Criminal inquiry into CIA leak

2003-10-01 12:50

Washington - The FBI has begun a full-scale criminal investigation into whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer, and President George W Bush ordered his staff to co-operate with the first major probe of his administration.

Democrats demanded the appointment of a special outside counsel but Bush resisted. "I'm absolutely confident that the Justice Department can do a good job," he said on a re-election fund-raising stop in Chicago.

"If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it and we'll take the appropriate action," Bush said. "And this investigation is a good thing."

Democratic leaders said Attorney General John Ashcroft was too close to the White House to conduct an impartial investigation. "We don't have confidence in John Ashcroft... and we know without a doubt that somebody broke the federal law," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, "If there ever was a case for the appointment of a special counsel, this is it."

With pressure building, the Justice Department alerted the White House late on Monday of the decision to move from a preliminary inquiry into a full investigation, a step rarely taken with complaints involving leaks of classified information.

Who leaked the name?

The investigation is aimed at finding who leaked the name of the CIA operative, possibly in an attempt to punish the officer's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C Wilson, who had accused the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq.

"I want to know the truth," Bush said. Anyone with information, inside or outside the administration, should step forward, he said.

Although Bush said he welcomed the investigation, it was an embarrassing development for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism of former President Bill Clinton's administration.

While the administration appeared cool toward naming a special counsel, Ashcroft has not ruled out that possibility, a senior law enforcement official said.

That decision will depend on a number of factors, such as whether a suspect is identified who presents a potential conflict for the Justice Department. For now, the investigation is being done by FBI agents in the counterintelligence division, based at the FBI Washington field office, and overseen by 11 career prosecutors in the counterespionage section of the Justice Department's criminal division.

Preservation of documents

In a staff message late on Tuesday, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales ordered the preservation of any documents such as phone logs, memos, notes and calendar entries from February 1, 2002, and later that relate to Wilson, his fact-finding trip to Africa in February 2002 and his wife's purported relationship with the CIA and any contacts with the anyone in the news media about those subjects.

In particular, Gonzales cited any contacts with columnist Robert Novak and Timothy M Phelps, Washington bureau chief for Newsday newspaper, and Knut Royce, a staff writer for the paper.

"You must preserve all documents relating, in any way, directly or indirectly, to these subjects, even if there could be a question whether the document would be a presidential or federal record or even if its destruction might otherwise be permitted," Gonzales said.

No contact with White House

Newsday Editor Howard Schneider said on Tuesday evening his newspaper has had no contact with the White House or Justice Department about the memo. He said, however, that Newsday was probably singled out because the newspaper was the first to report that a CIA officer revealed in a Novak column was an undercover operative.

Democrats tried to attach a resolution calling for a special counsel to a spending bill for the District of Columbia but Republicans ruled it was not relevant.

Federal law prohibits the unauthorised disclosure of a covert agent's name, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The CIA officer's name was published in July by Novak, who said he based his report on two senior administration officials.

Ashcroft, at a news conference, said the CIA also had been instructed to tell employees to preserve relevant information.

"Such requests are standard procedures in investigations of this type," Ashcroft said. He declined to say why he hadn't sought an outside investigation. "Because of an ongoing investigation of criminal violations, I will not be making any further comment at this time," Ashcroft said.

Bush spent the day in Chicago and Cincinnati raising money for his re-election campaign.

'Too much leaking in Washington'

"Leaks of classified information are a bad thing. There's too much leaking in Washington," he said. "I want to know who the leakers are."

A day earlier, spokesperson Scott McClellan said it was "ridiculous" to suggest Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, had played any role in disclosing the name of the CIA officer.

It was the CIA officer's husband, Wilson, who travelled to Niger in 2002 to investigate allegations of uranium sales to Iraq. He concluded the allegations were not credible.

Wilson said on Monday, referring to the leaking of his wife's name, that people in whom he had confidence have "indicated to me that he (Rove), at a minimum, condoned it and certainly did nothing to put a stop to it for a week after it was out there." In an interview with ABC's Nightline, Wilson said he would tell the FBI, if asked, the names of "everybody who called me and told me" about conversations with Rove.

- AP