White House Denies Leaking CIA Identity

AP (Yahoo) ^ | 9/29/03 | DEB RIECHMANN

[The_Victor]

The naming of the intelligence officer's identity by syndicated columnist Robert Novak came shortly after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, had undermined Bush's claim that Iraq (news - web sites) had tried to buy uranium in Africa.

Wilson has publicly blamed Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, for the leak, although Wilson did say Monday he did not know whether Rove personally was the source of Novak's information.

"He wasn't involved," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of Rove. "The president knows he wasn't involved. ... It's simply not true."

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has confirmed that the Justice Department has received a letter from CIA Director George Tenet to look into the matter. The department and the FBI (news - web sites) are trying to determine whether there was a violation of the law and, if so, then whether a full-blown criminal investigation is warranted, the official said.

"It's a serious matter and it should be looked into," McClellan said.

Asked whether Bush should fire any official found to have leaked the information, McClellan said: "They should be pursued to the fullest extent by the Department of Justice (news - web sites). The president expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct — and that would not be."

Schumer, D-N.Y., said matter should be investigated from someone outside the Bush administration.

"If there was ever a case that demanded a special counsel, this is it," he said. "This is a very serious national security matter where there is a clear conflict of interest for the attorney general because it could involve high-level White House officials."

The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Schumer's request.

On Sunday, Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said she was unaware of any White House involvement in the matter.

"I know nothing of any such White House effort to reveal any of this, and it certainly would not be the way that the president would expect his White House to operate," she told "Fox News Sunday."

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) also denied knowledge of the matter.

The flap began in January when Bush said in his State of the Union address that British intelligence officials had learned that Iraq had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium in Africa.

In an opinion piece published in July by The New York Times, Wilson said he told the CIA long before Bush's address that the British reports were suspect and the administration has since said the assertion should not have been in Bush's speech.

A week after Wilson went public with his criticism Novak, quoting anonymous government sources, said Wilson's wife was a CIA operative working on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

The Washington Post on Sunday quoted an unidentified senior administration official as saying two top White House officials called at least a half-dozen journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Disclosing the name of an undercover CIA agent could violate federal law.

"I know nothing about any such calls and I do know that the president of the United States would not expect his White House to behave in that way," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Wilson said Monday he believes the White House leaked his wife's name "to intimidate others and to scare them and to keep them from coming forward and speaking."

Wilson had said in a late August speech in Seattle that he suspected senior Bush adviser Karl Rove. But on ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday, he backtracked somewhat from that assertion.

"In one speech I gave out in Seattle not too long ago, I mentioned the name Karl Rove," he said. "I think I was probably carried away by the spirit of the moment. I don't have any knowledge that Karl Rove himself was either the leaker or the authorizer of the leak. But I have great confidence that, at a minimum, he condoned it and certainly did nothing to shut it down."

The White House has denied that accusation.

Powell told ABC's "This Week" that he thought that if the CIA believed the identity of one of its covert employees have been revealed, it had an obligation to ask the Justice Department to look into the matter. But he added: "Other than that, I don't know anything about the matter."

Rice said the matter has been referred to the Justice Department and "I think that's the appropriate place. ... Let's just see what the Justice Department does."

Pressed whether anyone at the White House raised concerns that the Wilson matter posed a problem for the administration, she replied: "I don't remember any such conversation."

Wilson said Monday that if the administration actually took an intelligence asset "off the table," that would have been "a dastardly deed ... coming from an administration that came to office promising to restore dignity and honor to the White House. It was contemptible."

[windchime]

"It has to be seen as puzzling that the agency would deal with an inquiry from the White House on a sensitive national-security matter by sending a retired, Bush-bashing diplomat with no investigative experience. Or didn't the CIA bother to look into Mr. Wilson's background?"

Thanks for the Clifford May article!

Somewhere in these many related threads, I read that Wilson wasn't paid by the CIA, but went 'on his own'. A poster speculated that maybe the DNC paid for the trip. If I can find the source, I will post it to you.

[HitmanLV]

Yu are right about Dr Rice, but this has been pointed out for a while. I posted pretty much the same sentiment after her good interview on O'R Factor last week. I think what is out of whack is that she and teh admin are tense, with a million things on their mind, like any administration, really - except they have to cope with the threat of violent attacks stateside, something no admin has had to deal with in a while.

[MeekOneGOP]

hehe !

[Stallone]

Cheers!

I am optimistic that alternative media (i.e. Internet, talk radio, etc.) will prove to overcome the current Socialist conspiracy.

In the meantime, I vow to destroy the Socialists Thugs until the 'Rat infestation of America is eradicated.

Remember, there is nothing as compelling in Socialists as the desire to invoke rules of conduct for others.

It's time.

NEVER NEGOTIATE WITH EVIL. KILL IT.

[PhiKapMom]

You are talking to the eternal optimist here! Agree with all you are saying! I believe the Internet is making all the difference even with talk radio. When talk radio hosts get bombarded with email after email with facts, they take notice!

Firmly believe if the Internet had been as powerful as it is today along with talk radio, Clinton would have had a much harder time of squirming out of Removal and the mantra it was "all about sex!" Believe his crimes of selling nuclear secrets would have been more than a floor speech of Senator Inhofe!

A lot has changed in the last few years and about time the so-called "mainstream media" caught up with that fact or they will become more and more irrelavent IMHO!