Why did Karl Rove out the CIA agent, what was his incentive?

Question

Please refrain from answering this question with 'because he's evil, he's a liar, he's a no good sumbitch, etc.. etc..'. This question is not asking for your opinion. I want to know exactly why he did this. Cite your sources please.

Answer 1: Your answer makes no sense whatsoever.

Asnwer 3: hq3, I don't buy this...I believe this person had more incentive to commit treason than to just get 'back at someone'.

I don't think many people know the answer to this question, yet many of us claim to know everything out there. It's a tragedy of the commons.

"Her identity as a senior CIA analyst for Iraqi weapons issues was well known inside the beltway. "

So if that's the case, are you saying that Rove and Libby are being labeled as traitors SIMPLY because they tried to cover up their statements that were actually just OK statements, since her identity was known, as you suggested? I'm not sure what you mean by inside the beltway.

Answer 1

It wasn't Rove, it was Libby. And he didn't "out" her, first of all. Her identity as a senior CIA analyst for Iraqi weapons issues was well known inside the beltway.

How he came to tell a journalist about her though was fairly simple. During an interview, he was discrediting a report (Correctly, since it's been shown to be false) written by Plame's husband Joseph Wilson, a former State department diplomat (Never an Ambassador, though the press sometimes called him that) about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa. When asked why Wilson had been there, Libby said that his wife had pulled strings to get him the trip since Wilson was unemployed and at loose ends. The interviewer asked who Wilson's wife was to be able to pull strings, and Libby replied that she was the CIA analyst in charge of JTFI.

So far, no harm no foul. Problem is, that when the news got out, instead of just coming clean about who he'd told, and why, and under what circumstances, he tried to cover it up.

Why don't idiot politicians and their staffers - of both parties - ever seem to learn that it's cover-ups that get you into far more trouble than the original issue ever would of done?

Richard

(The Beltway is the freeway that goes all round central DC. "Inside the Beltway" is slang for "official" Washington)

Reply to your follow up... the only people calling them "traitors" are the likes of CBS and other anti-American groups seeking to make as much hay as possible by embarassing senior Bush staffers. Plame had hosted briefings for journalists already, and was the "go-to" person for people who needed the "official CIA position". Journalists who wrote on the subject, foreign embassy staff, politicians and their staffs, the rest of the "Beltway Bandits", ALL knew she was the head of the CIA's Iraq WMD office.

Answer 2

here is what the WP says:
That's not to say that Mr. Libby and other White House officials are blameless. As prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has reported, when Mr. Wilson charged that intelligence about Iraq had been twisted to make a case for war, Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney reacted by inquiring about Ms. Plame's role in recommending Mr. Wilson for a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, where he investigated reports that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium. Mr. Libby then allegedly disclosed Ms. Plame's identity to journalists and lied to a grand jury when he said he had learned of her identity from one of those reporters. Mr. Libby and his boss, Mr. Cheney, were trying to discredit Mr. Wilson; if Mr. Fitzgerald's account is correct, they were careless about handling information that was classified.

Answer 3

This was his way to get back at Joseph C. Wilson (Plame's husband) who recently actively criticized Bush administration, particularly for questioning Iraq's war factual basis.

Answer 4

A big fat PAYCHECK!