cia vs the white house

Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed in the New York Times What I Didn't Find in Africa that appeared on July 6. What Wilson didn't find was evidence that Niger had attempted to sell yellowcake uranium to Iraq.

Eight days later, On July 14, Robert Novak's column,Mission to Niger, identified Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. Novak attributed the information in his column to "two senior administration officials". Two days later, David Corn's article A White House Smear, appeared in The Nation.

Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security--and break the law--in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?

Meanwhile, the CIA is not pleased. Not at all.

Today's Washington Post carries an article Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry about the CIA's request that the Justice Department follow up.

Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account touched off a political fracas over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.

The bloggers have a lot to say. Enjoy.

Atrios at Eschaton
Josh Marshall
Mark Kleiman