Posted on 07/17/2005 9:21:10 AM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors in the CIA leak case have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a CIA officer, in the trip, people who have been officially briefed on the case said.
Investigators in the case have been trying to learn whether officials at the White House and elsewhere in the administration learned the CIA officer's identity from the memorandum.
They are seeking to determine if any officials then passed the name along to journalists and if officials were truthful in testifying about whether they had read the memorandum, the people who have been briefed said, asking not to be named because the special prosecutor heading the investigation had requested that no one discuss the case.
The memo was sent to Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, just before or as he traveled with President Bush and other senior officials to Africa starting on July 7, 2003, when the White House was scrambling to defend itself from a blast of criticism a few days earlier from the former diplomat, Joseph Wilson, current and former government officials said.
Powell was seen walking around Air Force One during the trip with the memo in hand, said a person involved in the case who also requested anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about talking about the investigation.
Investigators are also trying to determine whether the gist of the information in the memo, including the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, had been provided to the White House even earlier, said another person who has been involved in the case.
Investigators have been looking at whether the State Department provided the information to the White House before July 6, 2003, when her husband publicly criticized the way the administration used intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, the person said.
The prosecutors have shown the memo to witnesses at the grand jury investigating how the CIA officer's name was disclosed to journalists, blowing her cover as a covert operative and possibly violating federal law, people briefed on the case said.
The prosecutors appear to be investigating how widely the memo circulated within the White House and the administration, and whether it might have been the original source of information for whoever provided the identity of Plame to Robert Novak, the syndicated columnist who first disclosed it in print.
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
I guess this memo will be this weeks feeding frenzy for the MSM.
where is the investigation for why Plame, a CIA analyst at Langley, can influence policy such that her husband is sent on a WMD mission to Niger, unknown to Tenet apparently, and used as part of a policial smear job upon his return. why does Plame still have a job with the CIA?
Colin Powell 'memo in hand'. Hmmmm......
Powell's deputy also bragged about how he and Powell bothed leaked to undermine Bush when they disagreed with their president.
I have decided on a new tagline for this mess.
The MSM is trying to make us believe, Judith Miller is in jail to protect Karl Rove!
They won't like what they find...
How is the public name of Valerie Plame a "Leak"?
She was not legally covert!
Not covert, no Leak! Only the anti-Bush, money grubbing left including Joe Wilson is benefiting.
All the Lies of Wilson and he still gets press coverage.
Go figure!
Frankly, I think Novak was her "source!"
Plausible deniability?
Which is exactly what they are pushing. If Rove is the source, then Miller is in jail because she didn't want to disclose him as her source.
If anyone believes that, I have several bridges in NYC and the San Francisco area to sell them.
Let's face it: Between the MSM and the wookies at NOW, this story is the only sexual gratification most Leftists are getting these days. Of course they won't drop it any time soon...
But the best part will be watching the Dems hoist themselves. If only all the nation's enemies were this bloody dim :)
Naw!
Her source was Plame/Wilson. She took their story to the editors of the NY Slimes and the publisher. They decided to run with the story and assigned Cooper to do the hack job.
If Miller told her source, Plame/Wilson would probably go to jail and the old gray Whore, the Slimes, would be in real trouble.
I think that we will see this Dem sewer backup spew forth in the State Department, most of the MSM elites, Kerry/DNC and a few $inators like Chuckie from NY!
I agree...I've also thought it was Powell....the non-political/partisan administration official. That said, I don't believe anything he might have said, would have broken the law.
Maybe, but she is also rehabilitating her reputation by not spilling the beans. She was one of the few in the MSM who was convinced and quite vociferous about Saddam having WMD.
They will probably try a 'Martha Stewart' on Karl Rove, ie, even if outing Plame is not a crime, they can get him for lying about not being the leaker.
Sandy Berger: were there any leaks about what the documents he stuffed in his shirt and socks concerned? Was there ever a trial, or just how was that situation handled?
The MSM may have just hanged the last (in their view) "good" black man!
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