Top > World > 2005 > July > 2005-07-18

Reporter asserts Bush aide Rove was leak source

A Time magazine reporter said Sunday that he had first learned from Karl Rove, the powerful White House adviser, that the wife of a critic of the administration`s Iraq war policy was a CIA officer.

It was the most direct statement by the reporter, Matthew Cooper, linking Rove to the revelation in mid-2003 of the identity of Valerie Plame. It remains less clear, as the overall story unfolds in tough partisan tones, whether Rove knew then that she was covert and whether he operated with any intent to reveal that fact. The revelation of Plame`s CIA link surfaced after her husband, the former ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioned administration arguments about Iraqi weapons programs. It was reported first in July 2003 by the columnist Robert Novak.

Cooper, in an article posted Sunday on Time`s Internet site, said Rove did not mention Plame by name in a phone discussion days before the Novak article, but told Cooper that information soon to be declassified would undermine Wilson`s credibility.

If it is discovered that Rove knew she was covert and intended to blow her cover he could be charged with violating Federal law, which prohibits the release of covert operatives` names, and subject to jail time.