SF Chronicle questions/answers about Rove:

[rasputin1952]

Robert Collier gets to the some of the tougher questions asaked, and provides answers

The controversy over whether presidential adviser Karl Rove revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame as part of a public-relations battle over the Iraq war leaves many questions that can be only partially answered. Among them:

Q: What was the likely motive for the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent to columnist Robert Novak, which he published on July 14, 2003?

A: Plame is the wife of former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons. Wilson subsequently reported to the CIA that the intelligence was false, a conclusion that he later made public in a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed piece -- which was widely viewed as an embarrassment to the Bush administration. Wilson has said administration officials outed his wife to indirectly punish him by ruining her career. Some analysts also have noted that White House and Pentagon officials were locked in a bitter internal dispute with the CIA over a wide range of intelligence matters.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/13/LEAKGLANCE.TMP&type=printable