obtained any nuclear starting material from Africa. Cooper also said that Rove concluded their “double super secret” conversation with Cooper by saying, “I’ve already said too much,” which reflected the sensitive nature of the information.

This is all in the shadow of the White House assertions for years that neither Rove nor Libby had anything to do with the Valerie Plame affair. Turns out they did.

The State Of . . . Government reliability has been heavily damaged starting even before Bush’s infamous 16 words that should not have been uttered. These words were the assertion that we had intelligence that showed that Hussein had sought nuclear fuel in Africa. It was later found out, as was also told by Wilson in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, that that info was not credible. Indeed the CIA and the White House have conceded that these words should not have been part of the speech.

The investigation of the Leak is expected to issue a report in October.