UPDATE II:

I see emerging from all this a story about a career CIA employee who tried to manipulate public opinion by sending her husband on a pretend fact finding mission in order for him to write their preferred editorial supporting the continued existance of the Hussein Regime and against the war in Iraq. I see a deliberate falsification of the risk of Saddam and his WMD intentions, not by the Bush administration, but by a egotistical and power mad rogue CIA employee and her duplicitous husband. Since Saddam’s intent on nuclear power was clear in his attempts for material and his hiding of ket centrifuge technology, the actions of these two government officials (under oath to protect American interests) is borderline treason.

UPDATE III:

First off, I am not alone in predicting that Plame/Wilson were trying to set up Bush and everyone knew she was CIA in the elite social circles. The moderator of my favorite political forum has made these predictions years ago (sign in as ‘guest’ and follow the links in the post – you may have to pass a web ad via ‘no thanks’ button).

In addition, in an update to the Powerline post I linked to below is this tidbit proving my theory about Plame’s so called secret employer:

SCOTT adds: Hilail Gildin writes: “Andrea Mitchell was asked, on MSNBC, whether it was generally known to news people, before the hullabaloo, that Ms. Plante [Plame] worked for the CIA. She answered, somewhat reluctantly, that it was. In the light of this, I don’t understand the ensuing fuss.”

I do. The MSM’s need to fabricate an anti-war story and a rogue CIA employee.

UPDATE IV:

Dafyyd at Captain’s Quarters gets the jist of the story, but needs to emphasize the remaining facts. Valerie Plame sent her husband on US funds to Niger to bring back news of Hussein’s WMD intentions – something she was an expert in. He comes back and authors a tissue of lies. Why? Because Plame is a rogue agent trying to subvert Bush’s policies.

END UPDATES

I gather this is all over the blogosphere now since I found it on Drudge this afternoon – but this is pretty funny. All the liberal conspiracy theories about the Plame memo and sources being protected by our couraguous and selfless mainstream media and it turns out the source being protected was Rove!

For two years, a federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has been investigating the leak of Plame’s identity as an undercover CIA agent. The leak was first reported by columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak apparently made some arrangement with the prosecutor, but Fitzgerald continued to press other reporters for their sources, possibly to show a pattern (to prove intent) or to make a perjury case. (It is illegal to knowingly identify an undercover CIA officer.) Rove’s words on the Plame case have always been carefully chosen. “I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name,” Rove told CNN last year when asked if he had anything to do with the Plame leak. Rove has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife. But last week, his lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Rove did—and that Rove was the secret source who, at the request of both Cooper’s lawyer and the prosecutor, gave Cooper permission to testify.

The controversy arose when Wilson wrote an op-ed column in The New York Times saying that he had been sent by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate charges that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. Wilson said he had found no evidence to support the claim.

Of course MSNBC cannot help but try and pass rumour and half information off as fact:

Wilson’s column was an early attack on the evidence used by the Bush administration to justify going to war in Iraq. The White House wished to discredit Wilson and his attacks. The question for the prosecutor is whether someone in the administration, in an effort to undermine Wilson’s credibility, intentionally revealed the covert identity of his wife.

First off, Wilson’s claims were proven to be wrong and trumped up, and no one has any proof the White House cared one wit about is silly claims. My position remains Novak knew Plame was CIA from meeting her and her husband socially over the years. What was a story to him was her involvement in promoting her husband through CIA management for the trip, not the open secret she worked for the CIA.

This is the explosive part for the liberal MSM media, this is the stunner that will rightfully open them up for being dupes and saps for liberal federal career employees out to create a damaging story, a la Rathergate.

Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a “big warning” not to “get too far out on Wilson.” Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s trip had not been authorized by “DCIA”—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, “it was, KR said, wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.” Wilson’s wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there’s still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger … “

Which turned out to be TRUE!

“A fair reading of the e-mail makes clear that the information conveyed was not part of an organized effort to disclose Plame’s identity, but was an effort to discourage Time from publishing things that turned out to be false,” the source said, referring to claims in circulation at the time that Cheney and high-level CIA officials arranged for Wilson’s trip to Africa.

The liberal MSM is so desparate to find something on Bush they have been suckered over and over and over again by liberals in government. What a bunch of suckers.

UPDATES:

Ed Morrissey sees this the same way, the media bought into the Wilson/Plame hype only to find the only one being truthful with them was Rove!

Powerline has a great rundown of the legal language surrounding this non-story. They also note Bush’s loyalty to people who are loyal and honest with him. Why of course, this not some power crazed politician like our former president.