Anatomy Of A Leak

By Mitch Frank

--FEBRUARY 2002

Vice President Dick Cheney's office asks the CIA to look into British reports that Saddam Hussein's government attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Agency officials decide to dispatch ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson to the West African nation; after eight days he returns and calls the intelligence "bogus and unrealistic." The agency sends a memo to the White House on March 9 summarizing Wilson's findings

--JAN. 23, 2003

In his State of the Union address, President Bush cites British intelligence accusing Iraq of seeking uranium from Africa, despite months of debate between Administration officials over whether that intelligence is reliable. The claim had been cut from an October speech

--MARCH 8

Only a week before the war with Iraq begins, Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, tells the U.N. Security Council that the claim is based on false evidence--the papers documenting uranium sales between Niger and Iraq are clear forgeries

--JUNE 12

After months of Administration officials trading accusations over whether the Niger uranium story is accurate and how it got into the State of the Union, senior officials disclose Wilson's mission and its findings to the Washington Post without identifying the former Ambassador

--JULY 6

An op-ed by Wilson appears in the New York Times. He reveals that he is the retired diplomat who visited Niger and accuses the Administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. The next day the White House admits the claim should not have been in the State of the Union but suggests that the CIA was responsible

--JULY 11

CIA director George Tenet takes the blame for not having the Niger claim cut from the State of the Union but discloses that the National Security Council (NSC) pressed to include it. Eleven days later, NSC deputy Stephen Hadley admits he forgot that he had seen two memos from the agency expressing serious doubts about the intelligence

--JULY 14

Conservative columnist Bob Novak exposes Wilson's wife as a CIA officer in a piece about fallout from Wilson's op-ed. He writes, "Valerie Plame is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior Administration officials told me that his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate"

--JULY 17

A TIME.com story puts Novak's column in context as part of a campaign against Wilson. The story says officials suggested he was picked for the Niger trip because of his wife. Four days later, Wilson says a journalist told him that Karl Rove allegedly said Wilson's wife was "fair game." But Wilson now says it was a White House source, not necessarily Rove

--JULY 22

Intelligence officials confirm to Newsday reporters that Plame works for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction in an undercover capacity. Novak tells Newsday the sources came to him with the scoop. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me." On Tenet's orders, the CIA is already preparing an initial crime report on the Plame leak for the Justice Department

--SEPT. 23

The CIA submits a detailed report to the Justice Department, charging that the leak broke the rarely used 1982 law against knowingly identifying undercover officers. On Sept. 26, Justice's counterespionage chief John Dion decides that the case merits a criminal investigation, and MSNBC.com reports an investigation has begun

--SEPT. 28

The Washington Post reports that "two top White House officials" called at least six reporters with the information on Plame before Novak's column ran. Attorney General John Ashcroft, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller are informed the next day of Dion's decision

--SEPT. 30

Gonzales orders all records related to Wilson, his trip, Novak and two Newsday reporters to be preserved. Three days later, Justice requests the information