2 Disclaim Leaking Name of Operative
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
October 5, 2003
nytimes.com
ASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — As the Bush administration worked to assemble records sought by the Justice Department in the inquiry into who leaked the identity of an undercover C.I.A. operative, the White House on Saturday added to the list of senior officials who it said had disclaimed responsibility.
Spokesmen said I. Lewis Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, and Elliott Abrams, the director of Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, were not sources of the leak. The White House has said the same of Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said that Mr. Libby "neither leaked the classified information, nor would he condone it."
Later in the day, the White House issued a statement saying Mr. Abrams had denied being the source.
The White House statements, an official said, were in response to questions from journalists and were based on the aides' declarations. The White House has said it will cooperate with the Justice Department and not conduct its own formal probe into the disclosure last summer that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had challenged the credibility of prewar intelligence on Iraq, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. |
