Double Super Secret Background

Posted on July 18, 2005

Matthew Cooper of Time magazine shares every detail of his grand jury testimony about Plamegate in the new issue. Apparently, the grand jurors were keenly interested in an explanation of of Cooper's infamous phrase "double super secret background" which he used in his email to his editor discussing his conversations with Karl Rove.

The grand jury asked about one of the more interesting lines in that e-mail, in which I refer to my conversation with Rove as being on "double super secret background," a line that's raised a few eyebrows ever since it leaked into the public domain. I told the grand jury that the phrase is not a journalistic term of art but a reference to the film Animal House, in which John Belushi's wild Delta House fraternity is placed on "double secret probation." ("Super" was my own addition.) In fact, I told the grand jury, Rove told me the conversation was on "deep background." I explained to the grand jury that I take the term to mean that I can use the material but not quote it, and that I must keep the identity of my source confidential.

Well, glad that's cleared up. What about the leaking of the fact that Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent?

As for Wilson's wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak's column or Googled her, I can't recall which. Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the "agency"--by that, I told the grand jury, I inferred that he obviously meant the CIA and not, say, the Environmental Protection Agency. Rove added that she worked on "WMD" (the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction) issues and that she was responsible for sending Wilson. This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife.
Rove never once indicated to me that she had any kind of covert status. I told the grand jury something else about my conversation with Rove. Although it's not reflected in my notes or subsequent e-mails, I have a distinct memory of Rove ending the call by saying, "I've already said too much."

So, Rove told Cooper that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA looking for WMD. He clearly identified her, although he did not say the actual words "Valerie Plame" -- which would not be necessary under the statute in question. The question then becomes: did Karl Rove know Valerie Plame was a covert operative? And if not, why not? And whether he did or not, what is he doing discussing a CIA operative who works on finding WMD with some reporter he barely knows?