Letter: Defense of Rove is not believable

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

Very soon Americans will be asked by George Bush to believe that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was not the one who revealed the identity of an undercover CIA agent to a reporter. Former United States Ambassador Joseph Wilson has accused Rove of disclosing his wife's role as a CIA operative, as payback for a report he did on WMD that was contrary to administration policy.

Exposing a CIA operative's identity could endanger their life under certain circumstances. The fact that Wilson's wife worked clandestinely at the CIA in the area of WMD adds a degree of danger to betraying her cover.

As the federal investigation of who revealed her identity got closer to Karl Rove, we learned that Rove apparently did identify the undercover agent as "Joseph Wilson's wife." Keeping with the Bush administration's theory that everyday Americans are idiots, the president will ask us to believe that because he didn't speak her name, he is not responsible for "outing" her.

PHIL VENTURAM