On Mon, 11 Jul 2005, the New York Sun was quoted as saying:
> Mr. Cooper, who wrote that the July 11, 2003, chat took place "on double
> super secret background," said Mr. Rove denied reports that Vice President
> Cheney or the then-director of central intelligence, George Tenet, authorized
> Mr. Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip to Africa in 2002 to investigate Iraq's
> alleged attempts to acquire nuclear materials. According to the e-mail, Mr.
> Rove said Mr. Wilson's wife arranged the trip. The White House official said
> the marital connection rendered Mr. Wilson's assessment about the Iraqis
> flawed and suspect.
There other remarkable thing is that on the surface this no longer looks like inexplicable revenge and lashing out. It looks like a perfectly coherent attempt to undermine charges.
Up until now, Rove's original charge looked like absurd. Who cared if Wilson's wife suggested his name? Why would that skew the results? The assumption being that even if she proposed, the CIA disposed. That they took up the suggestion, decided he was emminently qualified, and sent him. (And clearly he was emminently qualified, having served diplomatically in every African country that mines uranium, to undertake an investigation into something was alleged done by people in official capacities in that field.)
But what Rove is saying in the paragraph above is that this was a rogue CIA operation. That it was never approved by Tenet. Rather it was gotten up entirely independently by lower level employees in an attempt to sway policy.
True or not, at least that makes perfect sense. He's saying (a) there is no mystery that this never got up the chain of command to Tenet or Cheney -- or why if it did, they didn't give it much weight -- and (b) Wilson's whole claim that he was the CIA's point man was a misrepresentation, and his credibility should therefore be in doubt.
This also seems like pure Rove: attack the credibility of the source massively and immediately. And don't be afraid of skating razor close to the edge of the law.
Whereas breaking a law gratuitously seemed to be kind of out of control, stupid and nuts.
Michael