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Justice going forward with probe into leak of CIA
« on: Sep 30th, 2003, 12:12pm » |
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Justice going forward with probe into leak of CIA name
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 Posted: 12:35 PM EDT (1635 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into who may have leaked the classified identity of a CIA operative, the White House said Tuesday.
The operative is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat who had cast doubt on intelligence that President Bush cited as a reason Iraq posed a threat to the United States.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said that the White House was informed Monday night about the probe and that the White House counsel has sent out an e-mail directing staff to preserve all materials that might be related to the leak.
The White House expects to receive a formal letter announcing the probe from the Justice Department later Tuesday, McClellan said.
The department's criminal division asked the FBI on Monday night to provide agents from the Washington field office for the investigation, according to U.S. officials.
The White House has said it would cooperate in such a probe but would not launch an internal inquiry.
Name appears in column
In a July column, syndicated journalist and CNN contributor Robert Novak named Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction, citing Bush administration sources.
CIA sources told CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor that Plame is a CIA operative, but Novak said Monday that a confidential source told him she is an analyst for the agency.
Wilson has said he believes the White House is behind the leak of his wife's identity, an act of retribution for his revelation of flaws in a British prewar intelligence report that said Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa. Bush cited the British report in his State of the Union address in January.
McClellan said Monday that "there has been absolutely nothing brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement."
"The president believes leaking classified information is a very serious matter, and it should be pursued to the fullest extent by the appropriate agency, and the appropriate agency is the Department of Justice," McClellan said.
Call for special counsel
Four Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, sent letters Monday to Attorney General John Ashcroft and Bush, making the case for a special counsel to be appointed in the investigation.
"We do not believe that this investigation of senior Bush administration officials, possibly including high-level White House staff, can be conducted by the Justice Department because of the obvious and inherent conflicts of interests involved," said the letters, which also were signed by Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, also angrily denounced the leak Monday.
"What has gone on in this case is one of the most dastardly, despicable things that I have seen in my more than 20 years in Washington and speaks to the lengths of how far some will go to stifle dissent," he said.
The senator criticized the White House's reaction.
"When was the last time that a covert agent's name was leaked, jeopardizing that agent's life, the life of that agent's network, of informants and the security of this country?" Schumer asked. "This is not just another ordinary leak."
Wilson -- a former U.S. diplomat with expertise in African affairs -- visited Niger in early 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate the British report about Iraq attempting to buy uranium. Wilson reported finding no evidence to support the allegation.
Wilson later wrote about his Niger visit and conclusions in an op-ed piece in July for The New York Times, fueling allegations that the Bush administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq before the war. (Full story)
Wilson told CNN on Monday that the White House "attempted to discredit the messenger who brought the message by dragging my wife into the public square."
Ex-CIA chief: 'This is a serious leak'
According to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a federal crime to reveal the identity of a covert agent. Anyone convicted of doing so could be sentenced to as many as 10 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine, depending upon how the source obtained the information.
"This is a serious leak," former CIA Director James Woolsey said. "You can endanger intelligence and people's lives by revealing the identities of CIA case officers, so it's a serious matter."
On CNN's "Crossfire" on Monday, Novak cast doubt on Wilson's allegation that the disclosure was a attempt by the White House to retaliate against him.
Novak said he learned the CIA operative's identity from two senior Bush administration officials in the course of preparing a piece on Wilson's conclusions.
"Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this," Novak said.
In addition to Novak, as many as six other journalists may have been told the CIA operative's name, CNN's Ensor reported, citing sources. At least one of the journalists spoke to a Bush administration official who revealed the name, Ensor said, but it was unclear who had initiated the call.
Novak said a confidential source at the CIA told him that Plame was "an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative and not in charge of undercover operatives."
"They asked me not to use her name but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else," he said.
In his July 14 column, Novak wrote that Plame "is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
Ensor reported that sources at the CIA said Plame is an employee of the operations side of the agency.
"This is a person who did run agents," Ensor said. "This is a person who was out there in the world collecting information."
McClellan said that if any officials at the White House leaked Plame's identity, they should be fired and pursued to the "fullest extent."
CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash and National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report.
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