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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (29389)	10/2/2003 1:12:45 PM
From: Rick Faurot	Respond to of 89467

White House Gives No Ground in Case of CIA Leak Thu October 2, 2003 12:53 PM ET By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday gave no ground on Democratic calls for a special counsel to investigate the leak of a CIA agent's identity, despite a poll showing most Americans want such an independent probe. The controversy surrounds allegations that someone in the White House blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the way intelligence was handled in the run-up to the Iraq war. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, nearly seven in 10 Americans favored the appointment of a special counsel in the case that is now being investigated by the Justice Department. Asked about such support for an independent probe, White House spokesman Scott McClellan maintained that the Justice Department was capable of handling the investigation. "The Department of Justice is the one who makes those decisions. The Department of Justice has publicly said that all legal options remain on the table," McClellan said. "Keep in mind that the Justice Department, the career professionals who are overseeing the investigation, want to get to the bottom of this," he added. Galvanized by the poll numbers in support of a special counsel, Democrats pressed the issue. "I don't think we should take that first no for an answer," said U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Under regulations adopted in 1999, a special counsel can be appointed by the attorney general when the investigation or prosecution would present a conflict of interest for the Justice Department or when it would be in the "public interest" because "extraordinary circumstances exist." Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo has declined to rule out the possible appointment of a special counsel in the future. "We are not closing any doors," he said. "No legal options are closed." A CONFLICT OF INTEREST? A Senate Republican aide said he did not now expect any Republican on Capitol Hill to join Democrats in the call for a special counsel. "I believe, out of a sense of loyalty, Republicans will stand with the White House for now," the aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Besides, I don't think the political pressure has reached that point yet." Still, the aide said he expected Attorney General John Ashcroft to soon recuse himself from the case, turning it over to a deputy because of the "perceived conflict of interest" based on his ties with White House political adviser Karl Rove. On Monday, McClellan denied that Rove, top political adviser to President Bush, was behind the disclosure to reporters of the undercover agent's name. Revealing classified information is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Rove was a paid consultant to three of Ashcroft's political campaigns in Missouri. Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said he would urge Ashcroft to recuse himself from the CIA case. "It's a mystery as to why Ashcroft hasn't yet removed himself from (the) investigation," Schumer said in a statement. The Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 81 percent of Americans viewed the CIA matter as serious, and 72 percent thought it was likely a White House official was behind the leak. Plame's identity was disclosed by columnist Robert Novak a week after her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times accusing Bush of exaggerating the Iraq weapons threat. Wilson, a former diplomat sent by the Bush administration on a mission to Niger in February 2002, questioned Bush's claim in his State of the Union speech last January that Iraq sought uranium for a nuclear weapons program from Africa.