I'm betting it came from the Colin Powell Foggy Bottom brigades.
I can't rule this out. But according to the Vanity Fair article, Novak apparently told Wilson that his original source was in the CIA.
Good call. "Administration official" could certainly include the State Dept. Specifically, Colin Powell would certainly qualify as an "administration official". So, likely, would other State Department officials. And the State Department could use a good housecleaning just like the CIA. Too many Foggy Bottom residents are willing to put US interests behind State Department interests.
But it is interesting that the NY Times admits that Fitzerald is looking at someone other than Rove or Libby. This is the first time the MSM has admitted this.
I also like how the NY Times is doing investigative reporting on the Washington Post. We've seen fissures in Big Labor. Now we see fissures in Big Media. That Karl Rove is a genious. :)
The quote from Robert Novak about his other source was that the source was not a "partisan gunslinger." That would eliminate Rove, Libby, and the other politicals.
That fits Powell, Armitage, and plenty of other people at State and CIA. State commissioned the INR report but CIA undoubtedyl had a copy of it. Remember that when this broke in July of 2003, the CIA was being asked by everyone where the WMD were, since the DOD was not finding them in Iraq. State was dumping on CIA so as to keep Powell's skirts clean, since he took the CIA stuff to the UN.
Hopefully, the rogue anti-Bush group in the CIA who pulled off the Wilson trip to Niger will be outed in this process. And if we're lucky, Pincus at WaPo with his State/CIA contacts will be exposed too.
If Rove gave the reporters a waiver to their confidentiality claim, then why is Judith Miller still in jail?