Getting Personal
Ambassador Says White House Adviser Told Press His Wife Was ‘Fair Game’
Oct. 1— The former ambassador who accused the White House of leaking the identity of his CIA officer wife to the press says Washington reporters told him that senior White House adviser Karl Rove said his wife was "fair game."
The ambassador, Joseph Wilson, said he plans to give the names of the reporters to the FBI, which is conducting a full-blown investigation of the possible leak.
"I will be revealing the names of everybody who called me and cited White House sources or cited people specifically," Wilson said in an interview with Nightline's Ted Koppel.
Revealing a CIA officer's identity is a felony — but only if the person who leaked it did so knowing that the officer was undercover.
Wilson has said he believes his wife's identity was revealed in an attempt to punish him for accusing the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq.
On July 6, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs. He cited specifically a line from President Bush's State of the Union speech about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa — information the White House later admitted was inaccurate.
Wilson had traveled to Niger in 2002 to investigate allegations of uranium sales to Iraq, and concluded the allegations were not credible.
On July 14, citing two senior administration officials, syndicated columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and said that she had suggested sending him to Niger.
Wilson denies his wife had anything to do with his trip to Niger. "The CIA had spoken to me on any number of occasions on African-related issues. This was not unusual," he said.
Tracing the Path
On Aug. 21, at a public forum in Seattle, Wilson suggested that it was Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, who revealed his wife's identity. He later backtracked, saying he had no knowledge that it was Rove who personally leaked the information, but that he believed the White House adviser condoned the leak and did nothing to shut it down.
Wilson maintains that Washington reporters told him they spoke with Rove on the telephone after the Novak column came out.
"What I have confidence in — based upon what respectable press people in this town have told me — is that a week after the Novak article came out, Karl Rove was still calling around and talking to press people, saying Wilson's wife is fair game," Wilson said.
"The gist of the message, as it was reported back to me right after the phone call, was 'I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He tells me your wife is fair game.' "
The White House has said it is "ridiculous" to suggest Rove played any role in disclosing the identity of Wilson's wife, and Bush on Tuesday said he welcomed the Justice Department investigation into the leak.
On Tuesday, all White House employees received a message from the White House Counsel's office asking them to preserve all documents from Feb. 1, 2002, to the present that related to the Justice Department probe.
In the National, Not Party, Interest
Wilson is expected to meet with members of the House Democratic Caucus today, but he denies he is doing it out of partisanship. Democratic lawmakers have called for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the leak.
"I'm meeting with the Democratic Caucus because they invited me," he said. "If the Republican Caucus were to invite me, I would go up and meet with them as well."
Wilson said he would be asked about his views on Bush's $87 billion budget request for reconstructing Iraq and Afghanistan, but said he expected to be asked about the investigation as well.
Wilson said he believed his views concerning the way ahead are "nonpartisan, are the best way ahead for our country — not for one political party or another."
The investigation concerning his wife should not be viewed as a partisan matter either, he said. "We're talking about a crime against the national security of the United States. That is not a partisan activity. That is a crime against the country."
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