Libby, Rove Had Reason to Know

Because they were in charge of the “administration response” to Joe Wilson’s simple retelling of the truth, which he patiently waited 6 months to do. This means they did not need any State Dept. document to find out who Wilson’s wife was and her CIA status; these two POLITICAL operatives were in charge of telling George Tenet what to say, in order to cover for Bush. This also explains Rove’s certainty when talking to Cooper that “declassified information was coming” – that would somehow explain Bush’s State of the Union Nuclear Lie in January 2003. If you look at a timeline of events, you’ll see that there never was any such “declassified statement” etc. as promised. Tenet volunteered to take heat for “not stopping” Bush from saying something they HAD stopped him from saying at prior speeches, but Libby and Rove just took the shortcut route of “discrediting” Wilson by telling a false story about his wife – one that required a description of her job status at CIA. Later that year, they lied to the grand jury about the whole thing. In June 2004, Tenet has an argument with Bush and resigned; simultaneously Bush suddenly hired a private attorney.