CIA 'outing' might fall short of crime
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON ? The alleged crime at the heart of a controversy that has consumed official Washington ? the "outing" of a CIA officer ? may not have been a crime at all under federal law, little-noticed details in a book by the agent's husband suggest.
Compromised: Joseph Wilson and wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Vanity Fair
In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in Washington, D.C., where they married and became parents of twins. (Related story: Bush waits on Rove)
Six years later, in July 2003, the name of the CIA officer ? Valerie Plame ? was revealed by columnist Robert Novak.
The column's date is important because the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a "covert agent" must have been on an overseas assignment "within the last five years." The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say. Wilson's book makes numerous references to the couple's life in Washington over the six years up to July 2003.
"Unless she was really stationed abroad sometime after their marriage," she wasn't a covert agent protected by the law, says Bruce Sanford, an attorney who helped write the 1982 act that protects covert agents' identities.
The leaking of Valerie Plame's identity started a chain of events that now has the White House at the center of a political firestorm as some Democrats demand President Bush fire close aide Karl Rove. Rove discussed Plame's CIA connection with Time reporter Matthew Cooper in 2003, though without naming her, according to Rove's attorney.
Joseph Wilson would not say whether his wife was stationed overseas again after 1997, and he said she would not speak to a reporter. But, he said, "the CIA obviously believes there was reason to believe a crime had been committed" because it referred the case to the Justice Department.
Spokesmen for both the CIA and federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating whether a crime was committed, also would not comment.
Though that key law may not have been broken in leaking the name, Fitzgerald must still be pursuing evidence of some type of wrongdoing, said Victoria Toensing, another of the attorneys who helped draft the 1982 act. Like Sanford, she doubts Valerie Wilson, as she now refers to herself, qualified as a "covert agent" under that law. She and Sanford also doubt Fitzgerald has enough evidence to prosecute anyone under the Espionage Act. That law makes it a crime to divulge "information relating to the national defense" that "the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury" of the nation.
But, Toensing said, "reading between the lines, I'd say he's got a 'Martha Stewart case' " involving perjury or obstruction of justice. In other words, though a crime may not have been committed at the start, one may have occurred during the investigation when someone lied to Fitzgerald or to a federal grand jury.
The tempest started when Novak wrote about why Joseph Wilson had gone to Niger in 2002 on a fact-finding mission for the CIA. Wilson had been sent to check on reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ? fuel for nuclear weapons. In 2003, he disputed administration claims that Iraq had tried to buy the uranium.
Novak wrote that "Valerie Plame is an agency (CIA) operative" and that "two senior administration officials" said she suggested sending her husband to Niger. Time magazine's Cooper filed a similar online story three days later.
The stories led to Fitzgerald's investigation and the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who did not publish a story. She has refused to discuss conversations she had with a source.
This week, Democrats including Sens. John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Rove should be fired. An e-mail Cooper allegedly sent to a Time colleague and obtained by Newsweek last week indicates Rove was among Cooper's sources. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said Bush still has confidence in Rove. Wednesday, Bush said he wouldn't comment until "the investigation is completed."