Fri Mar 5, 6:25 PM ET
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury probing the leak of a CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed records of phone calls made from Air Force One the week before the name of the officer was published in a newspaper column, the White House said Friday.
After receiving the subpoenas in late January, the White House counsel's office sent a letter to staff members "urging everyone to comply fully with the request," press secretary Scott McClellan said.
"We have provided the Department of Justice investigators with much of the information and we are continuing to provide them with additional information to comply fully with the request," McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is spending the weekend.
The grand jury met again Friday in Washington with prosecutors, including U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, who was appointed to oversee the case.
Asked whether any White House staff member had claimed Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify during sessions with the grand jury, McClellan replied: "I have no knowledge of anyone invoking their legal right against self-incrimination. I have checked with the White House counsel's office and they have no knowledge of anyone invoking their legal right against self-incrimination."
McClellan would not say how many subpoenas had been issued.
The Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday, which first reported details of the subpoenas on Friday, said three were issued. In addition to the Air Force One records, the subpoenas sought the July records of an internal task force called the White House Iraq Group, which was created to publicize the threat of Saddam Hussein.
In addition, the grand jury wanted the transcript of a White House spokesman's press briefing about Nigeria; a list of who attended a July 16 White House reception in honor of former President Ford's 90th birthday, and records of White House contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news organizations.
The subpoenas were issued to the White House on Jan. 22. The grand jury is attempting to find out if a federal law was violated that prohibits the intentional disclosure of the identity of an undercover agent by officials with security clearances.
Some critics have speculated that officials in the Bush administration had told reporters the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, and his criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
Two of the subpoenas are focused on July White House events, contacts and records around the time of a July 14 column by syndicated columnist Robert Novak that said senior administration officials told him Plame was a CIA officer.
A third subpoena is a repeat of a Justice Department document request to the White House that sought records about staff contacts with Novak and two Newsday reporters, Knut Royce and Timothy Phelps. The subpoena added records for contacts with journalists from The Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC's "Meet the Press," MSNBC's "Hardball," and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press.
Iraq's Chalabi Says 'Blame CIA, Not Me' About WMD
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi says he is tired of being blamed for misleading the United States about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and points the finger instead at the CIA in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" to be aired on Sunday.
Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress exile group and has close ties to the Bush administration, says the CIA should have done a better job analyzing information received from defectors he steered their way.
"This is a ridiculous situation," says Chalabi, who still maintains that weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq.
Chalabi said the CIA knew defectors can be biased and that even the press was saying "'defectors have an ax to grind, don't believe them."'
"Now you're telling me that despite all this public evidence, the United States government took our word without checking out the people?" Chalabi said incredulously .
"Intelligence people who are supposed to do a better job for their country and their government did not do such a good job."
Chalabi, who was born into a prominent Iraqi family but spent 45 years outside Iraq before returning in April, denies coaching defectors, something the CIA believe he's done for years, according to a former CIA analyst interviewed on the show.
The analyst, Ken Pollack, who now works for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and for CNN, said the Bush administration used the information to label Iraq an imminent threat.
Pollack said they were looking "to simply confirm a preconceived notion of an extremely threatening Iraq ... on the cusp of acquiring the most advanced ... dangerous weapons."
Pollack blames senior U.S. officials, not Chalabi.
"This is one of those ... 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me,"' said Pollack. "Chalabi has a track record. We knew this guy wasn't telling us the truth."
A defiant Chalabi said he was eager to further defend himself.
"I want to be asked to testify in the United States Senate in the Intelligence Committee. I want to do this in an open session," he says.