The reporting duo also reveal that when Armitage realized that he was the source of the leak, he came clean to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell however, revealed the minimum amount of information possible to those outside the department. The State Department told the FBI of Armitage's role and informed the White House that they had given information to the FBI about the scandal, but nothing more.
The public learned nothing.
I may be nuts, but this looks like a jump the shark attempt to make Powell look like a conspirator. Looks to me like he did what should have been done, and then kept his mouth shut, probably as directed. Ongoing investigation and keeping the mouth shut aren't known as virtues in the left's world. Now (he did the right thing?) they are twisting him... afraid he could come back and be an electoral threat to the left as a Black Candidate from the Republican Plantation for High Office.
Wrong!!! Fitzpatrick knew the truth would stop his investigation as there was nothing to investigate. Powell had absolutely no legal obligation to keep his mouth shut. He had a moral obligation to inform the White House when it became obvious that Fitzpatrick was on a witch hunt and Libby was not the leaker. Powell and Armitage's silence made them silent partners in a smear campaign against this administration. The fact that Corn and Isikoff knew two years ago also makes them silent partners in this smear.
I once was a great believer in Powell and wished he had run for President. My judgment of this man was in great error. He is simply another political whore in Washington.
No sale. Maybe Powell "did the right thing" at the onset, but after a couple of years of watching Libby, Rove, and Bush twist in the wind I would say he's a backstabbing loser.