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 CBS
News Targets Rove
By
the liberal playbook…
[by Cliff Kincaid] 7/25/05
The anti-Bush
bias that drove the CBS Evening News under Dan Rather continues
under substitute anchorman Bob Schieffer and his substitute
John Roberts. After days of accusing White House aide Karl
Rove of leaking the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame, the
news media reported that Rove got the name from journalists.
But that didn’t stop CBS from continuing to insist that
Rove may have somehow violated the law.
Contributor
Cliff Kincaid
Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy
in Media (AIM) Report. A veteran journalist and media critic, Cliff has
appeared on the Fox News programs Hannity & Colmes and The O'Reilly Factor,
where he debated O'Reilly on global warming, the death penalty, and the homosexual
agenda. He was a guest co-host on CNN's Crossfire (filling in for Pat Buchanan)
in the 1980s, where he confronted the then-Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. with
evidence of Libyan involvement in international terrorism. Through his America's
Survival, Inc., organization (www.usasurvival.org),
he has been an advocate on behalf of the families of victims of terrorism and
has published reports and held conferences critical of the United Nations.
His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Chronicles,
Human Events, Insight, and other publications. He served on the staff
of Human Events for several years and was an editorial writer and
newsletter editor for former National Security Council staffer Oliver North
at his Freedom Alliance educational foundation. He has written or co-authored
nine books on media and cultural affairs and foreign policy issues. Cliff is
married and has three sons.[go to Kincaid index]
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The attacks
on Rove had always fallen short of the mark. The Matt Cooper
notes in the case, seized upon by
the media, show
that Rove was asked about the case, didn’t identify her
by name, and mentioned her only in passing while giving a warning
about relying on her husband, the notoriously unreliable and
deceptive Joe Wilson. Still, the CBS Evening News on July 15
was determined to keep the heat on Rove.
Citing unnamed legal experts, reporter Gloria
Borger said that “the
cover-up could be worse than the crime” and somebody could
have lied to federal investigators or the grand jury. Rove “is
in a very tough spot here,” she told substitute anchor
John Roberts, because the President promised to fire anybody
who illegally leaked the name of a covert CIA operative.
It’s true that somebody could be indicted, but there’s
no indication at least at this point that Rove could be indicted
for illegally leaking classified information about a secret CIA
operative.
Borger also showed a brief clip of former CIA
counsel Jeff Smith, who said that the statute was “clear” and that “It
does not have to be a specific name of the individual. It is
any information that identifies the covert agent. It is clear
that somebody broke the law here.”
But it isn’t at all clear. Bruce Sanford, one of the authors
of the statute, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, appeared
on CNN and the Fox News Channel to say there was no violation
of the law. He said on CNN, “That’s pretty clear
from the [Cooper] notes, the e-mails that Time magazine released
to the grand jury that [White House political adviser] Karl Rove
said that [former Ambassador Joseph] Wilson’s wife—he
didn’t even use her name—but Wilson's wife ‘apparently
works’ at the CIA. It seems to me there’s a substantial
question whether she qualifies as the kind of covert agent that
was envisioned by the act. There are very tight requirements
for that. And there is a substantial doubt whether the agency
was taking the kind of affirmative measures to conceal her identity
that the act talks about.”
On the matter of Plame being a covert agent,
Sanford said that “I
think a covert agent under the act has to be someone who has
deep cover, who is working abroad. Not just traveling abroad,
but is stationed and working abroad sometime within the last
five years. And USA Today reported that…the Wilsons were
married in 1998. There’s some question whether she was
even abroad during the last five years. She really had a desk
job at [CIA headquarters in] Langley [Virginia] and was driving
in and out of the CIA every day. That’s not exactly deep
cover.”
Sanford went on to say that “It is worth remembering that
when Robert Novak, the columnist, disclosed her identity in his
column, he had called the CIA to tell them he was going to do
that, and they didn’t stop him. They did not do what the
CIA normally does in that situation if they want to protect or
continue to protect somebody’s identity...They didn’t
call his syndicate. They didn’t scream at him, say you’re
going to endanger her life or [en]danger her career, that sort
of thing. They just sort of shrugged and said, ‘Well, I
guess she won’t be getting any more overseas assignments.’ I
don't think that’s the kind of affirmative measures that
the agency needs to be taking in order to invoke the statute.”
On July 16, however, the New
York Times reported
that the case involved “blowing her cover as a covert operative.” The
Times won’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Its agenda is the same as CBS—get Bush through Rove. tRO
copyright
2005 Accuracy in Media
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