The Sept 4, 2006 edition of Newsweek has a story by Michael Isikoff which identifies Richard Armitage, the former No. 2 at the State Department, as being Robert Novak's source in leaking the identity of Valarie Plame.
What's even more disconcerting...supposedly Armitage "fessed up" to being the leaker in October of 2003!
Isikoff explains:
the early morning of Oct. 1, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell received an urgent phone call from his No. 2 at the State Department. Richard Armitage was clearly agitated...Armitage had been at home reading the newspaper and had come across a column by journalist Robert Novak. Months earlier, Novak had caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had been trying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnist himself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided a tantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitage was shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."
Novak wasn't the only one who ratted out Armitage as a leaker. Bob Woodward also "remembered" that Armitage told him of Plame's identity:
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has also said he was told of Plame's identity in June 2003. Woodward did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but, as late as last week, he referred reporters to his comments in November 2005 that he learned of her identity in a "casual and offhand" conversation with an administration official he declined to identify. According to three government officials, a lawyer familiar with the case and an Armitage confidant, all of whom would not be named discussing these details, Armitage told Woodward about Plame three weeks before talking to Novak.
The sources for Isikoff's story (and soon to be released book) all attribute Armitage's conduct not to a "plot" to get the Wilsons, but rather, to:
Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity.
After realizing his role in the leak, Armitage contacted Patrick Fitzgerald's office. The Newsweek article notes:
Armitage himself was aggressively investigated by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, but was never charged. Fitzgerald found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame's covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward. The decision to go to the FBI that panicky October afternoon also may have helped Armitage. Powell, Armitage and Taft were aware of the perils of a cover-up--all three had lived through the Iran-contra scandal at the Defense Department in the late 1980s.
Oh, irony of ironies...
Armitage wasn't the only one in the Bush Administration that "lived through the Iran-contra scandal."
Dick Cheney was the senior Republican House member of the Joint Iran-Contra Committee.
Cheney's No. 3 man, Elliott Abrams, was convicted on crimes related to his role in the Iran-Contra coverup.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit in the article was this - Powell and Armitage did not tell Bush, Cheney, or Abu Gonzalez of the fact that Armitage had leaked, because of Cabinet infighting that was going on at the time:
Taft, the State Department lawyer, also felt obligated to inform White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. But Powell and his aides feared the White House would then leak that Armitage had been Novak's source--possibly to embarrass State Department officials who had been unenthusiastic about Bush's Iraq policy. So Taft told Gonzales the bare minimum: that the State Department had passed some information about the case to Justice. He didn't mention Armitage. Taft asked if Gonzales wanted to know the details. The president's lawyer, playing the case by the book, said no, and Taft told him nothing more. Armitage's role thus remained that rarest of Washington phenomena: a hot secret that never leaked.
Armitage's gossiping appears to be have been separate from the seething and plotting of Dick Cheney to silence Jow Wilson. The deeds of dastardly Dick and his crew likely would have not been investigated or unearthed had Armitage, Powell, or the State Department counsel told Abu Gonzalez about Armitage being the leaker.
One must wonder, however...as chummy as Novak and Woodward are with the Bush White House, wouldn't THEY have told one of their Administration comrades about Armitage's role?
This article and upcoming book seem to raise more questions than they answer.