Did the White House blow CIA agent's cover in revenge?
As I blogged about earlier, former embassador Joseph C. Wilson went to Niger as a CIA envoy to investigate whether there were any chance of Saddam Hussein getting hold of "yellowcake" uranium ore in that country, and came back negative. When the Bush administration apparently ignored his findings, he wrote about his trip in the New York Times. This apparently didn't win him any friends in the Bush administration.
Now, an anonymous senior administration official says that two top White House officials called at least six journalists and revealed to them the name of Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, who somehow got blamed for the trip, herself a CIA agent. As a result, one of them, columnist Robert D. Novak, revealed her name in print.
"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.
Sources familiar with the conversations said the leakers were seeking to undercut Wilson's credibility. They alleged that Wilson, who was not a CIA employee, was selected for the Niger mission partly because his wife had recommended him. Wilson said in an interview yesterday that a reporter had told him that the leaker said, "The real issue is Wilson and his wife."
A source said reporters quoted a leaker as describing Wilson's wife as "fair game."
The official would not name the leakers for the record and would not name the journalists. The official said there was no indication that Bush knew about the calls.
Plame may well have worked undercover, now or in the past, and blowing her cover may have endangered herself or even more, her contacts, and certainly will restrict what work she can do in the future. Conservative columnist Novak, taking quite a bit of heat himself as the only journalist who actually printed her name, tries to blame intelligence sources:
Novak said in an interview last night that the request came at the end of a conversation about Wilson's trip to Niger and his wife's role in it. "They said it's doubtful she'll ever again have a foreign assignment," he said. "They said if her name was printed, it might be difficult if she was traveling abroad, and they said they would prefer I didn't use her name. It was a very weak request. If it was put on a stronger basis, I would have considered it."
Wilson refuses to confirm his wife's occupation, but blames Bush's senior adviser Karl C. Rove for blowing his wife's cover. Rove declines the charge, and other White House officials have issued evasive answers that have the press corps smell blood. The CIA and the administration have now sent memos questioning the possible outing, and the Justice Department is considering investigating the leak. It is a federal crime for a government official to leak intelligence secrets.
Wilson said Aug. 21 at a public forum in suburban Seattle that it is of keen interest to him "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."
That will be the day.
3:21:18 AM 
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