DAVID JOHNSTON
Secrecy restrictions on leak investigation
Sun Nov 2 03:02:42 2003
64.140.158.10

Secrecy restrictions on leak investigation leave out FBI official
Decision reportedly based on 'need to know' about case

By DAVID JOHNSTON AND ERIC LICHTBLAU
THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/145910_cia29.html

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department and FBI officials have imposed tighter secrecy restrictions over the inquiry into the leak of the identity of a CIA operative, government officials said yesterday. In an unusual step, they have removed the director of the FBI's Washington office from the list of officials with access to the case.

The official, Michael Mason, one of the FBI's most senior managers, was taken off the list in an effort to restrict information about the case, the officials said.

Customarily, a senior official such as Mason would have full access to details of the case, which is being investigated mainly by agents from his office, although it is being supervised by FBI headquarters. One bureau official said that Mason had asked to be removed, although others said the decision was based on whether the officials had "a need to know."

Investigators are trying to determine whether it was White House officials or others who told the columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a former ambassador, Joseph Wilson, was an employee of the CIA, as Novak wrote in his syndicated column in July. Wilson has been critical of the administration's Iraq policies.

At a news conference yesterday, President Bush was asked why he had not directed White House staff members to sign affidavits saying that they were not behind the leak.

"The best group of people to do that so that you believe the answer is the professionals at the Justice Department," Bush said. "And they're moving forward with the investigation. It's a criminal investigation. It is an important investigation. I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information."

Democrats have said that Attorney General John Ashcroft's relationship with the White House creates a conflict of interest and that he should recuse himself or appoint a special counsel to lead the inquiry.

Yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has criticized Ashcroft's refusal to seek a special counsel, said that because of the leak case, he may oppose Bush's nominee for deputy attorney general, James Comey, now the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, unless Comey can provide "satisfactory answers" about the independence of the investigation.

Schumer is a senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Comey is scheduled to appear before the panel today for a confirmation hearing. The two met yesterday for about 45 minutes to discuss the issue, and Schumer said that while he considers the prosecutor "a man of high integrity," he has concerns about how the leak investigation would be handled.

The decision to drop Mason and other officials from the list was made after Ashcroft stressed to subordinates the importance of avoiding leaks in the case, one of the most politically delicate investigations of his tenure. Those authorized to receive information have signed non-disclosure agreements, in addition to those they might have signed as a condition of employment.

Mason is a highly regarded agent who recently took over the prestigious Washington job after heading the bureau's office in Sacramento. Several officials said that his removal from the list was an effort to tighten security around the case and was not intended as a slight to him.

Federal investigators have instructed four government entities -- the White House, the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department -- not to destroy records that could be considered relevant to the inquiry. But the White House is the only one of those at which investigators are known to have demanded that officials turn over records.

Some investigators have said the FBI is making steady progress in determining who disclosed the information to Novak, following a paper trail of meetings of Bush administration officials in which Wilson was discussed. Others have expressed less certainty about the status of the inquiry, suggesting that those who leak information are rarely discovered and even more rarely prosecuted.

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