{{current event}} {{clean-up|November 2006}} The '''Plame Affair''' concerns the claim that the identity of [[Valerie Plame|Valerie E. Wilson]] (née Valerie Elise Plame; also known as "[[Valerie Plame]]"), who was working for the [[CIA]] possibly as a [[covert agent]], was revealed by a government official, as "political retribution" (Wilson) for Wilson´s husband, former ambassador [[Joseph Wilson]]. That claim led to a federal grand jury investigation involving [[national security]] issues, an indictment of a federal official, a civil suit, and related controversy, still ongoing as of the start of 2007. ==Background== :''For a date-sequenced look at this issue, see the [[Plame affair timeline]].'' In the lead up to the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]] stated in his January 28, 2003 [[State of the Union Address]] that "The [[Great Britain|British]] government has learned that [[Saddam Hussein]] recently sought significant quantities of [[yellowcake uranium|uranium]] from [[Africa]]."George W. Bush, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html President Delivers "State of the Union,"] [[January 28]], [[2003]]. In late February of 2002, responding to inquiries from the Vice President's office and the Departments of State and Defense about the allegation that Iraq had attempted to buy enriched uranium yellowcake from [[Niger]], the CIA had authorized a trip by [[Joseph C. Wilson]] to Niger to investigate the possibility. He concluded then that there "was nothing to the story," and presented his report in March of 2002.{{cite web | url=http://intelligence.senate.gov/108301.pdf | title=Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence (PDF) |date=July 9, 2004 | pages=39-46}} After the March [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], Wilson wrote a series of editorials questioning the basis for such an action (See "Bibliography" in ''The Politics of Truth''). In an editorial published in the [[New York Times]] on [[July 6]], [[2003]], Wilson argues that, in his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush misrepresented intelligence leading up to the invasion and thus misleadingly suggested that the [[Sadam Hussein|Iraqi regime]] sought [[uranium]] in order to manufacture [[nuclear weapons]].Joseph C. Wilson 4th, [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/06WILS.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5007&en=6c6aeb1ce960dec0&ex=1372824000&partner=USERLAND "What I Didn't Find in Africa,"] ''[[The New York Times]]'' [[July 6]], [[2003]]. The [[Butler Report]], the [[Iraq Intelligence Commission]] and the [[U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] at various times concluded that Wilson's claims were incorrect. Wilson later took strong exception to their conclusions in his 2004 memoir ''The Politics of Truth''. Moreover, CIA Director [[George Tenet]] observed that "[while President Bush] had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound," because "[f]rom what we know now, Agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct - i.e. that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa," nevertheless "[t]hese 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President."{{cite news | url=https://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/2003/pr07112003.html | title=Statement by George J. Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence | accessdate=July 11, 2003}} Eight days after Wilson's Op-Ed, [[columnist]] [[Robert Novak]] wrote about Wilson's 2002 trip to Niger and subsequent findings and described Wilson's wife as an "agency operative," suggesting that she had some role in his assignment.[[Robert Novak|Robert D. Novak]], [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102000874.html "Mission To Niger,"] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[July 14]], [[2003]]. Subsequent press accounts reported that "White House officials wanted to know how much of a role she had in selecting him for the assignment." Wilson and others have argued that disclosure of his wife's classified identity as an "operative" of the CIA to Novak and/or other reporters is illegal; he argues that it was done purposely and intentionally to punish Wilson for his criticism and that it illegally endangers both Plame herself and others involved in [[national security]]. According to Stanley M. Moskowitz, CIA Director of Congressional Affairs, after an internal inquiry into the matter, the CIA made a referral to the Department of Justice ([[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]]) for investigation of "possible violation of criminal law concerning the unauthorized disclosure of classified information."{{cite news | url=http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/plame.cia.letter.pdf | title=Letter from Moskowitz to Conyers |date=[[January 30, 2004]]}} A [[Office of the Special Counsel|Special counsel]], [[Patrick Fitzgerald]], was appointed to lead the [[CIA leak grand jury investigation|investigation]]. In various filings, Fitzgerald contends that two Bush administration officials, [[Karl Rove]] and [[Lewis Libby|Lewis "Scooter" Libby]], told several reporters about Plame's employment at the CIA. Libby was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|(FBI)]] and [[grand jury]]. On June 13, 2006, Rove's lawyer, [[Robert Luskin]], released a statement saying that Fitzgerald had informed him Rove would not be charged with any wrong-doing[http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/13/rove.cia/ "Lawyer: Rove Won't Be Charged in CIA Leak Case,"] [[CNN]], [[June 13]], [[2006]] [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/14/MNG8QJDSCL1.DTL "No charges against Rove in CIA leak case"], [[New York Times]], [[June 14]], [[2006]] On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a [[civil suit]] against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top Presidential advisor Karl Rove and other unnamed senior White House officials, for their alleged roles in the public disclosure of her classified CIA employment.[http://www.usatoday.com/news/pdf/plame_lawsuit.pdf "Plame Lawsuit Brief,"] ''[[USA Today]]'', accessed [[July 13]], [[2006]]. Wilson said that his African diplomatic experience led to his selection for the [[Joseph C. Wilson#The trip to Niger|mission to Niger]]. Ambassador Wilson, a retired diplomat and fluent in French, had served as a [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] general services officer in [[Niger]], as an ambassador to [[Gabon]] and [[São Tomé and Príncipe]], as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in both [[Brazzaville]], [[Republic of the Congo]], and [[Iraq]] (taking over as Chief of Mission during the 1990-91 [[Gulf War]]), in other diplomatic postings, and in subsequent national security and military advisory roles concerning U.S.-African affairs under Presidents [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[Bill Clinton]].{{See|Joseph C. Wilson#Diplomatic_career}} After being consulted by her superiors at the [[CIA]] about whom to send on the mission, [[Valerie Plame|Valerie E. Wilson]], according to the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], suggested Ambassador Wilson, her husband, whom she had married in 1998. In their book ''''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'' (released on [[September 8]], [[2006]]), as Corn observes, [[Michael Isikoff]] and [[David Corn]] consider the "issue" of "whether Valerie Wilson had sent her husband to Niger to check out an intelligence report that Iraq had sought uranium there," presenting "new information undermining the charge that she arranged this trip. In an interview with the authors, Douglas Rohn, a State Department officer who wrote a crucial memo related to the trip, acknowledges he may have inadvertently created a misimpression that her involvement was more significant than it had been."[[David Corn]], [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060918/corn "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA,"] ''[[The Nation]]'' (Web only) [[September 6]], [[2006]], accessed [[December 6]], [[2006]]. After his identification by Corn and Isikoff in advance word of their book, [[Richard Armitage]], a former deputy secretary of state, acknowledged that he was the initial and "primary source" (Novak's phrase) for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, disclosed Mrs. Wilson's identity, [[Valerie Plame]], as a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] "operative". ==Justice Department investigation== {{plamefull}} {{Main|Plame affair criminal investigation}} {{Main|CIA leak grand jury investigation}} This matter is currently under investigation by the [[U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel]]. The redactions in a March 1, 2006 affidavit by Special Counsel [[Patrick Fitzgerald]] suggest that he was aware then of the identity of Novak's original source. According to the affidavit, {{cquote|
Mr. Novak has published a brief description of how he learned the information, albeit declining to name his sources (REDACTED). Mr. Libby indisputably knows at least one of Mr. Novak’s sources:(REDACTED). Mr. Libby testified in the grand jury that Rove told Libby that Novak was publishing a column about Wilson’s wife before it was ever published. . . . The one significant piece of information that Libby is not being told is the identity of (REDACTED) as a source for (REDACTED). Moreover, Libby has been given a redacted transcript of the conversation between Woodward and (REDACTED) and Novak has published an account briefly describing the conversation with his first confidential source (REDACTED).{{cite news | url=http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/files/fitz_response.pdf | title=Affadavit of Patrick Fitzgerald | publisher=The Next Hurrah (blog) |date=[[March 1]], [[2006]]}} {{pdflink}}.
}} In May 2006, it was reported that on [[September 29]], [[2003]], the same day on which Novak made a statement on the ''[[Crossfire (TV series)|Crossfire]]'' television program about the investigation, and three days after it became known that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation, Novak and Rove had a telephone converstation in which Novak told Rove he would protect him from being harmed by the investigation. According to the ''[[National Journal]]'', "Rove testified to the grand jury that during his telephone call with Novak, the columnist said words to the effect: 'You are not going to get burned' and 'I don't give up my sources.'" When "asked during his grand jury appearance his reaction to the telephone call," the ''[[National Journal]]'' continues, "Rove characterized it as a 'curious conversation' and didn't know what to make of it."{{cite news | url=http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0525nj1.htm | title=Rove-Novak Call Was Concern To Leak Investigators | author=Murray Waas | publisher=National Journal |date=[[May 25]], [[2006]]}} On July 11, 2006, Robert Novak posted a column entitled "My Role in the Valerie Plame Leak Story": {{cquote|Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has informed my attorneys that, after two and one-half years, his investigation of the CIA leak case concerning matters directly relating to me has been concluded. That frees me to reveal my role in the federal inquiry that, at the request of Fitzgerald, I have kept secret.}} Novak dispells rumors that he asserted his Fifth Amendment right and made a plea bargain, stating:{{cquote|I have cooperated in the investigation.}} Novak continues: {{cquote|
For nearly the entire time of his investigation, Fitzgerald knew -- independent of me -- the identity of the sources I used in my column of July 14, 2003. That Fitzgerald did not indict any of these sources may indicate his conclusion that none of them violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. . . . In my sworn testimony, I said what I have contended in my columns and on television: Joe Wilson's wife's role in instituting her husband's mission was revealed to me in the middle of a long interview with an official who I have previously said was not a political gunslinger. After the federal investigation was announced, he told me through a third party that the disclosure was inadvertent on his part. Following my interview with the ''primary source'', I sought out the second administration official and the CIA spokesman for confirmation. I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in "Who's Who in America." (Italics added.)
}} Novak says that he did not reveal his "primary source" in the column because {{cquote|My primary source has not come forward to identify himself.}} Novak also states that Rove's and Harlow's recollections of their conversations with Novak about Plame differed from his.{{cite news | url=http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15988 | title=My Role in the Valerie Plame Leak Story | author=[[Robert Novak]] | publisher=Human Events |date=[[July 12]], [[2006]]}} Fitzgerald was aware early on of Richard Armitage's being the initial source of the leak. Said Armitage, "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request." (However, Armitage did not explain why, in the months before Fitzgerald was appointed Special Counsel in December 2003, Armitage did not reveal he was the source of the leak.) The ''Los Angeles Times'' speculates that "the information on Armitage ... along with court filings and interviews with former White House staffers and others familiar with the inquiry, suggest Fitzgerald pressed ahead because he learned quickly that Armitage was not alone in discussing Plame with reporters. Top White House officials had talked about her as well."{{cite news | url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-plame9sep09,0,5023651.story?coll=la-home-headlines | title=Obvious Question in Plame Case Had Early Answer | author=Tom Hamburger and Richard T. Cooper | publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=[[September 9]], [[2006]]}} ==Robert Novak's column "Mission to Niger"== In his column of [[July 14]], [[2003]], entitled "Mission to Niger," [[Robert Novak]] states that the choice to use Wilson "was made routinely at a low level without [CIA] Director [[George Tenet]]'s knowledge." Novak goes on to identify Plame as Wilson's wife: {{cquote|
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the [[Italy|Italian]] report.
}} In "The CIA Leak," published on [[October 1]], [[2003]], Novak describes how he had obtained the information for his [[July 14]], [[2003]] column: {{cquote|
During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counter-proliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.

At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/01/column.novak.opinion.leak/index.html | author=[[Robert Novak]] | title=The CIA Leak | publisher=[[CNN]] |date=October 1, 2003}} See also: [http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/29/novak.cia/ "Novak: 'No great crime' with Leak,"] [[CNN]] [[October 1]], [[2003]], accessed [[December 12]], [[2006]].
}} ===Response to Novak's column "Mission to Niger"=== The suggestion that naming Plame as an agent is a serious crime first appeared in an article by [[David Corn]] published by ''[[The Nation]]'' on [[July 16]] [[2003]], two days after Novak's column.[[David Corn]], [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823 "A White House Smear,"] ''The Nation'' (blog) [[July 16]], [[2003]]. Corn quotes Joe Wilson: {{cquote|
'Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of [[Kim Philby]] and [[Aldrich Ames]].'
}} Supporters of White House officials argue that Wilson had initiated a partisan [[smear campaign]] against the Bush administration. They contend also that those White House officials who talked "on background" about Wilson were not punishing him by exposing his wife but trying to prevent journalists from reporting Wilson's "[[disinformation]]." Others counter this speculation by arguing that officials have a duty diligently to avoid exposing undercover officers or other confidential information and that, in any event, Plame's CIA status had little to do with any facts Wilson may or may not have uncovered. ===Novak defends his column "Mission to Niger"=== In his column of [[October 1]], [[2003]], Novak states that he included the paragraph about Wilson's wife "because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission." He writes: {{cquote|I was curious why a high-ranking official in President [[Bill Clinton]]'s National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to [[Al Gore]] in the last election cycle and [[John Kerry]] in this one'' ... ''During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counter-proliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife.Robert D. Novak, [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertDNovak/2003/10/01/the_cia_leak "The CIA Leak,"] ''TownHall.com'' [[October 1]], [[2003]], accessed [[December 12]], [[2006]].}} In that column Novak also claims to have learned Mrs. Wilson's maiden name "Valerie Plame" from his entry in ''[[Marquis Who's Who|Who's Who In America]]'',[http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/wilson.whoswho.pdf Joe Wilson Who's Who in America entry] though it was her CIA status rather than her maiden name which was a secret. A day after the publication of the October 1st column, Novak announced on his TV program ''[[Crossfire]]'' on [[CNN]] [check accuracy] that although "Ms. Valerie E. Wilson" had donated $1,000 to the Gore campaign in 1999, according to the website ''Newsmeat,'' listing [[Brewster Jennings & Associates]] as her employer, he was "convinced" that "[t]here is no such firm."{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40012-2003Oct3 | title=Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm | author=Walter Pincus and Mike Allen | publisher=''[[The Washington Post]]'' |date=[[October 4]], [[2003]]}} {{cite news | url=http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/Valerie_Plame.php | title=Plame campaign contribution search}} Novak argued further that "CIA people are not supposed to list themselves with fictitious firms if they're under a deep cover — they're supposed to be real firms, or so I'm told. Sort of adds to the little mystery." Although Tenet claimed not to have first-hand familiarity with Wilson's report, he stated that it "was given a normal and wide distribution" in intelligence circles but not to Congress or the Administration. Although the bipartisan Senate Intelligence report states that Wilson's report was actually viewed by the CIA as bolstering the belief that Iraq was trying to acquire "yellowcake" to reconstitute his nuclear WMD program, apparently the State Department remained skeptical of Wilson's findings.{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html | title=Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission | author=Susan Schmidt | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[July 10]], [[2004]]}} According to [[Murray S. Waas]] in the ''[[American Prospect]]'' of [[February 12]], [[2004]], the CIA source warned Novak several times against the publication: two "administration officials" spoke to the [[FBI]] and challenged Novak's account about not receiving warnings not to publish Plame's name; according to one of the officials, "At best, he is parsing words ... At worst, he is lying to his readers and the public. Journalists should not lie, I would think."[[Murray S. Waas]] [http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/02/waas-m-02-12.html "Plame Gate,"] ''[[American Prospect]]'' (web exclusive) [[December 2]], [[2004]].{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602069.html | title=Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net | author=Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[July 27]], [[2005]]}} Novak has also claimed that Plame's CIA employment was an "open secret" in Washington, indicating that effective "affirmative measures" to conceal her relationship to the CIA were not being taken, though this has been disputed. Novak's critics argue that after decades as a [[Washington DC|Washington]] reporter, Novak was well aware of the difference and would be unlikely to make such a mistake. A search of the ''[[LexisNexis]]'' database for the terms "CIA operative" and "agency operative" showed Novak had accurately used the terms to describe ''covert'' CIA employees, every time they appear in his articles.{{cite news | url=http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/JoshMarshall/071405.html | title=It's clear the leakers knew what they were doing | author=Josh Marshall | publisher=The Hill |date=[[July 14]], [[2005]]}} ===Novak's sources for his column "Mission to Niger"=== In their article entitled "Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover, published in [[Newsday]], on [[July 22]], [[2003]], Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce report: "Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. 'I didn't dig it out, it was given to me,' he said. 'They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."{{cite news | url=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-phelps0722,0,2044545.story | title=Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover | author=Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce | publisher=Newsday |date=[[July 22]], [[2003]]}} In response, although Phelps stands by the report, Novak has argued that he was "badly misquoted."{{cite news | url=http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0525nj1.htm | title=Rove-Novak Call Was Concern To Leak Investigators | author=Murray Waas | publisher=National Journal |date=May 25, 2006}} In September 2003, on [[CNN]]'s [[Crossfire (TV series)|Crossfire]], Novak asserted: "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. There is no great crime here," adding that while he learned from two administration officials that Plame was a CIA employee, "They asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative and not in charge of undercover operators."{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/29/novak.cia/ | title=Novak: 'No great crime' with Leak | publisher=CNN |date=[[October 1]], [[2003]]}} In July 2005, it was revealed that Rove was Novak's second Bush administration source. Novak told Rove about Plame, using her maiden name, and Rove responded by saying "I heard that, too", or "Oh, you know about it."{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/07/15/BL2005071500978_pf.html | title=The Second Source | author=Dan Froomkin | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[July 15]], [[2005]]}} Through his personal attorney, [[Robert Luskin]], Rove has stated that other media sources told him about Plame, although he's not sure which journalist first told him. ===Novak's "primary source": Richard Armitage=== After the indictment of [[Lewis Libby]] and the expiration of the term of the initial Grand Jury, [[Michael Isikoff]] revealed portions of his new book entitled ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'', co-authored with [[David Corn]], in the [[August 28]], [[2006]] issue of ''[[Newsweek]]''. Isikoff reports that then [[United States Deputy Secretary of State|Deputy Secretary of State]] [[Richard Armitage]] had a central role in the Plame affair.{{cite news | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533384/site/newsweek/ | title=The Man Who Said Too Much | author=Isikoff, Michael | publisher=Newsweek |date=[[August 28]], [[2006]]}} In ''Hubris'' Isikoff and Corn reveal – as both Armitage and syndicated columnist Robert Novak acknowledged publicly later – that Armitage was Novak's "initial" and "primary source" for Novak's July 2003 column that revealed Plame's identity as a CIA operative and that after Novak revealed his "primary source" (Novak's phrase) was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger," Armitage phoned Colin Powell that morning and was "in deep distress." Reportedly, Armitage told Powell: "I'm sure [Novak is] talking about me." In his ''[[Newsweek]]'' article, Isikoff states: {{cquote|
The next day, a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA...[William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser] felt obligated to inform White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. But Powell and his aides feared the White House would then leak that Armitage had been Novak's source—possibly to embarrass State Department officials who had been unenthusiastic about Bush's Iraq policy. So Taft told Gonzales the bare minimum: that the State Department had passed some information about the case to Justice. He didn't mention Armitage. Taft asked if Gonzales wanted to know the details. The president's lawyer, playing the case by the book, said no, and Taft told him nothing more. Armitage's role thus remained that rarest of Washington phenomena: a hot secret that never leaked.
}} According to Isikoff, as based on his sources, Armitage told [[Bob Woodward]] Plame's identity three weeks before talking to Novak, and Armitage himself was aggressively investigated by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, but was never charged because Fitzgerald found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame's covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward. In an [[August 27]] [[2006]] appearance on [[Meet the Press]], Novak is asked if indeed Armitage was his source of Mrs. Wilson's identity as a CIA operative. Novak responds: "I told Mr. Isikoff...that I do not identify my sources on any subject if they’re on a confidential basis until they identify themselves...I’m going to say one thing, though, I haven’t said before. And that is that I believe that the time has way passed for my source to identify himself."[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14452115/page/7/ Transcript of ''Meet the Press''], TV broadcast on [[MSNBC]], [[August 27]], [[2006]]. On [[August 30]] [[2006]] the [[New York Times]] reports that the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage confirmed he was Novak's "initial and primary source" for Plame's identity. ''[[The New York Times]]'' also reports "Mr. Armitage cooperated voluntarily in the case, never hired a lawyer and testified several times to the grand jury, according to people who are familiar with his role and actions in the case. He turned over his calendars, datebooks and even his wife’s computer in the course of the inquiry, those associates said. But Mr. Armitage kept his actions secret, not even telling President Bush because the prosecutor asked him not to divulge it, the people said . . . Mr. Armitage had prepared a resignation letter, his associates said. But he stayed on the job because State Department officials advised that his sudden departure could lead to the disclosure of his role in the leak, the people aware of his actions said. . . . He resigned in November 2004, but remained a subject of the inquiry until [February 2006] when the prosecutor advised him in a letter that he would not be charged."{{cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/washington/02leak.html?ei=5065&en=1939cd793ece790a&ex=1157774400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print | title=New Questions About Inquiry in C.I.A. Leak | author=David Johnson | publisher=New York Times |date=[[September 2]], [[2006]]}} In an interview with [[CBS news]] first broadcast on [[September 7]] [[2006]], Armitage admits that he was Novak's "initial" and "primary source" (Novak's words). In the interview he describes his conversation with Novak: {{cquote|
At the end of a wide-ranging interview he asked me, "Why did the CIA send Ambassador (Wilson) to Africa?" I said I didn't know, but that she worked out at the agency, adding it was "just an offhand question. . . . I didn't put any big import on it and I just answered and it was the last question we had."
}} After acknowledging that he was indeed Robert Novak's initial and primary source for the column outing Plame, Richard Armitage refers to what has been termed "a classified State Department memorandum" which purportedly refers to Valerie Wilson.{{See|Alternate theories of the Plame affair#Speculating_about_the_"Air_Force_One_ Memorandum"}} While the document is "classified," Armitage states, "it doesn't mean that every sentence in the document is classified. . . . I had never seen a covered agent's name in any memo in, I think, 28 years of government. . . . I didn't know the woman's name was Plame. I didn't know she was an operative. . . . I didn't try to out anybody."{{cite news | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/07/eveningnews/main1981433.shtml | title=Armitage on CIA Leak - 'I Screwed Up' | author=Interview with David Martin | publisher=CBS News |date=[[September 7]], [[2006]]}} In a phone interview with ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Armitage reiterates his claim, stating that in 40 years of reading classified materials "I have never seen in a memo . . . a covert agent's name."{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090701781.html?nav=rss_politics/fedpage | title=Armitage Says He Was Source of CIA Leak | author=R. Jeffrey Smith | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[September 8]], [[2006]]}} According to the ''Washington Post'', Armitage attributes his not being charged in the investigation to his candor in speaking with investigators about his action; he says that he turned over his computers and never hired an attorney: "'I did not need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth.'" Novak disputes Armitage's claim that the disclosure was "inadvertent." In a column titled ''The real story behind the Armitage story'', Novak states: "First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he 'thought' might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column . . . he noted that the story of Mrs. Wilson's role fit the style of the old Evans-Novak column -- implying to me it continued reporting Washington inside information." Novak also disputes Armitage's claim that he learned he was Novak's "primary source" (Novak's phrase) only after reading Novak's October 1 column: "I believed [Washington lobbyist Kenneth Duberstein, Armitage's close friend and political adviser] contacted me Oct. 1 because of news the weekend of Sept. 27-28 that the Justice Department was investigating the leak."{{cite news | url=http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak141.html | title=The Real Story behind the Armitage Story | author=[[Robert Novak]] | publisher=Chicago Sun Times |date=[[September 14]], [[2006]]}} In a review of Corn's and Isikoff's book, ''Hubris'', Novak writes: "I don't know precisely how Isikoff flushed out Armitage [as Novak's "primary source"], but ''Hubris'' clearly points to two sources: Washington lobbyist [[Kenneth Duberstein]], Armitage's political adviser, and [[William Howard Taft IV|William Taft IV]], who was the State Department legal adviser when Armitage was deputy secretary."[[Robert Novak]], [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12785&R=EE501DF13 "Who Said What When: The Rise and fall of the Valerie Plame 'scandal'",] ''[[The Weekly Standard]]'' [[October 16]], [[2006]], book review of "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," by [[Michael Isikoff]] and [[David Corn]], accessed [[October 8]], [[2008]]. Armitage also acknowledges that he was Woodward's source. At the end of a lengthy interview conducted in the first week of September 2006, he describes his June 2003 conversation with Woodward as an afterthought: "He said, 'Hey, what's the deal with Wilson?' and I said, 'I think his wife works out there.'"{{cite news | url=http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2409329&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 | title=Armitage Says He Was Source on Plame | author=Matt Apuzzo | publisher=Associated Press |date=[[September 8]], [[2006]]}} ==Bush administration officials receiving subpoenaes to testify in Fitzgerald's Grand Jury Investigation== ===Lewis ("Scooter") Libby Jr.=== A five-count indictment of [[Lewis Libby|"Scooter" Libby]], Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff, was issued on [[October 28]], [[2005]]. It is to date the only indictment issued by the Grand Jury. He resigned his post after his indictment. The Grand Jury Investigation indictment of Libby states:
Beginning in or about January 2004, and continuing until the date of this indictment, Grand Jury 03-3 sitting in the District of Columbia conducted an investigation ("the Grand Jury Investigation") into possible violations of federal criminal laws, including: Title 50, United States Code, Section 421 (disclosure of the identity of covert intelligence personnel); and Title 18, United States Code, Sections 793 (improper disclosure of national defense information), 1001 (false statements), 1503 (obstruction of justice), and 1623 (perjury).
A major focus of the Grand Jury Investigation was to determine which government officials had disclosed to the media prior to [[Robert Novak]]'s July 14, 2003 concerning the affiliation of Valerie Wilson with the CIA, and the nature, timing, extent, and purpose of such disclosures, as well as whether any official making such a disclosure did so knowing that the employment of Valerie Wilson by the CIA was classified information.{{cite news | url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictment_28102005.pdf#search='libby%20indictment' | title="Libby indictment"}} {{pdflink}}
{{See|Lewis Libby}} {{See|United States v. Libby}} ===Karl Rove=== On [[2 July]] [[2005]], Karl Rove's lawyer, [[Robert Luskin]], said that his client spoke to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reporter [[Matt Cooper]] "three or four days" before Plame's identity was first revealed in print by commentator [[Robert Novak]]. Cooper's article in ''Time'', citing unnamed and anonymous "government officials," confirmed Plame to be a "CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." Cooper's article appeared three days after Novak's column was published. Rove's lawyer asserted that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA."{{cite news | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/ | title=The Rove Factor? | author=[[Michael Isikoff]] | publisher=Newsweek |date=[[July 11]], [[2005]]}}{{cite news | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1079464,00.html | title=When to Give Up a Source | author=Bill Saporito | publisher=Time |date=[[July 3]], [[2005]]}}{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201043.html | title=Lawyer Says Rove Talked to Reporter, Did Not Leak Name | author=Carol D. Leonnig | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[July 3]], [[2005]]}} Luskin also has said that his client did not initiate conversations with reporters about Plame and did not encourage reporters to write about her. On [[July 11]], 2006, [[Robert Novak]] confirmed that Rove was his second source for his article that revealed the identity of [[Valerie Plame]] as a CIA agent, the source who confirmed what Armitage had told him.{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/11/cia.leak/index.html | title=Novak: Rove Confirmed Plame's identity | publisher=[[CNN]] |date=[[July 11]], [[2006]]}} Rove has not been indicted as a result of Fitzgerald's Grand Jury Investigation.Jim VandeHei, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300267.html "Rove Will Not Be Charged In CIA Leak Case, Lawyer Says,"] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[June 14]], [[2006]], accessed [[November 20]], [[2006]]. {{See|Karl Rove#Plame affair}} ==Other subpoenaed journalists informed that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative prior to July 14, 2003== In a January 23, 2006 letter to [[Scooter Libby]]'s defense team, Patrick Fitzgerald wrote the following: {{cquote|
. . . [W]e advised you during the January 18 conference call that we were not aware of any reporters who knew prior to July 14, 2003, that Valerie Plame, Ambassador Wilson's wife, worked at the CIA, other than: Bob Woodward, Judith Miller, Bob Novak, Walter Pincus and Matthew Cooper.{{cite news | url=http://justoneminute.typepad.com/plame/files/show_case_doc-2.pdf | title=January 23, 2006 Letter from Fitzgerald to Libby's Lawyers}} {{pdflink}}
}} ===Bob Woodward=== On [[November 16]], [[2005]], in an article entitled "Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago," published in ''[[The Washington Post]],'' Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig reveal that [[Bob Woodward]] was told of Valerie Wilson's CIA affiliation a month before it was reported in Robert Novak's column and before Wilson's [[July 6]], [[2003]] editorial in the [[New York Times]].{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501857.html | title=Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago | author=Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[November 16]], [[2005]]}} Almost a year later it was revealed that the source of this information was [[Richard Armitage]]. and was later confirmed by Armitage [http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-cia-leak-armitage,0,3153096.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines]. Earlier it had been reported that the source was National Security Adviser [[Stephen Hadley]],{{cite news | url=http://rawstory.com/news/2005/National_Security_Adviser_was_Woodwards_source_1116.html | title=National Security Adviser Was Woodward's Source, Attorneys Say | author=Larisa Alexandrovna and Jason Leopold | publisher=The Raw Story |date=[[November 16]], [[2005]]}}{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1880016,00.html | title=Security Adviser Named As Source in CIA Scandal | author=Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter | publisher=The Sunday Times |date=[[November 20]], [[2005]]}} but these reports proved to be false. At an on-the-record dinner at a [[Harvard University]] Institute of Politics forum in December 2005, according to the ''[[Harvard Crimson]]'', Woodward discussed the matter with fellow [[Watergate]] reporter [[Carl Bernstein]], responding to Bernstein’s claim that the release of Plame’s identity was a "calculated leak" by the Bush administration with "I know a lot about this, and you’re wrong." The ''Crimson'' also states that "when asked at the dinner whether his readers should worry that he has been 'manipulated' by the Bush administration, Woodward replied, 'I think you should worry. I mean, I worry.'"{{cite news | url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510719 | title=Woodward Said Novak's Source 'Was Not in the White House' | author=Zachary M. Seward | publisher=The Harvard Crimson |date=[[December 19]], [[2005]]}} ===Judith Miller=== [[New York Times]] reporter [[Judith Miller (journalist)|Judith Miller]] also learned Plame's CIA affiliation from [[Scooter Libby]], though she never published an article on the topic. Miller spent twelve weeks in jail when she was found in contempt of court for refusing to divulge the identity of her source to Fitzgerald's Grand Jury after he subpoenaed her testimony.{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/07/06/reporters.contempt/index.html | title=New York Times Reporter Jailed | publisher=CNN |date=July 6, 2005}}{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/30/cia.leak/index.html | title=Jailed Reporter Reaches Deal in CIA Leak Probe | author=CNN |date=[[September 30]], [[2005]]}}{{cite news | url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1016-01.htm | title=My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room | author=Judith Miller | publisher=New York Times |date=[[October 16]], [[2005]]}} ===Walter Pincus=== [[Walter Pincus]], a [[Washington Post]] columnist, has reported that he was told in confidence by an unnamed Bush administration official on [[12 July]] [[2003]], two days before Novak's column appeared, that {{cquote|the White House had not paid attention to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s CIA-sponsored February 2002 trip to Niger because it was set up as a [[boondoggle]] by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction.}} Because he did not believe it to be true, Pincus claims, he did not report the story in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' until [[October 12]], [[2003]]:{{cquote|
I wrote my October story because I did not think the person who spoke to me was committing a criminal act, but only practicing damage control by trying to get me to stop writing about Wilson. Because of that article, The Washington Post and I received subpoenas last summer from Patrick J. Fitzgerald.{{cite news | url=http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Showcase.view&showcaseid=0019 | title=Anonymous sources: Their Use in a Time of Prosecutorial Interest | author=Walter Pincus | publisher=Nieman Reports |date=[[July 6]], [[2005]]}}
}} ===Matthew Cooper=== Days after Novak's initial column appeared, [[Matthew Cooper]] of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine published Plame's name citing unnamed government officials as sources. In his article, entitled "A War on Wilson?", Cooper raises the possibility that the White House has "declared war" on Wilson for speaking out against the Bush Administration.{{cite news | url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html | title="A War on Wilson?" | author=Matthew Cooper, Massimo Calabresi, and John F. Dickerson |date=[[July 17]], [[2003]]}} The names of Cooper's sources, later revealed as a result of Special Counsel Fitzgerald's investigation, are [[Karl Rove]] and [[Scooter Libby]].{{cite news | title=What I Told The Grand Jury | author=Matt Cooper |date=[[July 25]], [[2005]]|publisher=Time | url=http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1083870,00.html}} ==Others claiming to have information about Plame's identity as a CIA operative prior to July 14, 2003== According to Patrick Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury Investigation indictment, in his sworn testimony, Libby claimed to have heard of Plame's CIA status from [[Tim Russert]]. Details pertaining to Libby's conversations with Miller, Cooper, and Russert appear in the five-count indictment charging him with lying and perjury to investigators and the Grand Jury. In a story published in ''[[The New York Sun]]'' on [[July 6]], [[2005]], staff reporter Josh Gerstein states that former ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine [[The White House|White House]] correspondent [[Hugh Sidey]] claimed in an interview that Plame's identity was widely known well before Mr. Cooper talked to his sources.{{cite news | url=http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2005/07/06&ID=Ar00701&Mode=HTML | title=Prosecutor Says Time Reporter Must Testify | author=Josh Gerstein | publisher=New York Sun |date=[[July 6]], [[2005]]}} In the ''[[National Review Online]]'' of [[September 29]], [[2003]], [[Clifford May]] writes: {{cquote|
On July 14, Robert Novak wrote a column in the Post and other newspapers naming Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. That wasn't news to me. I had been told that — but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of.{{cite news | url=http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200309291022.asp | title=Spy Games | author=Clifford D. May | publisher=National Review Online |date=[[September 29]], [[2003]]}}
}} In an October 3, 2003 edition of the now-defunct program ''Capital Report'' on [[CNBC]], [[Andrea Mitchell]] was quoted as having said: {{cquote|
It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn't aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
}} In a November 2005 appearance with radio host [[Don Imus]], however, Mitchell clarified that she had been misquoted: {{cquote|
I said that it was widely known that - here's the exact quote - I said that it was widely known that Wilson was an envoy and that his wife worked at the CIA. But I was talking about . . . I was talking about ''after'' the Novak column. And that was not clear. I may have misspoken in October 2003 in that interview. (Italics added.){{cite news | url=http://justoneminute.typepad.com/plame/2006/01/andrea_mitchell.html | title=The Plame Investigation/Andrea Mitchell [rpt. transcript] | publisher=justoneminute.com |date=[[January 27]], [[2006]]}}
}} ==Legal issues relating to the Plame affair== There are some major legal issues surrounding the allegations of illegality by administration officials in the Plame affair, including the [[Intelligence Identities Protection Act]], the [[Espionage Act]], Title 18 Section 641, conspiracy to impede or injure officers, the Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement, other laws and precedents, [[perjury]], [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy]], [[obstruction of justice]], and compelling the media to testify. {{Main|Plame affair legal questions}} {{See also|Valerie Plame#The_Wilsons'_Civil_Suit}} ==Possible consequences of the public disclosure of Plame's CIA identity== There has been debate over what, if any, damage has resulted from the public disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative in Novak's column and its fallout, how far and into what areas of [[national security]] and foreign [[espionage|intelligence]] that damage might extend, particularly vis-à-vis Plame's work with her cover company, [[Brewster Jennings & Associates]]. On [[October 3]], [[2004]] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' quotes a former diplomat predicting immmediate damage: {{cquote|
. . . [E]very foreign intelligence service would run Plame's name through its databases within hours of its publication to determine if she had visited their country and to reconstruct her activities. . . . That's why the agency is so sensitive about just publishing her name.[[Walter Pincus]] and [[Mike Allen]], [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40012-2003Oct3?language=printer "Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm,"] ''[[Washington Post]]'' [[October 4]], [[2003]]: A3.
}} In contrast, in an [[October 27]], [[2005]] appearance on ''[[Larry King Live]]'', [[Bob Woodward]] commented: {{cquote|
They did a damage assessment within the CIA, looking at what this did that [former ambassador] Joe Wilson's wife [Plame] was outed. And turned out it was quite minimal damage. They did not have to pull anyone out undercover abroad. They didn't have to resettle anyone. There was no physical danger to anyone, and there was just some embarrassment.{{cite news | url=http://mediamatters.org/items/200511010002 | title=Woodward v. Washington Post on CIA assessment of leak damage | publisher=mediamatters.org|date=October 31, 2005}}
}} In an appearance the next night, [[October 28]], [[2005]], on ''[[Hardball with Chris Matthews|Hardball]]'', [[Andrea Mitchell]] was quoted as saying: {{cquote|
I happen to have been told that the actual damage assessment as to whether people were put in jeopardy on this case did not indicate that there was real damage in this specific instance.{{cite news | url=http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/29.html#a6111 | title=What CIA investigation? | publisher=crooksandliars.com |date=[[November 29]], [[2005]]}}
}} Following Mitchell's appearance on ''Hardball'', on [[October 29]], [[2006]], ''[[The Washington Post]]'''s Dafna Linzer reported that no formal damage assessment had yet been conducted by the CIA "as is routinely done in cases of espionage and after any legal proceedings have been exhausted." Linzer writes: {{cquote|
There is no indication, according to current and former intelligence officials, that the most dire of consequences –– the risk of anyone's life –– resulted from her outing. But after Plame's name appeared in Robert D. Novak's column, the CIA informed the Justice Department in a simple questionnaire that the damage was serious enough to warrant an investigation, officials said.{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102801988.html | title=CIA Yet to Assess Harm From Plame's Exposure | author=Dafna Linzer | publisher=Washington Post |date=[[October 29]], [[2005]]}}
}} Mark Lowenthal, who retired from a senior management position at the CIA in March 2005 reportedly told Linzer: {{cquote|
You can only speculate that if she had foreign contacts, those contacts might be nervous and their relationships with her put them at risk. It also makes it harder for other CIA officers to recruit sources.
}} Another intelligence official who spoke anonymously to Linzer cited the CIA's interest in protecting the agency and its work: {{cquote|
You'll never get a straight answer [from the Agency] about how valuable she was or how valuable her sources were.
}} Nevertheless, in a November 3, 2005 online live discussion, in response to a question about the Fitzgerald investigation, ''[[The Washington Post]]'''s [[Dana Priest]], a [[Pulitzer Prize]]- winning journalist specializing in matters of national security, opined: {{cquote|
I don't actually think the Plame leak compromised national security, from what I've been able to learn about her position."{{cite news | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/10/28/DI2005102800907.html | title=Live Discussion with Post reporter [[Dana Priest]] | author=Dana Priest | publisher=Washington Post |date=November 3, 2005}}
}} In a January 9, 2006 letter addressed to "Scooter" Libby's defense team, Patrick Fitzgerald responded to a discovery request by Libby's lawyers for both classified and unclassified documents. In the letter, Fitzgerald writes: {{cquote|
A formal assessment has not been done of the ''damage caused by the disclosure of Valerie Wilson’s status as a CIA employee'', and thus we possess no such document. (Italics added).
}} He continues: {{cquote|
In any event, we would not view an assessment of the damage caused by the disclosure as relevant to the issue of whether or not Mr. Libby intentionally lied when he made the statements and gave the grand jury testimony which the grand jury alleged was false.{{cite news | url=http://justoneminute.typepad.com/plame/files/show_case_doc-2.pdf | title=January 9, 2006 Letter from Fitzgerald to Libby's Lawyers}}{{pdflink}}
}} [[Larisa Alexandrovna]] of [[The Raw Story]] reports that three intelligence officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told her that {{cquote|While Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss has not submitted a formal damage assessment to Congressional oversight committees, the CIA's Directorate of Operations did conduct a serious and aggressive investigation.}} According to her sources, {{cquote|
the damage assessment . . . called a "counter intelligence assessment to agency operations" was conducted on the orders of the CIA's then-Deputy Director of the Directorate of Operations, [[James Pavitt]]. . . . [and showed] "significant damage to operational equities."
}} Alexandrovna also reports that while Plame was undercover she was involved in an operation identifying and tracking [[weapons of mass destruction]] technology to and from Iran, suggesting that her outing "significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation." Her sources also stated that the outing of Plame also compromised the identity of other covert operatives who had been working, like Plame, under non-official cover status. These anonymous officials said that in their judgement, the CIA's work on WMDs has been set back "ten years" as a result of the compromise.{{cite news | url=http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html | title=Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say | author=[[Larisa Alexandrovna]] | publisher=The Raw Story |date=[[February 13]], [[2006]]}} [[MSNBC]] correspondent [[David Shuster]] reported on Hardball later, on [[May 1]], [[2006]], that MSNBC had learned "new information" about the potential consequences of the leaks: {{cquote|
Intelligence sources say Valerie Wilson was part of an operation three years ago tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran. And the sources allege that when Mrs. Wilson's cover was blown, the Administration's ability to track Iran's nuclear ambitions was damaged as well. The White House considers Iran to be one of America's biggest threats.{{cite news | url=http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/MSNBC_confirms_Raw_Story_report_Outed_0501.html | title=MSNBC Confirms: Outed CIA agent Was Working on Iran | publisher=The Raw Story |date=[[May 1]], [[2006]]}}
}} In July 2006, according to [[CNN]], [[Valerie Plame|Valerie E. Wilson]] and [[Joseph C. Wilson]] {{cquote|
filed a civil lawsuit alleging a conspiracy that "was motivated by an invidiously discriminatory animus towards those who had publicly criticized the administration's stated justifications for going to war with Iraq" and culminated with the disclosure that Plame worked at the CIA. This revelation destroyed Plame's career with the agency, according to the suit.
The scenario described by the sources familiar with Armitage's role, however, appears to contradict those arguments.
But the Wilsons' attorney, [[Melanie Sloan]] of [[Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]], said the revelation that Armitage was the original source for the leak did not undercut the charge that Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and White House adviser Karl Rove acted to retaliate against Wilson by engaging in a "whispering campaign" about his wife.
The couple plans to proceed with the lawsuit, Sloan said.
"Mr. Armitage's conduct does not change the facts of what Libby, Cheney and Rove did," Sloan told CNN. "The case is about the abuse of government power."[[John King]] and Brian Todd, [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/leak.armitage/index.html "Sources: State Department Official Source of Plame Leak], [[CNN]] [[August 30]], [[2006]], accessed [[December 18]], [[2006]].
}} On [[September 13]], [[2006]], Joseph and Valerie Wilson amended their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame#_note-35 original lawsuit], adding Armitage as a fourth defendant.[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/politics/main2006236.shtml "Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit,"] ''[[CBS News]]'' [[September 13]], [[2006]], accessed [[September 25]], [[2006]]; includes {{pdflink}}. Cf. [http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/plame/wilsonlibby91306acmp.html Amended complaint] at ''FindLaw.com''. Unlike their charges against Rove, Cheney, and Libby, "claiming that they had violated her constitutional rights and discredited her by disclosing that she was an undercover CIA operative," the Wilsons are suing Armitage "for violating the 'Wilsons' constitutional right to privacy, Mrs. Wilson's constitutional right to property, and for committing the tort of publication of private facts.'"Melanie Sloan, exec. dir., [[Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]] (CREW), press release, as qtd. in [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/politics/main2006236.shtml "Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit,"] ''[[CBS News]]'' [[September 13]], [[2006]], accessed [[September 25]], [[2006]]; includes {{pdflink}}. '''''More discussion of various controversial and still-often-disputed perspectives on the potential "damage" that may or may not have been done to Mrs. Wilson and national security may be found in: ''''' '''''{{main|Valerie Plame#Career}} {{see also|Valerie Plame#The_Wilsons'_civil_suit}}''''' ==Other perspectives on the Plame affair== {{main|Alternate theories of the Plame affair}} Since the Plame Affair became public knowledge, commentators began presenting multiple and often highly-contested perspectives on it in various media. ==Notes==
{{Wikinewscat| Valerie Plame scandal}} {{wikinews|Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak}} ==References== *[[Larisa Alexandrovna|Alexandrovna, Larisa]].[http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Interview_Ambassador_Wilson_husband_of_outed_CIA_agent_sees_larger_Administration_ro_0713.html "Interview: Ambassador Wilson, Husband of Outed CIA Agent, Sees Larger Administration Role in Leak."] ''[[The Raw Story]]'' (blog) [[July 13]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *–––. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/judith-miller-the-patro_b_3778.html "Judith Miller: Patron Saint of Propaganda."] ''[[Huffington Post]]'' (blog) [[July 7]] [[2005]]. ([[Nota bene|N.B.]]: Most comments following the entry are flagged as "abusive.") *[http://mediamatters.org/items/200507150003 "AP falsely reported Wilson 'acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job' when her identity was first publicly leaked"]. ''[[Media Matters for America]]'' [[July 15]], [[2005]]. *[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/opinion/16sun1.html?ex=1302840000&en=ebc509495bf268df&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "A Bad Leak."] ''[[The New York Times]]'' [[April 16]], [[2006]], Editorial. Accessed [[November 18]], [[2006]]. *Ballard, Tanya N., and Kevin Dumouchelle, comps. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001487.html "Key Players in the Plame Affair.]" ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[October 20]], [[2005]]. (Incl. link to "Timeline.") Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Steve Clemons|Clemons, Steve]]. [http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001246.php "Valerie Plame Leak Sabotaged America's Iran-Watching Intelligence Effort."] ''The Washington Note'' (personal blog) [[February 13]], [[2006]]. *[[David Corn|Corn, David]]. [http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/09/toensing_and_ws.php "Toensing and WSJ: Corn Outed Plame (Here We Go Again)."] ''DavidCorn.com'' (journalist's blog) [[September 15]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[November 18]], [[2006]]. (Reply to Toensing's editorial in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''; linked therein.) *–––. [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060918/corn "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA."] ''[[The Nation]]'' (web only) [[September 6]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[December 6]], [[2006]]. *–––. [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?pid=823 "A White House Smear."] ''[[The Nation]]'' [[July 16]], [[2003]]. Accessed [[November 18]], [[2006]]. (Also linked in above source.) *De la Vega, Elizabeth. [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051114/delavega "The White House Criminal Conspiracy."] Online posting. ''[[The Nation]]'' [[October 26]], [[2005]]. Issue of [[November 14]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[John Dickerson|Dickerson, John]], and [[Viveca Novak]]. [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,581456,00.html "Grand Jury Hears Plame Case in Front of a Grand Jury in the Investigation into Whether the Identity of CIA Operative Valerie Plame Was Improperly Leaked to the Press."] ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' [[January 22]], [[2004]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Barton Gellman|Gellman Barton]], and Dafna Linzer. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800916_pf.html "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic."] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[April 9]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Stephen F. Hayes|Hayes, Stephen F.]] [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/217wnmrb.asp "The White House, the CIA, and the Wilsons: The Chain of Events That Gave Rise to a Grand Jury Investigation."] ''[[The Weekly Standard]]'' [11.6] [[October 24]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Christopher Hitchens|Hitchens, Christopher]]. [http://www.slate.com/id/2139609/?nav=navoa "Fighting Words: A Wartime Lexicon: Wowie Zahawie: Sorry Everyone, But Iraq Did Go Uranium Shopping in Niger."] ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' [[April 10]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Michael Isikoff|Isikoff, Michael]] [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/ "Matt Cooper's Source."] ''[[Newsweek]]'' [[July 18]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *–––, and [[David Corn]]. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006 (Sept. 8). ISBN 0-307-34681-1. *[[David Johnston|Johnston, David]], and Richard W. Stevenson, with David E. Sanger. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/politics/15rove.htm "Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer"]. ''[[New York Times]]'' [[July 15]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. (TimesSelect subscription required.) *[[David Johnston|Johnston, David]], Richard W. Stevenson, and Douglas Jehl. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/politics/25leak.html?ei=5094&en=56e9496be92c9d2a&hp=&ex=1130299200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1130231688-vCWRMLmVCzJg3tzbKgLxwA "Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report."] ''[[The New York Times]]'' [[October 25]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. (TimesSelect subscription required.) *Kerber, Ross, and Bryan Bender. [http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/10/10/apparent_cia_front_didnt_offer_much_cover/ "Apparent CIA Front Didn't Offer Much Cover."] ''[[Boston Globe]]'' [[October 10]], [[2003]]). Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *Kincaid, Cliff. [http://www.aim.org/aim_column/3833_0_3_0_C "Why Judith Miller Should Stay In Jail."] ''[[Accuracy In Media]]'' [[July 11]] [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *Leonnig, Carol D. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32380-2005Apr6.html "Papers Say Leak Probe Is Over."] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[April 7]] [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101460.html End of an Affair] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[September 01]], [[2006]], Editorial: A20. Accessed [[December 6]], [[2006]]. *[[Zell Miller|Miller, Zell]].[http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/1105/02edmiller.html "Rule Can Head Off Dirty Tricks at CIA."] ''[[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]'' [[November 2]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[[Robert Novak|Novak, Robert D.]][http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertDNovak/2003/10/01/the_cia_leak "The CIA Leak."] ''TownHall.com'' (syndicated column) [[October 1]], [[2003]]. Accessed [[December 12]], [[2006]]. *–––. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102000874.html "Mission to Niger."] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' [[July 14]], [[2003]]: A21. Accessed [[December 12]], [[2006]]. *–––. [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12785&R=EE501DF13 "Who Said What Where When: The Rise and Fall of the Valerie Plame 'Scandal.'"] ''[[The Weekly Standard]]'' [[October 16]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[December 5]], [[2006]]. *Polity Media, Inc. [http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/Valerie_Plame.php "Valerie Plame's Campaign Contributions" from 1999 and 2004.] ''Newsmeat.com''. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4298732.stm "Q&A: The CIA Leak Case] [[BBC News]] [[September 9]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[December 6]], [[2006]]. *[http://legalnews.tv/news_reports/richard_armitage_admits_to_name-dropping_incident_20060909.html "Richard Armitage Admits to Name-Dropping Incident."] ''LegalNews.TV'' [[September 9]], [[2006]]. (ClipSyndicate media link provided.) Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *Scarborough, Rowan. [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060905-121843-2994r_page2.htm The Flameout of the Plame Game."] ''[[The Washington Times]]'' [[September 5]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *Smyth, Frank. [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/67699/ "U.S. Sends the Wrong Message to the World."] [[IFEX]] [[June 30]], [[2005]] (posted [[July 1]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *Spiegel International Online. [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,381952,00.html "Was Berlusconi Behind the Pre-Iraq War Yellow Cake Story?" (English translation)]. ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' [[October 27]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[November 17]], [[2006]]. *[http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-wh/2004/jun/18/061802534.html "White House Counsel Questioned in CIA Leak."] ''[[Las Vegas Sun]]'' [[June 18]], [[2004]]. *[[Victoria Toensing|Toensing, Victoria]]. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008948 "The Plame Kerfuffle: What a Load of Armitage! What did Patrick Fitzgerald know, and when did he know it?"]. ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' [[September 15]], [[2006]], Editorial. (See reply posted by Corn.) *[[UPI|United Press International]]. [http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031230-020156-4881r "Ashcroft Recuses Himself from Plame Affair Case."] [[UPI]] [[December 30]], [[2003]]. (Defunct link) *[[United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]. {{pdflink|[http://intelligence.senate.gov/108301.pdf ''Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence'']}} ''On the [[United States Intelligence Community|U.S. Intelligence Community]]'s Pre-War Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Together with Additional Views''. [[July 9]], [[2004]]. Accessed [[December 5]], [[2006]]. –––. [http://intelligence.senate.gov/030711.htm "Senator Roberts' Statement on the Niger Documents."] Press release. [[July 11]], [[2003]]. Accessed [[December 5]], [[2006]]. *Ward, Vicki. [http://www.jimgilliam.com/2004/01/vanity_fairs_profile_on_joseph_wilson_and_valerie_plame.php "Double Exposure."] ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' (Jan. 2004). Rpt. in "Vanity Fair's profile on Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame." ''JimGilliam.com'' (documentary film producer's personal blog) [[January 17]], [[2004]]. Accessed [[December 12]], [[2006]]. *[[Joseph C. Wilson|Wilson, Joseph]]. ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Put the White House on Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir''. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004. Paperback ed., 2005. ISBN 0-7867-1551-0. ==External links== *''[http://www.politicsoftruth.com/ The Politics of Truth:] Inside the Lies That Put the White House on Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir,'' by [[Joseph C. Wilson|Joseph Wilson]]: website featuring excerpts from the book, interviews, and reviews, a news archive, and [http://www.politicsoftruth.com/bibliography.html "Bibliography"], with hyperlinks. Copyright © 2004, Carroll & Graf Publishers & Joseph Wilson. *[http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/index.html Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's official Web site]. ==See also== *[[CIA leak grand jury investigation]] *[[Plame affair criminal investigation]] *[[Plame affair legal questions]] *[[Plame affair timeline]] *[[United States Intelligence Community]] *[[Yellowcake forgery]] [[Category:American political scandals|Plame affair]] [[Category:2003 Iraq conflict]] [[Category:George W. Bush administration controversies]] [[Category:Plame affair|Plame affair]] [[de:Plame-Affäre]] [[fr:Affaire Plame-Wilson]] [[it:CIA-gate]] [[he:פרשת פליים]] [[nl:Plamegate]] [[ja:プレイム・ゲート事件]] [[pl:Sprawa Plame]] [[sh:Plamegate]]