I had to search back through my ping page, but here's the info with source. I got it from another FReeper, "timeout".
FReeper timeout posted:
"Amid all the wondering about who first leaked Plame's name, I've come up with another (very plausible) candidate: Nicholas Kristof, NY Times columnist.
As you'll recall, Kristof's column in May, 2003 was the first to discuss Wilson's trip to Niger (without mentioning Wilson's name).
Well, I just went back and read the Vanity Fair article which featured the now infamous photo of Wilson and Plame in their Jaguar convertible. The article says:
In early May, Wilson and Plame attended a conference sponsored by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee [no partisanship here...no sireee!], at which Wilson spoke about Iraq; one of the other panelists was the New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof. Over breakfast the next morning with Kristof and his wife, Wilson told about his trip to Niger and said Kristof could write about it, but not name him. At this point what he wanted, Wilson says, was for the government to correct the record... [I'm virtually certain the "with his wife" is referring to Wilson's wife, not Kristof's because she is mentioned as attending the conference, whereas Kristof's wife isn't].
The entire article gives one a good impression of Wilson's concerted effort to create an atmosphere where he would "just HAVE TO correct the record" by disclosing his role in the Niger trip.
But, I'd forgotten that SHE was there at the initial breakfast with Kirstof.
Now I'm wondering if KRISTOF is the source Judith Miller is protecting?!"
That makes more sense (re:Miller's source) than anything I've heard. Great work!
Kristoff was probably told Miller, Miller may have told Cooper and/or Rove???
If his wife was with him, then the scenario of Valerie Wilson letting Kristoff know "off the record" that she was more than Mrs Wilson, but a potential active player in the whole WMD and Niger story - is reasonable though still speculative. She could also easily then have talked about her no longer being sent overseas because of Aldrich Ames.
Now I think about it. Her being moreorless limited to the US, may have been a factor in Mr Wilson deciding to quit the foreign service - both of them would be potentially compromised.
And the Vanity Fair article, January 17, 04 http://www.jimgilliam.com/2004/01/vanity_fairs_profile_on_joseph_wilson_and_valerie_plame.php
Here's more from that Vanity Fair article...stuff I hadn't noticed before nor heard elsewhere:
Wilson is the son of freelance journalists who lived in California and then moved around Europe while he and his brother were growing up. He went to the University of California at Santa Barbara and characterized himself as a "surf dude" with some carpentry skills. In person, he gives off a charismatic, relaxed air, and someone who was with him in Baghdad said it's easy to underestimate him. In 1974 he married his college sweetheart, Susan Otchis, and in 1976 went to work for the State Department. His postings included Niger, Togo-where his wife became pregnant with the first set of Wilson twins, Joseph and Sabrina, now 24-South Africa, and Burundi. It was in Burundi that Susan "decided she'd had about enough of me" and left him, he says. He remains on good terms with the family.I tell you, I'm beginning to think Mr. Wilson may have been more than a mere "state department employee". Can you say "double agent"?Also in Burundi, Wilson met his second wife, then the cultural counselor at the French Embassy there. They spent a year back in Washington on a congressional fellowship, during which time he worked for Al Gore, then a senator from Tennessee, and Tom Foley, then House majority whip. "It was," Wilson says, "happenstance" that he worked for two Democrats. Then he returned to Africa as deputy chief of mission in the Congo Republic, where he helped Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker set up the process that led to negotiations for the withdrawal of the Cuban and South African troops from the Angolan Civil War.
In 1988, Wilson found himself in Baghdad as the number two to Ambassador April Glaspie...
Interesting from a Google search and the resulting blogs, it appears that the left sees Miller and Kristoff as Right Wingers!! At least they appear to be more thoughtful critics of Iraq policy. It raises the possibility that they may have shared information.