WASHINGTON — Bob Woodward's latest bombshell -- this one about the CIA leak investigation -- touched off a furor in Washington on Wednesday, raising questions about the noted journalist's previous failure to disclose what he knew, the completeness of the government's investigation of the case, and the identity of yet another top Bush administration source.
Woodward, an author and assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, disclosed that he had been told by a senior Bush administration official in mid-2003 about CIA operative Valerie Plame, which made him the first journalist known to have been leaked information about Plame, the wife of an administration critic.
Some observers said the disclosure abruptly altered the picture in the criminal case against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was named by Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald as having leaked Plame's identity to other journalists.
"Woodward's disclosures are a bombshell to Mr. Fitzgerald's case," Ted Wells, an attorney for Libby, said in a statement.
Other lawyers familiar with the case downplayed the possible effects of Woodward's revelation on the prosecution's case.
But there was rampant speculation about the identity of Woodward's source. The writer has had unparalleled access to administration officials at the highest levels in researching material for his books and news stories. Some people familiar with the case were shocked that Fitzgerald had not rooted out the conversation earlier.
"It's just amazing to me," said a lawyer who represents someone involved in the investigation. "It says to me that you don't know the whole story yet."
Woodward disclosed in the Post that Fitzgerald had interviewed him under oath this week after the unnamed official had come forward Nov. 3 and told the prosecutor about the conversations.
In a more-than-two-hour deposition, Woodward said, he told Fitzgerald that the unnamed official had casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction. Woodward said in an interview that he had not thought that her position was classified. Most analysts at the CIA are not working in a covert capacity, but Plame, a veteran overseas agent, had retained covert status.
It is illegal under certain circumstances to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert operative.
