LEAKGATE
Grand jury probes CIA leak
Fri Jan 23 02:44:20 2004
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Grand jury probes CIA leak

Thursday, January 22, 2004 Posted: 11:00 PM EST (0400 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/22/cia.leak/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has begun hearing testimony in a probe to discover who leaked the identity of a former CIA operative, government sources told CNN Thursday.

The leak revealed the identity of Valerie Plame, wife of retired career diplomat Joseph Wilson, who accused White House officials of leaking his wife's name to punish him and intimidate others after he wrote an op-ed article critical of the administration's handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq. Administration officials have disputed the allegation.

Plame's identity was leaked to journalists, including syndicated columnist and CNN commentator Robert Novak.

Novak published it last July in a column in the Chicago Sun Times about the controversy over claims Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Novak said he learned of Plame's CIA connection from "two senior administration officials."

The FBI and Justice Department are investigating into who leaked Plame's identity. Attorney General John Ashcroft has recused himself from the probe. (Full story)

A group of former intelligence officers, dissatisfied with the Justice Department probe, has sent congressional leaders a letter asking that Congress immediately begin its own investigation.

It is a federal crime to leak the name of a covert CIA agent.

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Congress asked to investigate CIA leak
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0122intelligence22.html

Douglas Jehl
New York Times
Jan. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A group of former intelligence officers is pressing congressional leaders to open an immediate inquiry into the disclosure last summer of the name of an undercover CIA officer, Valerie Plame.

Their request, outlined in a letter on Jan. 20 to Speaker Dennis Hastert and others, reflects discontent and unrest within the intelligence services about the affair, along with concern that a 4-month-old Justice Department investigation into the matter may never identify who was behind the disclosure.

The syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who first identified Plame as a CIA officer in a column last July, has identified his sources only as Bush administration officials, and the Justice Department inquiry has not yet produced any public findings.

The unmasking of Plame is viewed within spy circles as an unforgivable breach of secrecy that must be exhaustively investigated and prosecuted. Anger over the matter is especially acute because of the suspicion, under investigation by the Justice Department, that the disclosure may have been made by someone in the White House to punish Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for opposing administration policy on Iraq.

Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself last month from any involvement in the inquiry, and Justice Department officials have named Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, as a special prosecutor in the case.

But critics of the White House, including Rep. Rush D. Holt, D-N.J., who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, have said they fear that the administration may eventually call a halt to the inquiry. Holt and several other Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday that would authorize an independent inquiry by the House.
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Commentary > Daniel Schorr
from the January 16, 2004 edition

The leak that went awry
By Daniel Schorr
WASHINGTON – The making of a coverup, like the making of a sausage, is not always pleasant to watch. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who rarely recuses himself from anything, has suddenly decided to get out from under the investigation of who leaked the identity of a CIA covert officer. And Mr. Ashcroft, who rarely misses his turn on camera, left it to Deputy Attorney General James Comey to make the announcement - and also to disqualify himself.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0116/p11s03-cods.html

Why would the Justice Department pass off what looks like a quintessentially Washington investigation to the US attorney in Chicago? Perhaps for that very reason. Fingering CIA officer Valerie Plame after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson exploded the administration's African-uranium-to-Iraq theory, smacked of typically Washingtonian bureaucratic revenge.

Who in the White House could have picked up the telephone and made that vengeful call to columnist Robert Novak? The FBI has presumably interviewed a lot of officials and subpoenaed a lot of telephone records for the week of the leak last June. Mr. Comey says that what led to the attorney general's withdrawal was "an accumulation of facts." If those facts point to someone in the White House who has a personal relationship with the attorney general, it could present a perceived conflict of interest.

As US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald took over the investigation, word was leaked to The Washington Post that maybe no crime was committed in the first place.

The Post's source pointed out that while it is a felony under the 1982 Agents' Protection Act to identify a federal agent undercover, this does not apply if the leaker did not know that Ms. Plame was an undercover operative.

Nice try! The original Novak column last July that started all the fuss emphasized the importance of his scoop because "the agency has never before declassified that kind of information."

White House spokesman Scott McLellan says that no one wants to get to the bottom of this more than President Bush, and that the president has directed staff members to cooperate with the investigation. But, if everyone on the staff were cooperating, the mystery probably would've been solved by now.

Who took it on himself or herself to "declassify" a sensitive national security secret? Stay tuned for the 2004 chapter in the story of the leak that went awry.

• Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst at National Public Radio.