Majikthise

Why does Rove still have a security clearance?

Jonathan Alter of Newsweek asks "Is Rove a Security Risk?"

Scooter Libby's indictment reveals that Official A discussed Valerie Wilson's covert status with reporters. Official A is now known to be Karl Rove.

So far, Rove has escaped indictment for his role in the Plame leak. However, as Alter explains, security clearances can be revoked for negligent disclosures as well as deliberate leaks:

Under Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton in 1995, such a disclosure [as Rove's] is grounds for, at a minimum, losing access to classified information.

Section 5.1 of Clinton’s executive order prohibits “any knowing, willful or negligent action that could reasonably be expected to result in an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” While the law against revealing the identity of a CIA operative requires that the perpetrator intentionally disclosed such classified information (a high standard, which may be one reason Fitzgerald did not indict on those grounds), the executive order covers “negligence,” or unintentional disclosure.

It's hard to imagine how the conduct of Official A could be consistent with ongoing security clearance.

Rove certainly wouldn't be the first official to have his security clearance revoked for such an infraction.

The onus is on the White House to explain why Rove is allowed to continue to occupy his privileged position, given the grave suspicions surrounding his conduct in the Plame case.

Republicans poised to slime Fitzgerald

Joe Conason writes about the impending fratricide of Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the White House exposure of C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame:

Circled in a bristling perimeter around the White House, the friends and allies of Mr. Rove can soon be expected to fire their rhetorical mortars at Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the White House exposure of C.I.A. operative Valerie Wilson. Indeed, the preparations for that assault began months ago in the editorial columns of The Wall Street Journal, which has tarred Mr. Fitzgerald as a “loose cannon” and an “unguided missile.”

Evidently Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, will lead the next foray against the special prosecutor. This week the Senator’s press office announced his plan to hold hearings on the Fitzgerald probe. That means interfering with an “ongoing investigation,” as the White House press secretary might say, but such considerations won’t deter the highly partisan Kansan.

Fitzgerald is a Republican stalwart who was appointed by a Republican Justice Department at the behest of a Republican President. Of course, none of that will matter if the Republicans don't like the outcome of Fitzgerald's investigation. The groundwork is already being laid to savage him as a partisan abuser of power.

Today's Rove roundup

Kevin Drum on Republican relativism, aka, IOKIYAR:

Instead, for most conservatives, Plamegate has now turned into the public relations task of convincing the public that even if Rove did out Plame, outing a covert CIA agent is a perfectly acceptable thing for a White House aide to do.

Welcome to the modern Republican Party.

Mark Kleiman meditates on truth, fiction, Rove, and The Onion.

Hilzoy details the damage Rove did.

Steve Gilliard reflects on Rove and the politics of personal destruction.

Karl Rove research resource

FindLaw is assembling official documents pertaining Karl Rove and the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Hat tip to Digby.