NYT: 2 Aides to Rove Testify ("last Friday") in C.I.A. Leak Inquiry

[DeepModem Mom]

2 Aides to Rove Testify in C.I.A. Leak Inquiry
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: August 3, 2005


WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 - Two aides to Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, testified last Friday before a federal grand jury investigating whether government officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. operative, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case.

The aides, Susan B. Ralston and Israel Hernandez, were asked about grand jury testimony given on July 13 by Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, the person who was briefed said. Mr. Cooper has said that he testified about a July 11, 2003, conversation with Mr. Rove in which the C.I.A. officer was discussed.

The aides' grand jury appearances were first reported by ABC News and provided the first sign that the prosecutor in the case was interested in following up on Mr. Cooper's testimony with more questions for the White House about Mr. Rove. A person sympathetic to Mr. Rove said that the questions seemed typical of those posed by a prosecutor wrapping up the loose ends of an inquiry.

That person and the one who has been briefed spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the prosecutor has warned people not to discuss the case.

At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/politics/03leak.html

[Donailin]

1. what does this mean

>>At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard.<<

Doesn't the WH have phone records from the switchboard????

PLEASE!

[Bumblebee]

2. As always, they are getting it from Rove or his fans

so the story sounds like it was just a routine follow up to close the investigation and declare Rove a saint. Hopefully tomorrow's Note will have more as promised.

[bilgewaterbill]

3. He's too fat to dodge this many bullets.

He must be a swiss cheese- the bullets keep going thru the holes.

[bleever]

4. "Oh...we don't keep track of TRANSFERRED calls...they aren't

important..."


heh heh heh

[rodeodance]

5. glad to see nytimes keeping the story alive and on the radar!!!!!

[Moderator]

6. Kick

[dooner]

7. Gay former Rove aide testifies in Valerie Plame case (Advocate)

Advocate.com
August 03, 2005

Israel "Izzy" Hernandez, a gay man who is a former aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove and a recent Bush appointee to a top Commerce Department post, has testified before a grand jury in special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, reports ABC News. Last Friday, Hernandez appeared with Susan Ralston, another longtime Rove associate, but it is not known what they said or why they were asked to appear. "The appearances of Ralston and Hernandez suggest at least part of the focus remains on Rove," reports ABC's online newsletter The Note.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid19337.asp

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. Fitz is keeping everyone guessing, isn't he?

[AuntPatsy]

9. He sure is, I hope he is strong enough to continue the fight for truth.

[rodeodance]

11. Friz does not strike me a man who can be silence by giving him

the Medal of Freedom!!! He will do his duty.

[dooner]

10. This has to make you wonder about Jeff Gannon

Is this who he was visiting in the White House?

[bribri16]

12. Probably visiting Rove. n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Can anybody glean anything further from this story? nt

[dooner]

15. I learned that Israel Hernandez

Is mighty cozy with Bush. Bush hired him in the early days in Texas and has been his friend ever since. Also, that Hernandeaz was recently rewarded with a nice job promotion to Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

Also, that his office in the West Wing was smack dab between Gonzalez and Rove. There's a fascinating diagram of who sat where in the West Wing below. Interesting to note that here they call Hernandez a "deputy assistant to the president" as well as an assistant to Rove.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administration/whbriefing/whitehousemap.html

Here another editorial on "the real west wing" calls Hernandez a deputy to Alberto Gonzalez.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A45953-2004Mar10¬Found=true

Why isn't his job title clear I wonder? Only obvious thing is that Hernandez was in a trusted position, most likely knew what was going on, but not the type to spill the beans. And he got rewarded.

We can't forget the mysterious comings and goings of Jeff Gannon. Did somebody leak to him? Is the homosexual angle
relevant here? Hernandez is openly gay, and holds a key position in the White House.. but I never heard of him before now.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Very interesting, dooner -- thanks! nt

[Supersedeas]

14. another is a sting of 'anomalies'

It just so happens that there is no record...b/c....

and

It just so happens that Mr. Gonzalez gave the WH 12 hours advance notice...b/c...

[MGKrebs]

16. Mix in Grover Norquist and Abramoff.

Raw Story and Salon making these connections the other day:

"According to a 2004 Salon piece, she also had a role with one of conservative Washington's leading men, Grover Norquist, in which she took messages for Rove and called Norquist to screen callers."

"For two years, the assistant who answered Rove's phone was a woman who had previously worked for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend of Norquist's and a top DeLay fundraiser," Salon reported. "One Republican lobbyist, who asked not to be named because DeLay and Rove have the power to ruin his livelihood, said the way Rove's office worked was this: 'Susan took a message for Rove, and then called Grover to ask if she should put the caller through to Rove. If Grover didn't approve, your call didn't go through.'"

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/ROVE_AIDE_CALLED_TO_TESTIFY_TOOK_HIS_MESS_0802.html

[Straight Shooter]

18. Oh, good grief.

I'm speechless. What a politically incestuous group of thugs and thieves.