FT.com / US / CIA leak - Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down’

>By Caroline Daniel in Washington
>Published: October 25 2005 22:59 | Last updated: October 26 2005 01:49
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Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush's second term.


> On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week.

Those in legal jeopardy may include Lewis “Scooter” Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist.

Mr Cheney himself has also been linked to the inquiry into the leaking of the name of an undercover CIA operative, according to a story in Tuesday's New York Times.

Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor, has said he would announce any conclusion to his 22-month investigation in Washington.


>
Timeline of the CIA leak inquiry
>Click here
>
The The New York Times report said Mr Cheney had talked with Mr Libby on June 12 2003 about the fact that the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the administration's claims about Iraq, worked at the agency. The identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, was first disclosed by Robert Novak in an syndicated column on July 14 2003, which triggered the inquiry.


> The suggestion appears to contradict comments in late 2003 from Mr Cheney that he did not know who had sent Mr Wilson to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium. They also cast some doubt on statements Mr Libby is reported to have made to the grand jury that he may have learned about Ms Plame's job from journalists.

On Tuesday Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, declined to comment on the reports about Mr Cheney. He came under fire again for his own denials in 2003 that White House officials had played no role in leaking the name of Ms Plame. Robert Luskin, Mr Rove's lawyer, declined to comment on whether his client had received a letter. A spokeswoman for Mr Cheney also declined to comment. Mr Rove and Mr Libby have continued to play an active role in advising the president. Mr Libby was part of the committee that picked Ben Bernanke as the president's nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Mr Rove is involved in shoring up the beleaguered nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

Mr Bush has praised Mr Fitzgerald's deft handling of the inquiry, which could deflate any later attempts to paint him as a partisan prosecutor over-reaching his mandate.

However, Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and strategist. said: “If [Fitzgerald] indicts, they [the White House] will have no choice but to attempt to demonise him. I think that is going to be really, really tough.”

Additional reporting by Holly Yeager, Guy Dinmore and Stephanie Kirchgaessner

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Print Story: CIA leak investigators hold last-minute interviews on Yahoo! News

By Adam Entous


With charges expected as early as Wednesday, federal officials investigating the exposure of CIA operative Valerie Plame conducted last-minute interviews with her neighbors and associates of Karl Rove and other top White House aides, lawyers said on Tuesday.

Marc Lefkowitz, who lives across the street from Plame, told Reuters two FBI agents asked him on Monday if he knew about Plame's CIA work before her identity was leaked to the press in 2003. Lefkowitz said he told them: "I didn't know."

Two lawyers involved in the case said such questioning could indicated that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald intended to charge administration officials for the leak itself, in addition to possible charges for easier-to-prove crimes like perjury and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors also questioned a Rove colleague and other witnesses, lawyers said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan would neither confirm nor deny a New York Times report that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, learned about Plame in a conversation with Cheney on June 12, 2003, weeks before her identity appeared in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.

Lawyers involved in the case said Fitzgerald appeared close to bringing indictments against top administration officials, with an announcement expected as early as Wednesday, when the grand jury is scheduled to reconvene. The grand jury will expire on Friday unless Fitzgerald extends it.

Fitzgerald's investigation has centered on Libby and Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser. Other aides may also be charged, the lawyers said.

White House officials were anxiously awaiting the outcome since any indicted officials are expected to resign immediately. If there are indictments, Bush is likely to make a public statement to try to reassure Americans he is committed to honesty and integrity in government.

IRAQ, NIGER, URANIUM?

Plame's identity was leaked after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq. Wilson based the criticism in part on a CIA-sponsored mission he made to Africa in 2002 over an intelligence report that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger.

The New York Times report about the previously undisclosed conversation on June 12, 2003, put a spotlight on Cheney and raised questions about assertions he made in a September 2003 television interview that he did not know Wilson or who sent him to Niger.

Administration officials had sought to cast Wilson's trip as a boondoggle arranged by his wife, and in talking about her role, they revealed her identity, people close to the case said. Wilson said the CIA sent him on the mission after Cheney's office sought information about the Niger report.

Asked if Cheney always tells the truth to the American people, McClellan said: "Yes." He dismissed as "ridiculous" a question about whether Bush stood by Cheney's account of his role in the matter. "The vice president, like the president, is a straightforward, plain-spoken person," McClellan said.

The Times account of the June 2003 conversation also appeared to contradict Libby's federal grand jury testimony that he learned about Wilson's wife from reporters. Lawyers in the case say Fitzgerald is considering charging Libby for making false statements and possibly obstruction of justice.

Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Plame from then-CIA director George Tenet, according to the Times. The notes did not show Cheney knew the name of Wilson's wife, but they showed Cheney told Libby she was employed by the CIA and may have helped arrange Wilson's Niger trip.

A Republican source with ties to Cheney said there was nothing illegal about Cheney and Libby discussing Wilson and his wife since they have security clearances.

Lefkowitz said Monday was the first time he had been questioned by the FBI in connection with his neighbor. The agents told him they were talking to other neighbors as well.

CNN.com - Poll: Few doubt wrongdoing in CIA leak - Oct 25, 2005

Neighbor questioned with prosecutor's grand jury set to expire

(CNN) -- Only one in 10 Americans said they believe Bush administration officials did nothing illegal or unethical in connection with the leaking of a CIA operative's identity, according to a national poll released Tuesday.

Thirty-nine percent said some administration officials acted illegally in the matter, in which the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was revealed.

The same percentage of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said Bush administration officials acted unethically, but did nothing illegal.

The poll questioned 1,008 adults October 21-23 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Federal law makes it a crime to deliberately reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is heading a probe into the matter.

With the grand jury investigating the leak set to expire Friday, FBI agents interviewed a Washington neighbor of Plame for a second time.

The agents asked Marc Lefkowitz on Monday night whether he knew about Plame's CIA work before her identity was leaked in the media, and Lefkowitz told agents he did not, according to his wife, Elise Lefkowitz.

Lefkowitz said agents first questioned whether the couple was aware of Plame's CIA work in an interview several months ago.

Plame and her husband, retired State Department career diplomat Joseph Wilson, have accused Bush administration officials of deliberately leaking her identity to the media to retaliate against Wilson after he published an opinion piece in The New York Times.

The July 2003 article cast doubt on a key assertion in the Bush administration's arguments for war with Iraq -- that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium for a suspected nuclear weapons program in Africa.

Wilson, who was acting ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said the CIA sent him to Niger, in central Africa, to investigate the uranium claim in February 2002 and that he found no evidence such a transaction occurred and it was unlikely it could have. (Full story)

Days after Wilson's article was published, Plame's identity was exposed in a piece by syndicated columnist and longtime CNN contributor Robert Novak.

President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, has testified before the Fitzgerald grand jury that he believes it was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, who first told him that Plame worked for the CIA and had a role in sending her husband to Africa, according to a source familiar with Rove's testimony.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt before finally agreeing last month to tell grand jurors that Libby told her Wilson's wife may have worked at the CIA, although she said Libby did not identify Plame by name or describe her as a covert agent or operative.

Libby has also testified before the grand jury.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that notes in Fitzgerald's possession suggest that Libby first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself. (Full story)

The Times said its sources in the story were lawyers involved in the case.

Cheney said in September 2003 that he had seen no report from Wilson after his assignment in Africa.

"I don't know Joe Wilson. I've never met Joe Wilson. I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," he told NBC.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan on Tuesday declined to specifically address the Times report.

"The policy of this White House has been to carry out the direction of the president, which is to cooperate fully with the special prosecutor," he said.

"There's a lot of speculation that is going on right now. There are many facts that are not known. The work of the special prosecutor continues and we look forward to him successfully concluding his investigation," he said.

The Justice Department opened a criminal probe in September 2003 at the request of the CIA.

Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Illinois, was named special prosecutor at the end of 2003 after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the probe.

Once the grand jury term expires, Fitzgerald could ask for an extension of the grand jury's service, request indictments or end the probe without bringing charges.

CNN's Kelli Arena contributed to this report.

Fitzgerald Focuses Again on Rove - Los Angeles Times

By Tom Hamburger, Richard B. Schmitt and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers

3:38 PM PDT, October 25, 2005

WASHINGTON — As his investigation nears a conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has returned his attention to White House adviser Karl Rove, interviewing a Rove colleague with detailed questions about contacts that President Bush's close aide had with reporters in the days leading up to the outing of a covert CIA officer.

Fitzgerald has also dispatched FBI agents to comb the CIA agent's residential neighborhood in Washington, asking neighbors again whether they were aware — before her name appeared in a syndicated column — that the agent, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.

The questioning, described by lawyers familiar with the case and by the neighbors, occurred as Fitzgerald was thought to be readying indictments in the long-running inquiry into the leak of Plame's identity. It is a felony to knowingly identify an undercover agent, and the renewed questions this week suggested that the prosecutor remained focused on the breach of that secrecy.

The inquiry has reached deep into the White House and focuses on Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.

A deputy prosecutor called Rove's colleague this afternoon and interviewed him in depth about statements Rove may have made to reporters about the case, a lawyer familiar with the case said.

"It appeared to me the prosecutor was trying to button up any holes that were remaining," the lawyer said.

White House officials have declined to comment on the inquiry and on recent reports that Fitzgerald was focusing at least in part on Cheney's office.

"There is a lot of speculation that is going on right now. There are many facts that are not known," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today. "The work of the special prosecutor continues, and we look forward to him successfully concluding his investigation."

White House rallies behind Cheney - Yahoo! News

By Adam Entous



Bracing for indictments against top aides, the White House on Tuesday rallied behind Vice President Dick Cheney but refused to answer questions about whether he told his chief of staff about the CIA officer at the heart of a two-year leak investigation.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan would neither confirm nor deny a report in The New York Times that Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, first learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, in a conversation with the vice president on June 12, 2003, weeks before her identity became public in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.

President George W. Bush ignored a shouted question about Cheney's role amid growing signs that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will seek charges as early as Wednesday, when the grand jury is scheduled to reconvene.

In addition to Libby, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, could be indicted, as well as others, lawyers close to the case said.

Plame's identity as covert operative was leaked after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq. Wilson based the criticism in part on a CIA-sponsored mission he made to Africa in 2002 to check out an intelligence report that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

The Times report about the previously undisclosed conversation put a spotlight on Cheney and raised questions about assertions the vice president made in a September 2003 television interview that he did not know Wilson or who sent him on the trip to Niger.

Administration officials had sought to cast Wilson's trip to Niger as a boondoggle arranged by his wife, and in so doing, revealed her identity, people close to the case said. Wilson said the CIA sent him on the mission after Cheney's office sought more information about the uranium deal.

Asked if Cheney always tells the truth to the American people, McClellan said: "Yes." He dismissed as "ridiculous" a question about whether Bush stood by Cheney's account of his role in the matter. "The vice president, like the president, is a straight-forward, plain-spoken person," McClellan said.

Earlier, the spokesman said: "The vice president is doing a great job as a member of this administration."

POSSIBLE CHARGES

The Times account of the June 12, 2003, conversation also appeared to run counter to Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he first learned about Wilson's wife from reporters.

Fitzgerald is said by lawyers to be considering bringing charges against Libby for making false statements and possibly obstruction of justice.

Libby's notes indicate that Cheney got his information about Plame from George Tenet, who was then the CIA director, according to The Times.

The notes did not show Cheney knew the name of Wilson's wife. But they did show Cheney knew and told Libby she was employed by the CIA and that she may have helped arrange her husband's trip to Niger.

A Republican source with ties to Cheney said there was nothing illegal about Cheney and Libby discussing Wilson and his wife since they have security clearances.

But it could be a crime to pass along that information to the public.

While Fitzgerald could still charge administration officials with knowingly outing Plame to retaliate against her husband, lawyers in the case said the prosecutor appeared more likely to seek charges for easier-to-prove crimes such as making false statements, obstruction of justice and disclosing classified information.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald's spokesman, declined to comment.

ABC News: White House Sidesteps Cheney Questions

White House Turns Aside Questions on Whether Cheney Passed to Aide CIA Officer's Identity
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday sidestepped questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney passed on to his top aide the identity of a CIA officer central to a federal grand jury probe.

Notes in the hands of a federal prosecutor suggest that Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's editions.

A federal prosecutor is investigating whether the officer's identity was improperly disclosed.

The Times said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003, conversation between Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists.

"This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's ongoing," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Pressed about Cheney's knowledge about the CIA officer, McClellan said: "I think you're prejudging things and speculating and we're not going to prejudge or speculate about things."

McClellan said Cheney who participated in a morning video conference on the Florida hurricane from Wyoming, where he is speaking at a University of Wyoming dinner tonight is doing a "great job" as vice president.

The New York Times identified its sources in the story as lawyers involved in the case.

Libby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.

Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions although not necessarily by name and without indicating he knew she was undercover.

Libby's notes show that Cheney knew Plame worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to but not by name in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet, but said there was no indication he knew her name.

The notes also contain no suggestion that Cheney or Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified, the paper said.

Disclosing the identify of a covert CIA agent can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent is classified as working undercover.

The Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no indication Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with a crime.

But the paper said any efforts by Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Cheney might be viewed by a prosecutor as attempt to impede the inquiry, which could be a crime.

According to a former intelligence official close to Tenet, the former CIA chief has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for more than 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury even though he was interviewed by Fitzgerald and his staff.

The official told the Times that Tenet declined to comment on the investigation.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls and e-mail to his office.

Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment. McClellan said both Rove and Libby were at work on Tuesday.

Fitzgerald questioned Cheney under oath more than a year ago, but it is not known what the vice president told the prosecutor.

Cheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into intelligence some of it later deemed unreliable that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there.

"I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."

The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.

A year after Wilson's trip, President Bush cited British intelligence in his State of the Union address as suggesting that Iraq was pursuing uranium in Africa.

BLOOMBERG: Cheney, Libby May Be at Odds Over CIA Leak-Case Investigation

By Richard Keil and Holly Rosenkrantz
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A fissure may be opening between Vice President Dick Cheney and his top aide over the investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity.

I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, first learned of agent Valerie Plame's identity in a conversation with Cheney weeks before her name became public in July 2003, the New York Times reported last night, citing lawyers involved in the case.

The disclosure doesn't indicate that the vice president did anything wrong, said a senior Republican with ties to Cheney. The person declined to make a similar statement about Libby.

The senior Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity, sought to portray Cheney as uninvolved in any violation of a 1982 law forbidding the revelation of a covert intelligence agent's identity. The official noted that both Cheney and Libby had the security clearances necessary to discuss Plame's identity.

The Times report focuses new attention on Cheney's role in an affair that holds serious legal and political jeopardy for top officials in President George W. Bush's administration. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is nearing the end of a 22- month investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing in the leaking of Plame's identity and is believed to be considering indictments against top White House officials, including Libby and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

The Times said it based its account on Libby's notes from a June 12, 2003, meeting between him and Cheney. According to lawyers involved in the case who described Libby's notes to the Times, they indicate Cheney got his information about Plame from George Tenet, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Questions About Wilson

The Times said Tenet was responding to questions from Cheney about Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who was soon to emerge as a public critic of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq. Among the issues Fitzgerald is probing is whether Plame's CIA connection was leaked to retaliate against Wilson.

A Cheney spokesman, Steve Schmidt, referred questions about the Times account to Fitzgerald. Libby's attorney, Joseph Tate, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Fitzgerald's case began as a probe into whether any White House official violated the law protecting covert agents. Attorneys involved in the case and grand jury witnesses have said the case has evolved in recent months into a probe of whether any official committed perjury, obstructed justice or engaged in a conspiracy to keep secret any administration plans on how to deal with Wilson.

Libby Testimony

The attorneys and witnesses have said that Libby has previously testified under oath that he first learned of Plame's identity from reporters, a statement contradicted anew by the Times account. Libby's statement has already been challenged by NBC News reporter Tim Russert, who has denied Libby's assertion that he learned of Plame's identity from Russert.

Fitzgerald is also looking into any role that Cheney, 64, might have played in the affair. New York Times reporter Judith Miller wrote in the Oct. 16 New York Times that Fitzgerald asked her whether the vice president ``had known what his chief aide,'' Libby, ``was doing and saying'' regarding Wilson, a critic of the war in Iraq.

Miller testified after spending 85 days in jail for initially refusing to cooperate with Fitzgerald.

One lawyer intimately involved in the case, who like the others demanded anonymity, said one reason Fitzgerald was willing to send Miller to jail to compel testimony was because he was pursuing evidence the vice president may have been aware of the specifics of the anti-Wilson strategy.

In her Times account, Miller said she told Fitzgerald and the grand jury that Libby, 55, raised the subject of Wilson's wife during a meeting on June 23, 2003. That was before Wilson, 55, went public in a Times op-ed piece with his accusation that Bush and his aides had ``twisted'' intelligence findings to justify invading Iraq, although administration officials knew he was privately critical.

New York Daily News - News & Views - Bushies take aim at probe

BY KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - President Bush's damage-control handlers are plotting a sophisticated war room offensive to fight back against possible indictments in the CIA leak probe.
Trying to change the subject yesterday, Bush announced a new Federal Reserve chairman and convened his cabinet to signal business as usual at his beleaguered White House.

Behind the scenes, however, Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News.

The White House strategy is counting on major help from GOP allies and neocon commentators who turned on Bush for naming Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and are now looking for redemption with a miffed President.

An emerging theme in the Bush war room is arguing that his top political aide, Karl Rove, simply got tripped up on his recollections of whom he talked to and what he told them when questioned about the outing of CIA spy Valerie Plame. He shouldn't be indicted simply because of contradictory grand jury testimony, a source said.

Bush allies have already begun casting perjury and obstruction charges as irrelevant in a probe created to find out who leaked classified information.

The probe may also have big stakes for Vice President Cheney. One of the possible suspects is the veep's top aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby. The New York Times reported today that Libby wrote a note after a conversation with Cheney that indicated the veep informed him of Plame's identity. The conversation occurred several weeks before Plame's name became public and it would contradict Libby's testimony.

Yesterday, with Rove and Libby looking on grim-faced from the back rows of the Cabinet Room, Bush said, "This is a very serious investigation, and I haven't changed my mind about whether or not I'm going to comment on it publicly," Bush said.

Bush critics are also gearing up, pulling together statements from Republicans, including Bush himself, who supported perjury and obstruction allegations against President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Asked in 1999 about Clinton's impeachment by the House, Bush responded, "I would have voted for it. I thought the man lied."

A senior Senate Democratic aide said, "When it's about perjury and obstruction and it deals with sex, Republicans think it's worthy of impeachment. When it's about perjury and obstruction dealing with national security, they don't take it seriously."

Originally published on October 25, 2005

GOP braces for uncertain outcomes in leak case

By Jonathan E. Kaplan

Republican lawmakers have remained unusually quiet about the potential political fallout if U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald indicts top White House aides in his investigation into whether they disclosed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame or tried to hinder his inquiry.

Until last year, Republican lawmakers, especially in the House, had swiftly attacked President Bush’s opponents. But given Bush’s plummeting polls numbers and the secrecy involved in grand-jury testimony and deliberations, GOP lawmakers have been less willing to defend the White House.

Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters last week that he had no comment and that he had not discussed the case with Karl Rove, Bush’s deputy chief of staff, with whom Blunt meets every other week.

Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), the House GOP conference vice chairman, meanwhile, played down the impact White House indictments would have on House reelection chances.

“I think there’s concern about it, but [people are also wondering] where this investigation is going because we have all read that it does not seem like there was a violation” of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

“I don’t think it translates to anything that is going to hurt the House, in terms of anybody’s own fortunes or reelections,” he continued. “We’re more concerned about immigration, gas prices and spending cuts.”

For the past month, media reports have pointed to Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby as potential targets of Fitzgerald’s investigation into who leaked Plame’s name to reporters, a felony under federal law. Fitzgerald is also investigating whether anyone has misled or obstructed his investigation. Exactly when Fitzgerald might end his two-year-old inquiry is unclear, although the grand jury expires Friday.

On July 14, 2003, conservative columnist Robert Novak identified Plame as a CIA operative. Her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had traveled to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was trying to buy uranium. When he returned, Wilson criticized the White House’s justification for war in Iraq. Novak wrote that two administration officials told him that Wilson’s wife had helped arrange the trip.

Last year, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), then angling to become chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, took aim at Wilson and advised his colleagues to wait for a Supreme Court appointment to overshadow the investigation.

King continued to heap criticism on Wilson yesterday, telling The Hill that Wilson is a fraud and that the government “had a right to make known that his wife sent him on the trip.”

“It’s very logical to set the record straight,” he said, adding that political consequences would depend on the nature of the indictment, but if an official is indicted he “probably” should resign.

The recommendation that he should resign echoed comments made over the weekend by GOP Sen. George Allen (Va.).

“I think they will step down if they’re indicted,” Allen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Although the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent talking points to its supporters on the topic last Friday, there appears to be little coordination between the two branches of government.

A senior House Republican aide said congressional Republicans are not providing their members with talking points on the leak investigation because they don’t “have control” over Justice Department investigations into White House activities.

“The White House does its own thing,” the aide said. “We barely talk to them. … The only thing we’re in control of now is the legislative agenda. When it comes to actions taken against Republicans in the judicial area, we don’t have control over that.”

It’s not unusual that lawmakers are not vigorously defending Bush, according to Stephen Wayne, a presidential scholar at Georgetown University.

“Before presidents are lame ducks, [there is a] sitting-ducks tendency. This is part of a natural cycle called the second-term curse,” Wayne said, pointing out that Southern Democrats ran from President Clinton in 1998 and that Republicans avoided President Nixon in 1974.

Today, Senate Republicans have shown an independent streak on a number of personnel and policy issues. Harriet Miers, Bush’s nominee to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court, has received little praise from Senate Republicans.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also went their own way and disregarded Bush’s wishes when they prevailed earlier this month in adding an amendment to a defense-spending bill that would limit interrogation methods and prohibit inhumane treatment of detainees held by the U.S. government.

“The Republicans have been unusually well-coordinated and cohesive because they decided it was the best way to get everyone reelected,” said Ronald Peters, a congressional scholar at the University of Oklahoma. “We saw this in 2002 and 2004. But all that changes when the president is no longer on the ballot.”

When e-mails between Rove and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper surfaced this summer, Mark Mehlman, chairman of the RNC, blamed “the angry left” for attacking Rove.

But, for the most part, lately Democrats have remained quiet on the leak investigation, focusing instead on whether the Bush administration distorted evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction to go to war in Iraq.

Husband Is Conspicuous in Leak Case

Wilson's Credibility Debated as Charges In Probe Considered

By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; A03



To his backers, Joseph C. Wilson IV is a brave whistle-blower wronged by the Bush administration. To his critics, he is a partisan who spouts unreliable information.

But nobody disputes this: Possessed of a flamboyant style and a love for the camera lens, Wilson helped propel the unmasking of his wife's identity as a CIA operative into a sprawling, two-year legal probe that climaxes this week with the possible indictment of key White House officials. He also turned an arcane matter involving the Intelligence Identities Protection Act into a proxy fight over the administration's credibility and its case for war in Iraq.

Also beyond dispute is the fact that the little-known diplomat took maximum advantage of his 15 minutes of fame. Wilson has been a fixture on the network and cable news circuit for two years -- from "Meet the Press" to "Imus in the Morning" to "The Daily Show." He traveled west and lunched with the likes of Norman Lear and Warren Beatty.

He published a book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity." He persuaded his wife, Valerie Plame, to appear with him in a January 2004 Vanity Fair photo spread, in which the two appeared in his Jaguar convertible.

Now, amid speculation that prosecutors could bring charges against White House officials this week, Republicans preparing a defense of the administration are reviving the debate about Wilson's credibility and integrity.

Wilson's central assertion -- disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger -- has been validated by postwar weapons inspections. And his charge that the administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq has proved potent.

At the same time, Wilson's publicity efforts -- and his work for Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign -- have complicated his efforts to portray himself as a whistle-blower and a husband angry about the treatment of his wife. The Vanity Fair photos, in particular, hurt Plame's reputation inside the CIA; both Wilson and Plame have said they now regret doing the photo shoot.

Wilson's critics in the administration said his 2002 trip to Niger for the CIA to probe reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium there was a boondoggle arranged by his wife to help his consulting business.

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page, defending the administration, wrote yesterday that, "Mr. Wilson became an antiwar celebrity who joined the Kerry for president campaign." Discussing his trip to Niger, the Journal judged: "Mr. Wilson's original claims about what he found on a CIA trip to Africa, what he told the CIA about it, and even why he was sent on the mission have since been discredited."

Wilson's defenders say he is a truth-teller who has been unfairly attacked. "[T]he White House responded to Ambassador Wilson in the worst possible way," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said at a Democratic gathering in July. "They did not present substantive evidence to justify the uranium claim. . . . Instead, it appears that the president's advisers launched a smear campaign, and Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, became collateral damage."

Before the Niger episode, Wilson was best known as the charg d'affaires in Baghdad, a diplomat commended by George H.W. Bush for protecting and securing the release of American "human shields" at the time of the Persian Gulf War. He was not known as a partisan figure -- he donated money to both Al Gore and George W. Bush in 1999 -- and says he was neither antiwar nor anti-Bush when he went to Niger in late February 2002.

But that changed when he went public with his criticism of the Niger affair in mid-2003. In August, he said at a forum that he would like to see Karl Rove "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." In the fall, he endorsed Democrat Kerry. He had given money to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) political action committee in 2002 and gave to Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003.

Later, Wilson became prominent in the antiwar movement. In June 2005, he participated in a mock congressional hearing held by Democrats criticizing the war in Iraq. "We are having this discussion today because we failed to have it three years ago when we went to war," he said at the time. The next month, he joined Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a news conference on the two-year anniversary of the unmasking of Plame.

Wilson has also armed his critics by misstating some aspects of the Niger affair. For example, Wilson told The Washington Post anonymouslyin June 2003 that he had concluded that the intelligence about the Niger uranium was based on forged documents because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong." The Senate intelligence committee, which examined pre-Iraq war intelligence, reported that Wilson "had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports." Wilson had to admit he had misspoken.

That inaccuracy was not central to Wilson's claims about Niger, but his critics have used it to cast doubt on his veracity about more important questions, such as whether his wife recommended him for the 2002 trip, as administration officials charged in the conversations with reporters that special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is now probing. Wilson has maintained that Plame was merely "a conduit," telling CNN last year that "her supervisors asked her to contact me."

But the Senate committee found that "interviews and documents provided to the committee indicate that his wife . . . suggested his name for the trip." The committee also noted a memorandum from Plame saying Wilson "has good relations" with Niger officials who "could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." In addition, notes on a State Department document surmised that Plame "had the idea to dispatch him" to Niger.

The CIA has always said, however, that Plame's superiors chose Wilson for the Niger trip and she only relayed their decision.

Wilson also mistakenly assumed that his report would get more widespread notice in the administration than it apparently did. He wrote that he believed "a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president" had probably taken place, perhaps orally.

But this apparently never occurred. Former CIA director George J. Tenet has said that "we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials." Instead his report, without identifying Wilson as the source, was sent in a routine intelligence paper that had wide circulation in the White House and the rest of the intelligence community but had little impact because it supported other, earlier refutations of the Niger intelligence.

Wilson also had charged that his report on Niger clearly debunked the claim about Iraqi uranium purchases. He told NBC in 2004: "This government knew that there was nothing to these allegations." But the Senate committee said his findings were ambiguous. Tenet said Wilson's report "did not resolve" the matter.

On another item of dispute -- whether Vice President Cheney's office inspired the Wilson trip to Niger -- Wilson had said the CIA told him he was being sent to Niger so they could "provide a response to the vice president's office," which wanted more information on the report that Iraq was seeking uranium there. Tenet said the CIA's counterproliferation experts sent Wilson "on their own initiative."

Wilson said in a recent interview: "I never said the vice president sent me or ordered me sent."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Report: Cheney Cited as Source in CIA Leak - Yahoo! News

Documents in the CIA leak investigation indicate the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday editions.

The newspaper said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003 conversation between I. Lewis Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists. The newspaper identified its sources as lawyers who are involved in the case.

Libby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.

Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions.

Libby's notes show that Cheney knew of Plame's CIA work more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to — but not by name — in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet.

The notes, the newspaper said, contain no suggestion that Cheney or Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified.

According to a former intelligence official close to Tenet, the former CIA chief has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for over 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury. The official said Tenet declined to comment on the investigation.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls and e-mail to his office. The White House also did not return calls.

Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment.

Putting Cheney in the heart of the information flow regarding Wilson's wife represents yet another ratcheting up of the CIA leak investigation as a political problem for the White House.

Fitzgerald questioned Cheney over a year ago. It is not publicly known what the vice president told the prosecutor.

Cheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into a intelligence — later deemed unreliable — that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there.

"I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."

The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.

A year after Wilson's trip, President Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraq was pursuing uranium in Africa.

Cheney told top aide of CIA officer: report - Yahoo! News

Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff first learned about the CIA officer at the center of a leak investigation in a conversation with Cheney weeks before her identity became public in July 2003, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Notes of the conversation between chief of staff Lewis Libby and Cheney on June 12, 2003, put a spotlight on the vice president's possible role in the leak. The account also appears to run counter to Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he first learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, from reporters.

Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor investigating the leak of Plame's identity, is said by lawyers involved in the case to be considering bringing charges against Libby for making false statements and possibly obstruction of justice.

Another possible target for indictment is Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser. Fitzgerald's announcement is expected later this week.

Plame's identity was leaked to the media after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq. Wilson based the criticism in part on a CIA-sponsored mission he made to Africa in 2002 to check out an intelligence report that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

Cheney's office had sought more information about the uranium deal, prompting the CIA to dispatch Wilson.

Eager to distance the vice president from Wilson's mission and findings, Cheney's office began looking into Wilson's background in May or June of 2003, after details of his mission began to appear in the press but well before he came out publicly in July 2003 with his criticisms, people close to the investigation said.

Libby's notes indicate that Cheney got his information about Plame from George Tenet, who was then the CIA director, according to the Times, which attributed its report to lawyers involved in the case.

According to the Times, the notes do not show that Cheney knew the name of Wilson's wife. But they do show that Cheney did know and told Libby that she was employed by the CIA and that she may have helped arrange her husband's trip.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald's spokesman, declined to comment.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride would only say, "We're cooperating fully, as the president and the vice president directed us."

A former intelligence official close to Tenet said the former CIA director has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for over 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury.

"Mr. Tenet does not wish to make any comments regarding an ongoing investigation," the former intelligence official said.