Rove Must Go

It's Confirmed: Karl Rove Exposed a CIA Operative

White House Credibility Gap Captured on Video  

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove recently acknowledged that he revealed the identity of a CIA operative [1], proving that he can't be trusted with classified information.  For the sake of national security and to protect America’s defenders in the line of fire, President Bush needs to revoke his security clearance and get him out of the White House before he leaks another secret.

Congressmembers are calling on the President to strip Rove of his security clearance and fire him.  To send a message to your legislators asking them to join in asking for this prudent step, just fill out the form on the right. If you're a TrueMajority member, just provide your email address.

Text of Petition:

The recent scandal surrounding Karl Rove and his disclosure that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA operative has raised serious questions about whether he has violated the law.  One fact not in dispute, however, is that he disclosed the identity of a CIA operative to a reporter.  This serious breach, whether intentional or not, demonstrates that he can no longer be trusted to maintain the secrets his security clearance gives him access to.

I am therefore writing to urge you to contact President Bush and ask him to remove Mr. Rove's security clearance and fire him from the administration.  To not do so immediately risks an even more serious breach of our national security.

In the coming months the ongoing investigation may clear Mr. Rove of any criminal wrong doing, but his own lawyer's statements have already proven that he can't handle classified information.

To watch White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan under fire at a press briefing on 7/11/2005, click here. 

Here's what we know: 

An ongoing investigation into this scandal eventually will conclude whether Rove should go to prison or was just inept.  In the meantime, the Commander-in-Chief has an obligation to protect our nation and our troops by making sure Rove doesn't get another chance to leak something that, next time, may cost someone more than their career.

In his State of the Union message in 2003, George Bush said that Saddam Hussein was trying to get uranium from Niger.  In the following weeks, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson disclosed that he was sent to Niger by the CIA to look into this and had reported to top administration officials months before the speech that there was no Niger-Iraq uranium connection. In a discussion with a reporter at Time magazine about Wilson's disclosure, Rove said that Wilson's wife was the CIA operative who sent him to Niger.  Three days later columnist Robert Novak published the fact that Plame was a CIA operative thus ending her career, possibly endangering her life and ending an important operation.

Rove may have been punishing Wilson for embarrassing the President.  If Rove exposed Wilson's wife, a covert member of the CIA's weapons of mass destruction team, it would be an act of treason.  Rove's lawyer counters that he didn't know she was a covert operative and didn't mean any harm.  Either way his disclosure was dangerous and President Bush needs to pull his security clearance and get him out of the White House right now.

Newsweek's confirmation of Rove's disclosure.
AP's analysis of this breaking scandal, "Newsview: CIA Leak Probe Focuses on Rove," July 13, 2005.