Hat tip to Instapundit on this article on what took place with Matt Cooper and Rove and diclosing information. It provides more fuel to the theory that some in the press may have been working with Plame/Wilson to distribute misinformation on Saddam’s nuclear intentions – a crime of fraud if true – and the Bush administration’s role in the reporting.

Some key points:

Mr. Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, last week denied that Mr. Rove had contacted Mr. Cooper last Wednesday, and said that when Mr. Rove spoke to Mr. Cooper two years ago, “Karl didn’t disclose Valerie Plame’s identification to anyone. That’s not a technical statement. That’s as practical and direct as I can make it.” He also told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Rove had never asked any reporter to treat him as a confidential source in the matter, “so if Matt Cooper is going to jail to protect a source, it’s not Karl he’s protecting.”

Yesterday, Mr. Luskin explained that Mr. Rove, like other White House officials, had signed a document provided by Mr. Fitzgerald in December 2003, allowing reporters to testify about conversations with him. On Wednesday, before Mr. Cooper was headed to court and a possible jail term, his attorney, Richard Sauber, called Mr. Luskin and asked for reassurance that the earlier waiver encompassed Mr. Rove’s discussions with Mr. Cooper. If so, Mr. Sauber sought more express consent. Mr. Luskin checked with Mr. Fitzgerald as to whether more specific consent was necessary, and then gave that consent to Mr. Cooper, who said last week that he received the permission in “somewhat dramatic fashion.”

Mr. Sauber, while refusing to name Mr. Rove as the source, confirmed that he initiated the contact with the source’s attorney on Wednesday morning. “There were public comments that made us think that there was a material change in the position of Matt’s source,” said Mr. Sauber, apparently referring to Mr. Luskin’s statement to The Wall Street Journal.

This means Rove had cleared all reporters two years ago from any confidentiality – which calls into question why they would continue the confidentiallity? Only one reason seem obvious – to keep the truth from the people.

It means Cooper’s attorney asked for additional release so his client could avoid jail – for nothing since there was no confidentiality any more.

So why the game with NYTimes? Simple. Plame and Wilson cooked up this scheme to falsify national security intel, and then make it public to try and stop Bush’s plans for Iraq. And to do so they needed buy-in from some main stream news media outlets to make it worthwhile.

Plame is a rogue CIA employee who conspired with her husband to make false intel on Saddam’s nuclear intentions so they could become celebrities to the left and Wilson could get a big name job in a Kerry administration. And it almost worked.