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."

[AmericanInTokyo]

I wouldn't expect this from the Administration, but I wouldn't rule it out, either.

As long as they have erasers on the ends of their pencils down in the Old Executive Office Building, they show they are just as human and fallible as the rest of us. History has shown us that some people, way outside the purview of the President, can indeed get carried away in their loyalty, competitive spirit and sense of righteousness-based situational ethics. Watergate taught us that. We learned.

I hope if there was wrongdoing, they really nail the culprit to the cross, Democrat OR Republican, as a warning that such behavior such as risking the lives of assets in the field that have been cultivated by NOCs, will not be tolerated in the future.

[steve50]

Why are you so quick to believe the Wash Post and someone like Wilson with an ax to grind. Could it be that it fits your own agenda?




The only agenda I have is to find the truth of the matter, that should be every Americans goal. So do we investigate it or let it slide under the table?

[PhiKapMom]

That anyone would believe Novak about anything is astounding to me.

Astounding to me as well!

[Poohbah]

My money is on Joseph Wilson himself as the leaker.

[Poohbah]

Oh, investigate this to the hilt, I say; just don't be overly surprised when Joseph Wilson gets the cuffs slapped on him.

[steve50]

So what do we do Dane, ignore the leak or find it?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Good grief. This poor woman needs either wrinkle cream or a good night's sleep. She seems burdened by this whole thing. She had the deer in the highlights look and a shaky voice when I saw here on the talk shows yesterday. As a fellow human being, trying to be objective, you would have to be BLIND to not sense something out of whack. Wondering where this thing will lead......

[Mo1]

So do we investigate it or let it slide under the table?

I believe it is being investigated ...

Many are just questioning Wilson's role in the matter

[Miss Marple]

Condi's voice is always shaky. Nothing new, that's just the way she talks. And this picture catches her as she is raising her eyebrows, hence the lines.

[Peach]

I don't think anyone here has suggested we don't investigate this matter. And if someone is caught, no matter what their party affiliation or motivation, they should be arrested and hopefully convicted.

What I don't understand is the naive assumption that the press and Novak are telling the truth or the assumption that it's someone in the administration. An entirely likely scenario is a Democrat-holdover in the White House calling newspapers in an effort to create a scandal and further lower Bush's ratings.

Given that Clark himself, in his autobiography, seemingly discusses his wife's career, this was what is called an "open secret". My guess is that Rove and his group are waaaay too smart to pull such an underhanded stunt as he would fully understand the risks involved.

Considering that British intelligence stands by their operatives who say that Iraq did try to purchase yellow cake, I don't see what the upside would be for Rove to risk a federal prison sentence by leaking info on Wilson's wife.

[Dane]

So what do we do Dane, ignore the leak or find it?

How about not not knee jerkingly parrotting the demo's talking points, like you did in your reply #4.

[Peach]

HAS ONE PERSON on this thread suggested we ignore the leak? I don't think so.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Well, if he ( Wilson) did it, his testes should be dipped in boiling tempura oil. If this occured, it as INEXCUSABLE. I don't care if it drags in a Democrat or a Republican. We are talking serious allegations. I can see the political agenda possibilities from the libs--I'm not blind to that--but I can also envision a spirt of retaliation coming out of the White House, any White House for that matter. Power (and protecting the continuation of same) often does that to people, whether or not they have an (R) after their name. Let's clear this up. Let's punish the wrongdoers, and if no wrongdoing, let's punish the accusers. That seems to be a fair and American approach.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks much for posting to the link to the biography! Someone sent it to me in Freep Mail and I was looking for the link!

[Peach]

I watch Condi on every show I can and her voice is always "shakey" - it's how she talks.

The first few times, early in the Bush administration, that I heard her speaking, I thought she was nervous as well and was quite surprised, given her resume.

I've since come to realize, it's just her voice.

[Dane]

Good grief. This poor woman needs either wrinkle cream or a good night's sleep

Give me a good camera with a very high shutter speed and I can also find a bad picture of you while you talk for 30 seconds.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Well, I'll grant you that. But look at the eyes. Is she getting sleep? Poor lady. You can see her suffering over something.

[Peach]

The White House has offered full cooperation and I think would want anyone who was involved in this to be arrested and tried and hopefully convicted. They have offered up their phone records and I think it's interesting that Wilson himself has backed away from his story.

Given that Wilson identifies his wife's profession in his autobiography, I think this is a REALLY interesting "let's make a scandal" story.

[babaloo]

I agree. Get all the facts out and the timeline. At this point we are 2 months into the story and it is only now gaining "legs". Why now?