White House denies leaking information to unveil CIA agent
By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The White House on Monday rebuffed Democrats' calls for an independent prosecutor to probe charges that administration officials illegally disclosed a CIA operative whose husband had challenged Bush's weapons claims in Iraq.
A presidential spokesman also denied that Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, leaked the information.
While the Justice Department is looking into the accusations at the request of the CIA, Democrats argued the investigation should not be in the hands of Attorney General John Ashcroft, a former GOP senator.
"We need an independent commission that can unpack this administration's dirty laundry on the intelligence community," said Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark during a campaign rally Monday in Austin.
But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the Justice Department was the proper agency to determine whether the allegations warranted further probing.
While the independent counsel law that covered numerous probes during the Clinton administration has expired, the attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor to probe the president and other government officials.
The latest accusations, which boiled over after a Washington Post story Sunday confirmed earlier scant reports, have put the White House on the defensive. It comes at a time when the president is facing criticism from Democrats about the high costs of rebuilding Iraq and the inability of the military to find the weapons of mass destruction used to justify the war.
The controversy dominated the two daily White House news briefings, where McClellan said that "there's been nothing, absolutely nothing brought to our attention to suggest White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well."
McClellan sharply rejected suggestions that Rove was involved in naming the CIA operative.
Her identity was first reported in July by syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who cited two administration sources. The column came out shortly after the agent's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, publicly disputed White House claims that Iraq had sought to buy weapons grade uranium from the African nation of Niger. Bush was later forced to admit that he shouldn't have included the Africa claim in his State of the Union speech.
Wilson has said he suspected that Rove condoned the disclosure of his wife, although he said he has no evidence that the political adviser was the source for Novak's column and calls to other media.
McClellan, who said he has talked with Rove, said any suggestion the political adviser was the source for the leak was"ridiculous."
"He wasn't involved. The president knows he wasn't involved," said McClellan.
However, the spokesman would not say if the president had spoken directly to Rove about the matter.
Rove has faced accusations before that he planted stories with Novak.
In 1992, Rove was fired as a consultant for the Bush-Quayle Texas campaign, after officials suspected that he was the source for a column by Novak and Roland Evans that portrayed the Texas presidential operation as in disarray. Rove was accused of making up the story because of a feud with the campaign's chairman, Rob Mosbacher Jr., whom the column reported, erroneously, was to be dumped.
At the time Rove denied he was the source, and he said the column was false.
Novak, in an interview on CNN, would not divulge his sources but said two administration officials told him that it was Wilson's wife who suggested that he travel to Niger to verify the uranium claim. Novak said that the CIA confirmed her role and "asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else."
At the White House, McClellan said that no internal investigation had been ordered by the president to determine if staffers leaked the classified information. Doing so is a felony.
"I think we could go down the White House directory of every single staff member and play that game," said McClellan. "I'm not going to do that."
McClellan acknowledged that the number of White House staffers that would have access to information about CIA operatives would be limited.
He said the president does not condone leaks, adding, "if anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."
The CIA's Office of General Counsel sent a letter in July to the Department of Justice asking them to look into the matter. The letter said that a violation of law had taken place.
Democrats immediately pounced on the controversy, with presidential contender Howard Dean suggesting that it undercut Bush's campaign promise that he would restore "honor and dignity" to the White House.
"The American public has been misled. Federal laws appear to have been broken. The time for accountability is long overdue," said Dean.
Another presidential contender, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, said Ashcroft's tenure has been too political to give the public assurances that he would run an impartial probe. Many Democrats have criticized Ashcroft for pushing anti-terrorism measures that they say led to a curb on civil liberties.
Four Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also asked Ashcroft to name a special prosecutor.
Clay Robison in Austin and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
