Leaks Probe Is Gathering Momentum
By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank
December 26, 2003
Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.
CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting.
~snip~
Yet even the 9/11 Commission found the memo and that Plame had attended the meeting. So the "CIA officials" were wrong again.
I note this Post article says "conservative news outlets", which could arguably be used to tag the WSJ as well. The WSJ piece citing the memo predates the Talon News Gannon piece by well over one week. That has morphed in contemporary lore to Gannon being the only reporter with knowledge of the memo. That is clearly incorrect.
In fact, this very article, after making the "conservative news outlets" (cue JAWS music) reference proceeds to cite only Talon News:
On Oct. 28, Talon News, a news company tied to a group called GOP USA, posted on the Internet an interview with Wilson in which the Talon News questioner asks: "An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?"
No mention specifically of the WSJ article of October 17 describing the same memo.
If that Pincus person from the WP resurfaces in this mess, I will be pretty sure I am right.