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Bush engulfed by CIA leak claim
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether senior White House officials illegally disclosed a CIA operative's identity. Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson believes his wife's name, Valerie Plame, was leaked to retaliate against his criticism of Washington's handling of intelligence on Iraq. The White House strongly denies the allegations, which have threatened to engulf the Bush administration in unwelcome controversy, but says it will cooperate with the Justice Department's probe. "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," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. McClellan said that if anyone at the White House leaked Plame's identity, he should be fired, and pursued to the "fullest extent." "No one was authorized to do this. That is simply not the way this White House operates and if someone leaked classified information it is a very serious matter," he said. There would be no internal probe or independent investigation, he added. "There has been no information brought to us or that has come to our attention beyond the media reports to suggest there was White House involvement." The Justice Department has been asked to investigate the matter, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice confirmed Sunday, but the department would not comment on whether or not it is looking into the case. Democrats have angrily called for an independent investigation into the leak. Four senators, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle, sent letters to Attorney General John Ashcroft and President Bush on Monday, 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," the letters said. Wilson had disputed the U.S. president's claim that Iraq had tried to purchase "yellowcake" uranium ore from Africa. The White House has admitted to making a mistake in including the allegation in the January State of the Union address, but denies any foul play in disclosing Plame's name. Plame's identity was leaked to newspaper columnist and CNN contributor Robert Novak as retribution, Wilson says, for his alleging flaws in prewar intelligence. In an interview Monday with CNN, he described the administration as "acting like schoolyard bullies, pulling the hair of a little girl." Plame was described as a CIA employee in a July column by Novak in the Chicago Sun-Times. CNN has been unable to reach Plame. Novak has refused to divulge his source, but denies the leak came from the White House. "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this," Novak said Monday CNN's "Crossfire," which he co-hosts. "There is no great crime here." Novak said he was working on the column when a senior administration official told him the CIA asked Wilson to go to Niger in early 2002 at the suggestion of his wife, whom the source described as "a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction." (Full story) Punishable by up to ten years in jail and as much as $50,000 in fines, disclosing a CIA operative's name is a criminal offense in the United States. 'A dastardly act'"The leaking of the name of a CIA [operative] is a dastardly act," Sen. Charles Schumer, told CNN Monday. "It not only endangers the name of an agent who has put his or her life on the line for America, [but also] all their operatives and security ... It's a despicable thing to do." Wilson on Monday backed away from earlier claims that Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove broke his wife's cover. He told CNN the accusation was "excess of exuberance" on his part, but he said he believed Rove condoned the leak and did nothing to stop it. The publication of his wife's identity came one week after Wilson had written a critical article in The New York Times about the administration's handling of intelligence on Iraq. Wilson visited Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate a British intelligence report alleging Iraq had tried to buy significant quantities of yellowcake there, and in other African countries, for possible use in nuclear weapons. Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat with expertise in African affairs, reported finding no evidence to support the claim. It was later revealed the British report was based in part on forged documents, and Bush backed away from the statement. "The idea, it seemed to me, in going after me and then later making these allegations about my wife, was clearly designed to keep others from stepping forward," said Wilson, who was acting ambassador to Iraq in the months before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. -- CNN's Dana Bash and David Ensor contributed to this report.
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