The CIA Agent Flap: FBI Asks for Reporters to Talk

TIME ^ | Jan. 02, 2004 | JOHN F. DICKERSON AND VIVECA NOVAK

[cyncooper]

Investigators are pressing Administration officials to let journalists tell whatever they know about the leak of a CIA agent's identity

FBI investigators looking into the criminal leak of a CIA agent’s identity have asked Bush Administration officials including senior political adviser Karl Rove to release reporters from any confidentiality agreements regarding conversations about the agent. If signed, the single-page requests made over the last week would give investigators new ammunition for questioning reporters who have so far, according to those familiar with the case, not disclosed the names of administration officials who divulged that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson, worked for the CIA.

While irregular, the move is not unprecedented. Various officials were told from the start that such a request might be made. Along with the recusal this week of Attorney General John Ashcroft, this suggests that investigators are ready to enter the next stage of the probe. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has been named special prosecutor to oversee the inquiry. The FBI has already extensively re-interviewed some White House officials using emails and phone logs from their search to press for the identity of the leaker. “They are taking this very seriously,” says one close to the case.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press, says asking people who are in the universe of possible suspects to sign such a document is unusual, though not unheard of. "From the prosecutors' point of view, it is likely a precursor to subpoenaing journalists to testify before a grand jury, and then asking a judge to hold them in contempt if they refuse to do so," she noted.

It's plain that White House officials are under some pressure to sign the documents. "They can't refuse," said one individual who's familiar with the case. "The worst thing to be accused of here is not cooperating with the investigation." But reporters are not likely to feel the same pressure. Journalists rarely divulge the identities of confidential sources even when threatened with contempt citations so the releases may make little difference. Still, in a post-9/11 world, a case involving the disclosure of a covert agent's identity could be taken very seriously by a judge, who would have the power to jail a member of the press for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.

For an administration that at times holds a very dim view of the press, the reputation of the Bush White House and the future of some of its officials may hang on the profession’s ethical standards.

[SeaDragon]

nevertheless, revealing the names of clandestine and covert operators can get people killed, not to mention the loss for our national security.

This is true, if she truly was an undercover operative. I still doubt this. What I find frightening in the the other article is that during their "make-out" session she would reveal such a thing. If that is the kind of operatives we have, then we are in deep, deep trouble.

[Zack Nguyen]

It may well be true that Mrs. Plame was loose-lipped when dealing with national security. But that doesn't matter if a law was broken. For every Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, there are probably 10 clandestine operatives who risk life and limb and stay quiet. The law is in place to protect those people. Stealing is a crime, even if you leave the door unlocked.

[Zack Nguyen]

It may well be true that Mrs. Plame was loose-lipped when dealing with national security. But that doesn't matter if a law was broken. For every Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, there are probably 10 clandestine operatives who risk life and limb and stay quiet. The law is in place to protect those people. Stealing is a crime, even if you leave the door unlocked.

[Zack Nguyen]

That's why I want to know who the democrat is who told Cliff May about Wilson's wife.

I haven't heard about this.

[Zack Nguyen]

What I find frightening in the the other article is that during their "make-out" session she would reveal such a thing.

If that is story is true it's a real problem. Yet the fundamental principle remains.

[cyncooper]

See the link at #6? I went and read the article and a few things clicked in my head regarding timelines and what was going on last summer. I posted a long ramble AT #92 about it over there if you care to see what you think. You are one who has been following the Wilsons, right?

[cyncooper]

So if the WH wants it to, the whole truth about this incident will soon come out.

No, it won't. Since they didn't leak than there is nothing for a journalist to reveal.

The "leak", if it can be described as such, came from another source. This step will merely eliminate the WH from the list of "suspects".

[cyncooper]

It's true. I heard him tell about it myself on tv. He said it was told to him because May was saying (more or less) "Why the HELL was Joe Wilson of all people sent to Niger? He hates Bush", and the dem said "Well, his wife is CIA", which May said was said in a tone like "Wilson isn't like unpatriotic or something."

May also wrote about it on the NRO blog.

[SeaDragon]

Yet the fundamental principle remains.

Exactly which fundamental principle did you have in mind here?

[alnick]

But that doesn't matter if a law was broken.

That hasn't even been established. It's still an open question as to whether or not a law was even broken.

Let's hope Fitzgerald gets to the bottom of THIS ENTIRE MATTER, including why in the world a man who HATES GWB and openly hopes to bring his administration down was given this assignment in the first place.

[squidly]

If Clinton were in office, Reno would have simply refused to investigate from the beginning, as she did with the Chinese fundraising. Sometimes the GOP is its own worst enemy.

And pardon me while I puke on this "victim" status some people have built up for Plame and Wilson. They knew what they were doing, which was conducting an unsanctioned "investigation" (not really worthy of that term) with a preconceived conclusion in mind. It was a hit job on the Bush administration, and when the Bush administration hits back they cry and wail about some anonymity BS.

Gag! This entire affair disgusts me.

[Prodigal Son]

Do Americans even care about this? I have no clue- not being in the US- but it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would get most people worked up.

[cyncooper]

I have no idea what regular Americans think, but the media acts, as they did tonight with this revelation that the FBI wants these forms signed, as if some BIG STORY is going on.

TIME and CNN in particular are anxious to paint Karl Rove as the chief suspect even though Robert Novak has specifically said it was not Rove. In fact, Novak has said it was not the WH.

[sinkspur]

Do Americans even care about this?

No. And Wilson and Plame are splashing themselves all over the press to prolong their fifteen minutes.

This is a damned joke, IMO. Plame was known all over Washington as a CIA employee.

She was NOT an operative.

[Prodigal Son]

but the media acts, as they did tonight with this revelation that the FBI wants these forms signed, as if some BIG STORY is going on.

Yeah, but... Aren't Americans too occuppied with Enron to be concerned with this right now? ;-)

[demlosers]

She was NOT an operative.

Then WTF?

No blown cover? She's an office worker who pushes paper like the thousands of other staffers at Langley. This is much ado about nothing.

[Zack Nguyen]

The fundamental principle of protecting the identity of clandestine intelligenece operatives. Somebody gave that name up. He/she needs to be held accountable.

[Shermy]

Here's a French article, Oct. 10, from the paper "Liberation"


http://www.izaronews.org/noticias/(28_09_03)/extranjera2.htm

Interestingly, it mentions Rock Creek and that Wilson is a "Francophile". It sounds like the French are familiar with him indeed.

"LIBERATION (01-10-03)
Bush dans les affres de l'affaire Wilson
La Maison Blanche aurait balancé un espion de la CIA.
A le voir comme ça, Joe Wilson, consultant et ancien ambassadeur, n'a l'air de rien. C'est un type direct et simple, démocrate, francophile, spécialiste de l'Afrique et de l'Irak, consultant au cabinet Rock Creek Corporation."

Elsewhere I noted the VF article, if you connect the dots from it's random facts, Wilson's second wife is/was a French diplomat.

Also, the writer seems to have asked Wilson about his business dealings, briefly. He states that for a private concern in London he solicited a gold mining rights from the government of Niger - the same government he exonerated.

VF also mentions Rock Creek and Saudis, but doesn't press him. It seems he sidestepped the Saudi issue altogether, though the author's attention to the issue is very meager.