Plame affair

Time line of Plame affair

See main article at: Plame affair timeline

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CIA calls for special prosecutor

In September 2003, the CIA requested that the Justice Department investigate the matter.http://slate.msn.com/id/2088471/ Karl Rove was identified by the New York Times in connection to the Plame leak on 2 October 2003, in an article that both highlighted Attorney General John Ashcroft's employment of Rove in three previous political campaigns, and pointed to Ashcroft's potential conflict of interest in investigating Rove. In recusing himself from the case, Ashcroft named Deputy Attorney General James Comey, to be "acting attorney general" for the case; Comey in turn named U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald on 30 December 2003 (Comey names Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald began investigations into the leak working from White House telephone records turned over to the FBI in October 2003. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201556.html

Related Topics:
Justice Department - Karl Rove - 2 October - 2003 - Attorney General - John Ashcroft - James Comey - Patrick Fitzgerald - 30 December - FBI

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Though Plame's exposure was claimed to be retaliation for Wilson's editorial on issues surrounding the yellowcake forgery, the White House and the GOP have sought to discredit Wilson with a public relations campaign that claims Wilson has a partisan political agenda. However, Wilson along with current and former CIA officials have asserted the leak not only damaged Plame's career, but arguably endangered U.S. National Security and endangered the missions of other CIA agents working abroad under nonofficial cover (as "NOCs"), passing as private citizens without diplomatic passports. Plame, who worked undercover for the CIA for nearly 20 years,http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/politics/05wilson.html was identified as an NOC by New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller (among others) on 5 October 2003.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C16F939580C768CDDA90994DB404482 Articles in The Washington Post,http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A40012-2003Oct3¬Found=true The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications have pointed to Plame's association with Brewster Jennings & Associates, nominally an oil exploration firm, but in fact a CIA front company (now defunct) spying on Saudi and other interests across the Middle East. Under certain circumstances, disclosure of the identity of a covert agent is illegal under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, though the language of the statute raises the issue of whether Karl Rove is within the class of persons to whom the statute applies.http://wikisource.org/wiki/Intelligence_Identities_Protection_Act However, Title 18, United States Code, Section 641http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=641 prohibits theft (or conversion for one's own use) of government records and information for non-governmental purposes and was found to apply in the conviction of Jonathan Randelhttp://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20050715.html.

Related Topics:
Yellowcake forgery - GOP - Public relations - Partisan - CIA - National Security - Nonofficial cover - Citizens - Passports - Elisabeth Bumiller - 5 October - 2003 - The Washington Post - The Wall Street Journal - Brewster Jennings & Associates - Saudi - Middle East - Intelligence Identities Protection Act - Jonathan Randel

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While the complete list of witnesses who have testified before the Grand Jury is not known (Fitzgerald has conducted his investigation with much more discretion than previous presidential investigationshttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4773979), a number of individuals have acknowledged giving testimony, including White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Deputy Press Secretary Claire Buchan, former press secretary Ari Fleischer, former special advisor to the president Karen Hughes, former White House communications aide Adam Levine, former advisor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/03/waas-m-03-08.html On 13 May 2005, citing "close followers of the case," The Washington Post reported that the length of the investigation, and the particular importance paid to the testimony of reporters, suggested that the counsel's role had expanded to include investigation of perjury charges against witnesses.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201556.html Other observers have suggested that the testimony of journalists was needed to show a pattern of intent by the leaker or leakers.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/

Related Topics:
Grand Jury - White House Press Secretary - Scott McClellan - Claire Buchan - Ari Fleischer - Karen Hughes - Adam Levine - Mary Matalin - Secretary of State - Colin Powell - 13 May - 2005 - Journalists - Intent

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Both Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush have been interviewed by Fitzgerald, although not under oath. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3668-2004Jun24.html

Related Topics:
Vice President - Dick Cheney - President - George W. Bush

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Legal filings by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald contain many pages blanked out for security reasons, leading some observers to speculate that Fitzgerald has pursued the extent to which national security was compromised by the actions of Rove and others. On 18 July 2005, The Economist reported that Valerie Plame had been dissuaded by the CIA from publishing her own account of her exposure, suggesting that such an article would itself be a breach of national security. The Economist also reported that "affirmative measures" by the CIA were being taken to protect Plame's identity at the time Karl Rove revealed her CIA affiliation to journalists. http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4173001

Related Topics:
Special Counsel - Patrick Fitzgerald - The Economist - Karl Rove

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Contempt of Court: Miller, Cooper

New York Times investigative reporter Judith Miller, who met with an Lewis Libby on July 8 2003, two days after Wilson's editorial was published, never wrote or reported a story on the Plame affair,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201556.html but nevertheless refused (with Cooper) to answer questions before a grand jury in 2004 pertaining to sources. Both reporters were held in contempt of court. On 27 June 2005, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on the reporters' request for appeal, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968809 Time magazine said it would surrender to Fitzgerald e-mail records and notes taken by Cooper. Miller and Cooper faced potential jail terms for failure to cooperate with the independent counsel's investigations.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/02/politics/02leak.html Columnist Robert Novak, who later admitted that the CIA attempted to dissuade him from revealing Plame's name in print, "appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special prosecutor" (according to Newsweek).http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/

Related Topics:
Judith Miller - July 8 - 2003 - 27 June - 2005 - U.S. Supreme Court

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Miller was jailed on 7 July 2005, and remained there until September 29 when she agreed to testify in front of a grand jury after her source "voluntarily and personally released from promise of confidentiality." She was being held in Alexandria, VA in the same facility as Zacarias Moussaoui. In August 2005 the American Prospect magazine reported that Lewis Libby testified he had discussed Plame with Miller during a July 8, 2003 meeting. Libby signed a general waiver allowing journalists to reveal their discussions with him on this matter, but American Prospect reports that Miller refused to honor this waiver on the grounds that she considered it coerced. Miller had said she would accept a specific individual waiver to testify, but contends Libby had not given her one until late September 2005. In contrast, Libby's lawyer has insisted that he had fully released Miller to testify all along.

Related Topics:
7 July - 2005 - Alexandria, VA - Zacarias Moussaoui

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Karl Rove

On September 29, 2003, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, regarding any suggested involvement of Rove with the leak, that "The President knows" that it was not true.

Related Topics:
September 29 - 2003 - Scott McClellan

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:And I said it is simply not true. So, I mean, it's public knowledge. I've said that it's not true. And I have spoken with Karl Rove ... He 's aware of what I've said, that there is simply no truth to that suggestion. And I have spoken with Karl about it.http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030929-7.html

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During the Republican National Convention, Rove told CNN:

Related Topics:
Republican National Convention - CNN

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:I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name. This is at the Justice Department. I'm confident that the U.S. Attorney, the prosecutor who's involved in looking at this is going to do a very thorough job of doing a very substantial and conclusive investigation.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/05/ip.01.html

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On 1 July 2005 Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, on the McLaughlin Group stated: "And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time Magazines going to do with the grand jury." The document dump has since occurred.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201043.html

Related Topics:
1 July - 2005 - Lawrence O'Donnell - MSNBC - McLaughlin Group - Time Magazine

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On 2 July 2005, Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said that his client spoke to 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, however, asserted that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." This second statement has since been called into question by an e-mail, written three days before Novak's column, in which Cooper indicated that Rove had told him Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. If Rove were aware that this was classified information at the time, then both disclaimers by his lawyer would be untrue. Furthermore, Luskin said that Rove himself had testified before the grand jury "two or three times" (three times, according to the Los Angeles Times of 3 July 2005 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rove3jul03,1,2388418.story) and signed a waiver authorizing reporters to testify about their conversations with him and that Rove "has answered every question that has been put to him about his conversations with Cooper and anybody else." Rove's lawyer declined to share with Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff the nature or contents of his client's conversations with Cooper. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/

Related Topics:
2 July - 2005 - Robert Luskin - Robert Novak - 3 July - Michael Isikoff

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972841 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1079464,00.htmlhttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rove3jul03,1,2388418.story

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201043.html

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On 6 July 2005, Cooper agreed to testify, thus avoiding being held in contempt of court and sent to jail. Cooper said "I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions for not testifying," but told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance at court he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" an indication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep his source's identity secret. For some observers this called into question the allegations against Rove, who had signed a waiver months before permitting reporters to testify about their conversations with him (see above paragraph).

Related Topics:
6 July - 2005 - Contempt of court

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050706/ap_on_re_us/reporters_contempt_62;_ylt=ArnUNjXzbMhKbNhtcoEGde1ZJ_wA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

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Cooper, however, stated in court that he did not previously accept a general waiver to journalists signed by his source (whom he did not identify by name), because he had made a personal pledge of confidentiality to his source. The 'dramatic change' which allowed Cooper to testify was later revealed to be a phone conversation between lawyers for Cooper and his source confirming that the waiver signed two years earlier included conversations with Cooper. Citing a "person who has been officially briefed on the case," The New York Times identified Rove as the individual in question,http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/politics/07leak.html?hp&ex=1120795200&en=211258b05dea0ba7&ei=5094&partner=homepage a fact later confirmed by Rove's own lawyer.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/ According to one of Cooper's lawyers, Cooper has previously testified before the grand jury regarding conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, after having received Libby's specific permission to testify.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/politics/07leak.html?hp&ex=1120795200&en=211258b05dea0ba7&ei=5094&partner=homepagehttp://rawstory.com/news/2005/What_Karl_Rove_and_Cheneys_chief_of_staff_told__0717.html

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Rove's email to Hadley

In an email sent by Karl Rove to top White House security official Stephen Hadley immediately after his 11 July 2003 discussion with Matt Cooper (obtained by the Associated Press and published on 15 July 2005), Rove claimed that he tried to steer Cooper away from allegations Wilson was making about faulty Iraq intelligence. "Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming," Rove wrote to Hadley. "When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this." Rove made no mention to Hadley in the e-mail of having leaked Plame's CIA identity, nor of having revealed classified information to a reporter, nor of having told the reporter that certain sensitive information would soon be declassified.http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050716/D8BC7F500.html Although Rove wrote to Hadley (and perhaps testified) that the initial subject of his conversation with Cooper was welfare reform and that Cooper turned the conversation to Wilson and the Niger mission, Cooper disputed this suggestion in his grand jury testimony and subsequent statements: "I can't find any record of talking about with him on July 11 , and I don't recall doing so," Cooper said. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1083899,00.htmlhttp://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000980363

Related Topics:
Karl Rove - Stephen Hadley - 11 July - 2003 - Associated Press - 15 July - 2005 - Welfare reform

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Karl Rove revealed as Time source

On 10 July 2005, Newsweek posted a story from its July 18 print edition which quoted one of the e-mails written by Time reporter Matt Cooper in the days following the publication of Wilson's Op-Ed piece.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/ Writing to Time bureau chief Michael Duffy on 11 July 2003, three days before Novak's column was published, Cooper recounted a two-minute conversation with Karl Rove "on double super secret background" in which Rove said that Wilson's wife was a CIA employee: "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip." In a Time article released 17 July 2005, Cooper says Rove ended his conversation by saying "I've already said too much." If true, this could indicate that Rove identified Wilson's wife as a CIA employee prior to Novak's column being published. Some believe that statements by Rove claiming he did not reveal her name would still be strictly accurate if he mentioned her only as 'Wilson's wife', although this distinction would likely have no bearing on the alleged illegality of the disclosure. The White House repeatedly denied that Rove had any involvement in the leaks. Whether Rove's statement to Cooper that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA in fact violated any laws has not been resolved.

Related Topics:
10 July - 2005 - Michael Duffy - 11 July - 2003 - Double super secret background - 17 July

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In addition, Rove told Cooper that CIA Director George Tenet did not authorize Wilson's trip to Niger, and that "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an suspect but so is the report" which Wilson made upon his return from Africa. Rove "implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate Iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro Niger," and in an apparent effort to discourage Cooper from taking the former ambassador's assertions seriously, gave Cooper a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Cooper recommended that his bureau chief assign a reporter to contact the CIA for further confirmation, and indicated that the tip should not be sourced to Rove or even to the White House. The Washington Post reported that the CIA, contradicting Rove, "maintained that Wilson was chosen for the trip by senior officials in the Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division (CPD) -- not by his wife -- largely because he had handled a similar agency inquiry in Niger in 1999"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001918.html, though she is reported to have suggested him for the 1999 triphttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/.

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Cooper testified before a grand jury on 13 July 2005, confirming that Rove was the source who told him Wilson's wife was an employee of the CIA.http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000978699 In the 17 July 2005 Time magazine article detailing his grand jury testimony, Cooper wrote that Rove never used Plame's name nor indicated that she had covert status, although Rove did apparently convey that certain information relating to her was classified: "Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the C.I.A. and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the 'agency' on 'W.M.D.'? Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know. Is any of this a crime? Beats me."http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1083899,00.html Cooper also explained to the grand jury that the "double super secret background" under which Rove spoke to him was not an official White House or Time magazine source or security designation, but an allusion to the 1978 film Animal House, in which a college fraternity is placed under "double secret probation."http://rawstory.com/news/2005/What_Karl_Rove_and_Cheneys_chief_of_staff_told__0717.html

Related Topics:
13 July - 2005 - 17 July - Animal House

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On 13 August 2005 journalist Murray Waas reported that Justice Department and FBI officials had recommended appointing a special prosecutor to the case because they felt that Rove had not been truthful in early interviews, withholding from FBI investigators his conversation with Cooper about Plame and maintaining that he had first learned of Plame's CIA identity from a journalist whose name Rove could not recall. In addition, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, from whose prior campaigns Rove had been paid $746,000 in consulting fees, had been briefed on the contents of at least one of Rove's interviews with the FBI - raising concerns of a conflict of interest with the not-yet-recused Attorney General. http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0533,waasweb1,66861,2.html

Related Topics:
13 August - 2005

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Other journalists with early knowledge

Days after Novak's initial column appeared, several other journalists, notably Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, published Plame's name citing unnamed government officials as sources. In his article, titled "A War on Wilson?", Cooper raised the possibility that the White House had "declared war" on Wilson for speaking out against the Bush Administration.http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html

Related Topics:
Matthew Cooper - Time

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Both NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell and MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews have been mentioned in the press as having early knowledge of the Plame leak, although their conversations with (unnamed) White House officials may have taken place after Novak's article was published.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3129941&p1=0 Matthews is reported to have told Wilson, "I just got off the phone with Karl Rove, who said your wife was fair game."http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20031010.html Two Newsday reporters who also confirmed and expanded upon Novak's account, Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, were also mentioned in October 2003 in connection to the investigation.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00612F93B580C748CDDA90994DB404482

Related Topics:
NBC - Andrea Mitchell - Chris Matthews - Newsday - Reporters - Timothy M. Phelps - Knut Royce

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Walter Pincus, a Washington Post columnist, has written that he was told in confidence by an (unnamed) Bush administration official on 12 July 2003, two days before Novak's column appeared, that "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."http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Showcase.view&showcaseid=0019 Because he did not believe it to be true, Pincus did not report the story.

Related Topics:
Walter Pincus - Washington Post - 12 July - 2003 - Boondoggle

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Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief of NBC News, and Glenn Kessler, a diplomatic reporter for the Washington Post, have both offered testimony in the ongoing investigation.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/politics/28leak.html

Related Topics:
Tim Russert - NBC News - Glenn Kessler

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Air Force One memo

In late July and early August, 2005, a great deal of attention began to be paid to a classified State Department memorandum which may have been the original source of the leaked suggestion regarding Plame, and may help to identify those who were in a position to have and therefore to leak Plame's identity.

Related Topics:
July - August - 2005

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According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, the three page memo was originally dated June 10, 2003 and addressed to Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who had asked to be briefed on the history of opposition by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) to the White House's position that Saddam Hussein was attempting to obtain uranium from Africa. It was a summary of the notes (included with the memo) taken by an unnamed senior analyst, of a meeting at the CIA on February 19, 2002 where Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger was discussed.

Related Topics:
Wall Street Journal - Washington Post - June 10 - 2003 - Marc Grossman - State Department - Bureau of Intelligence and Research - Saddam Hussein - Uranium - Africa - CIA - February 19 - 2002 - Niger

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The memo mainly shows that the State Department had already decided on the basis of other evidence, detailed in the memo, that Iraq was not in fact seeking to acquire uranium from Niger, and therefore opposed Wilson's trip as unnecessary. However, two sentences of background information in the second paragraph mention Wilson's wife, identifying her as "Valerie Wilson", and speculate that it was she "who had the idea to dispatch to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue". Although she is not explicitly identified as a covert agent, the paragraph naming her was marked with an (S) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002517_pf.html, the prescribed way to indicate in a U.S. classified document that a paragraph is classified at the "secret" level. http://www.dss.mil/isec/nispom.htm Anyone with a U.S. security clearance is expected to be familiar with this notation. This could make leaking her identity based on this document a federal crime under several statutes, punishable by up to ten years imprisonment.

Related Topics:
Classified document - Security clearance

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According to the Post, on July 6, 2003, shortly after Wilson had written in the New York Times and the Post and appeared on Meet the Press criticizing the Bush administration's statements regarding Saddam's attempts to acquire yellowcake, Secretary of State Colin Powell had asked Carl W. Ford Jr., at that time director of INR, to explain Wilson's statements. Ford readdressed the memo to Powell, who received it on July 7, 2003 as he was about to leave for Africa aboard Air Force One with President Bush, White House senior adviser Dan Bartlett, then White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and others. The memo was passed around on the plane and discussed. The Post's sources report that Ford described the details of the memo in 2004 for the grand jury investigating the leak.

Related Topics:
July 6 - 2003 - New York Times - Meet the Press - Secretary of State - Colin Powell - Carl W. Ford Jr. - July 7 - Air Force One - Dan Bartlett - Ari Fleischer - Condoleezza Rice - Andrew Card - 2004

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One week later, on July 14, 2003, Robert Novak stated in his column that it was Plame's idea to send Wilson to Niger, in the process exposing her as a CIA agent, which launched the controversy and eventually an investigation regarding the source of the information. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, who received the leak later than Novak, stated that it was given to him by Karl Rove and confirmed by Scooter Libby. According to Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, Rove has stated that he had not seen the memo until it was given to him by prosecutors investigating the leak, and that he learned of Plame from Novak. Novak has written that he got his information from "another journalist", unnamed, and that for confirmation of Plame's role he called two administration officials as well as CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, who advised him not to mention Plame by name; but he dismissed Harlow's advice because "once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as 'Valerie Plame' by reading her husband's entry in 'Who's Who in America.' "

Related Topics:
July 14 - 2003 - Matthew Cooper - Time - Karl Rove - Scooter Libby - Robert Luskin - Bill Harlow

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Pincus' description of the contents of the memo was cited as support by those who believe that someone in the administration's inner circle was responsible for the leakhttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/11/8744/96732, http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/11/pincus/index.html, who state that, to date, it is the only known document even tentatively linking Plame to the suggestion that Wilson be sent to Niger (aside from a separate statement of "additional views" filed by three Republican senators in connection with the Senate investigation into prewar intelligence on Iraq, which was not written until 2004); the precise information leaked to Novak, Cooper, and the Post's Walter Pincus in order to discount Wilson's qualifications. In their view this is consistent with the memo as the source of the leaked exposure of Plame via someone who was on that flight of Air Force One, as well as confirming that the information was known to be secret.

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Supporters of the administration counter that the source of the information could have been the earlier June 10 State Department memo, the notes of the CIA meeting by the unnamed senior State Department analyst, the analyst and other attendees at that meeting, or the persons at CIA involved with arranging Wilson's Niger trip, not just somebody who read the memo aboard Air Force One.

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