State Department Memo Focus of CIA Leak Probe

The State Department issued a memo to senior staff Friday, asking them to "preserve and maintain" all documents and records that might assist in the Justice Department investigation into the possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information to the media.

Memo Is a Focus of CIA Leak Probe

By Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 16, 2005; Page A06

Federal prosecutors investigating the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity have asked several witnesses in the case whether they read a State Department memorandum mentioning her that circulated inside the Bush administration in the days before she was publicly named, according to people familiar with the testimony.

FBI agents showed the State Department memo to several witnesses during the interviews over the past two years, according to lawyers in the case, in an effort to determine whether it was the source of information about Plame's role at the CIA. A key mystery in the leak case is how senior administration officials first learned of Plame's identity and her relationship to a key critic of President Bush's Iraq policy, before her name appeared in news reports.

Lawyers familiar with the testimony of White House senior adviser Karl Rove said he has admitted discussing Plame, though not by name, but said he learned of her role from a reporter. Several legal sources said the prosecution has shown strong interest in the State Department memo, which circulated on Air Force One during the Africa trip -- just days before Plame's name was made public in a column by Robert D. Novak.

Prosecutors are investigating whether administration officials leaked Plame's name to retaliate against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, an ex-diplomat who had accused Bush of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Wilson, on a mission authorized by the CIA, went to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was seeking uranium for nuclear bombs. He reported that there was no evidence to support that suspicion.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who was on the Africa trip with Bush, carried with him a memo containing information on Plame, as well as other intelligence about allegations made by Wilson.

According to people involved in the case, prosecutors believe that a printout of memo was in the front of Air Force One during a July 7-12 trip Bush took to Africa, but investigators are unsure who reviewed or obtained copies of it. One of the earliest moves by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, signaling his aggressive stance, was to get the grand jury to subpoena Air Force One phone logs from the trip, the sources said. Newsweek reported in August 2004 that Powell's testimony before the grand jury focused, in part, on the memo.

The memo "identifies her as having selected or recommended her husband" for the Niger assignment, according to a person who has seen it. Administration officials circulated this information as a way of discrediting the reliability of Wilson's charges.

Lawyers involved in the probe said prosecutors are interested in whether anyone called back to Washington to talk about information in the memo. Prosecutors have asked numerous questions about then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who was on the trip and aboard Air Force One, according to the lawyers. Fleischer has declined to comment.

Rove said of the memo that he "had never seen it, had never heard about it and had never heard anybody else talk about it," according to a lawyer familiar with his testimony. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said he can say "categorically" that Rove did not obtain any information about Plame from any confidential source, such as a classified document.

The memo was first reported by the New York Times, but several sources had described its content to The Washington Post in interviews this week.
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GOOGLE UPDATES: CIA LEAK:

State Dept. Memo Gets Scrutiny in Leak Inquiry on CIA Officer
New York Times, NY - 20 hours ago
... WASHINGTON, July 15 - Prosecutors in the CIA leak case have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat ...

Who's who in case of the CIA leak
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002384538_leakplayers16.html

The main personalities in the CIA leak dispute:

Joseph Wilson: Former U.S. Ambassador to Gabon. Wilson was asked in 2002 by the CIA to check reports Iraq was trying to acquire uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger. He reported that the allegation was untrue, but President Bush repeated the allegation in his State of the Union speech in January 2003. That July, Wilson wrote "What I Didn't Find in Africa," which appeared in the New York Times.

Valerie Plame: Undercover CIA officer and wife of Wilson.

Robert Novak: Washington Post columnist. A week after Wilson's New York Times piece, Novak wrote in his column that part of the reason Wilson had been given the Niger mission was that his wife recommended him to her bosses at the CIA. It is a crime to reveal the name of an active CIA operative, but it is not known if Novak knew Plame was undercover. Critics of Bush say the White House leaked Plame's name in revenge for her husband's report.

President Bush: Promised in 2003 to fire anyone in his administration found to have been a leaker in the Plame case.

Patrick Fitzgerald: Special prosecutor.

Karl Rove: White House deputy chief of staff, senior political adviser to President Bush. Rove spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified as a covert agent in a newspaper column two years ago, but Rove's lawyer said last week that his client did not identify her by name.

Matthew Cooper: Time magazine reporter. Newsweek reported this week that in 2003 Rove talked to Cooper about Plame but did not identify her by name. Cooper later wrote a story in which he used Plame's name. Cooper had a short conversation with Rove on July 11, 2003, three days before Novak exposed Plame in his column.

Cooper wrote one article raising questions about government officials trying to discredit Wilson behind the scenes. Cooper had indicated he would go to jail rather than expose a confidential source, but he agreed earlier this month to cooperate with the grand jury after getting clearance from his source to testify. (Rove's lawyer said Cooper had been clear to testify all along because Rove had signed a waiver about 18 months ago. The waiver was "reaffirmed" July 6, the day of a hearing to decide whether Cooper and a New York Times reporter would go to jail.)

Judith Miller: New York Times reporter. She was jailed for contempt of court for not cooperating with a federal investigation into who revealed Plame's identity. Miller did some reporting but never wrote a story and refused to identify her source.

Scott McClellan: White House spokesman. In 2003, he dismissed as "ridiculous" allegations that Rove was involved in leaking classified material, but McClellan has recently refused to discuss the case.

Compiled from reports by The Associated Press, The Washington Post and the British Broadcasting Corp.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
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