Stephen Hadley may not have Rove's political reputation, but as National Security Advisor he is likely the highest ranking official in the administration facing indictment in Plamegate. If Fitzgerald pursues indictments for violations of SF-312 based on the disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons, then clearly Rove and Libby are dead meat. But there is still a third leaker that has been identified --though not by name. That third leaker is likely Stephen Hadley.
The Hadley story below.
The Four Actionable Leaks
So far, focus has been on four reporters who received the story about Wilson being sent to Niger by his CIA wife. Here's a quick summary of the reporters and who leaked to them the classified information.
Miller - Informed by Libby
Cooper- Informed by Rove, confirmed by Libby, and confirmed by an unknown third person
Pincus - Informed by an unknown person
Novak - Informed by an unknown person and confirmed by Rove
(Note that Russert was also contacted by Libby but apparently was not given the whole story)
Based on Cooper's statements there is at least one more leaker. The unknown person who leaked to Pincus could be Rove and the unknown person who leaked to Novak could be Libby, in which case the third leaker only shows up once as a confirming source to Cooper. But I surmise that Hadley was the sole leaker to Pincus, the third confirming source for Cooper and may well be the first leaker to Novak.
The Origins of Plamegate - Hadley's Big Mistake
On October 5 and 6, 2002, Hadley read two memos from the CIA concerning the drafts of Bush's October 7, 2002 Cincinnati speech. Both of the memos objected to statements that Iraq was seeking African uranium. On October 7, 2002 Hadley took a call from CIA Director George Tenet who told Hadley that no reference to the uranium claim should be made in the speech since the claim could not be substantiated. Hadley took out the references.
In January 2003 Hadley was helping to prepare the SOTU speech. He would later say he forgot about the October 2002 memos and the phone call from Tenet. This memory-failure was an embarrassing professional failure and if you assume he could have stopped the reference to uranium in the SOTU speech, you could say that Plamegate was Hadley's fault.
Hadley and the Wilson's Wife Story
The African uranium claim in the 2003 SOTU speech, led Joe Wilson on his anonymous behind-the-scenes-campaign during March through July to get the White House to retract the claim in the SOTU speech. Rice and Hadley knew that Wilson was behind the campaign to discredit the claim and probably knew of the story that his wife worked in the CIA and had sent him. Walter Pincus' October 13 2003, Washington Post article reported that CIA staff members first passed this story on to NSC staff members in March-June 2003. If Pincus is right, then as head of the NSC staff, Hadley was probably one of the first to learn of the story.
When Rice appeared on Meet the Press on June 8, 2003, she kept up the Niger uranium claim. According to Pincus' article and Wilson's book The Politics of Truth, Wilson thereafter went through intermediaries --former and current officials of NSC -- to tell Rice, in effect -`Stop making these claims or I'll go public'. Again, as Rice's second in command, Hadley would be part of the connection in receiving this threat and in relaying Rice's response of: `Go ahead. Put your name on the next article'. That's when Wilson went public with his July 6, 2003, NYT article.
Hadley and the Briefing Book
On July 8, Rice left with the President, Powell, Fleischer and others on Air Force One for a trip to Africa. According to Howard Fineman's Newsweek article, Rove at War, at White House direction, the NSC staff scrambled to prepare a briefing book so Rice could prepare for the talk-show circuit on her return and say that the mistaken claim in SOTU speech was all due to the CIA. As head of the NSC staff, Hadley would have worked on this briefing book --probably with Rove and Libby -- and the book may have included the infamous INR memo with the Wilson's CIA wife story marked "secret". (Although, Hadley, Rove and Libby knew the story already because of the earlier CIA leak to NSC staff).
Hadley and the Leak to Cooper
On July 11, Rove made his leak of the story to Cooper. Nothing shows Hadley's thick involvement more than the fact that immediately after making this leak, Rove e-mailed Hadley and reported his conversation with Cooper. Between Rove, Libby and Hadley, Hadley was 'the guy to report to' about developments in the Wilson leak. There's no indication that Rove sent an e-mail to anyone else-- not even Libby.
Note that there is an interesting use of words in Rove's e-mail. He says that Cooper asked about Wilson being a big problem for the administration but "I didn't take the bait". What did Rove think Cooper was fishing for? Perhaps the story about Wilson's wife working at the CIA, which was now floating in certain press circles? One possibility is that Rove-Hadley-Libby had decided on their roles in distributing the story and Rove was never to be a primary leaker. Rove would only confirm it -- so that it did not seem too political. But Rove slipped with Cooper. This would explain his 'I already said too much' comment to Cooper.
Hadley and the Leak to Pincus on July 12
We still do not know who leaked the story to Pincus but according to Pincus, this is what happened:.
On July 12, 2003, an administration official, who was talking to me confidentially about a matter involving alleged Iraqi nuclear activities, veered off the precise matter we were discussing and told me that the White House had not paid attention to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's CIA-sponsored February 2002 trip to Niger because it was set up as a boondoggle by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction.
Why is Hadley likely to be the person Pincus was speaking to on July 12? Because the next day the Washington Post was about to run Pincus' story about how Hadley had been given the instruction not to include the Niger uranium claim in the October 2002 speech in Cincinnati but failed to keep it out of the SOTU speech. It was a big story that would do major harm to Hadley's career and it's customary for journalists to call the target of a story for comment once the article is ready for publication. In addition, although Pincus may have met with Libby or Rove, neither of them had the kind of knowledge Hadley would have on Iraqi nuclear weapons activities in order to be a source for Pincus' article.
Hadley and the Novak Leak
We know that Rove was Novak's confirming source but it's not clear if Libby or someone else was his original source. All we know from Novak's comments is that the person was `no-partisan gunslinger'. Perhaps it's pointless to assume Novak would tell the truth, but between Libby and Hadley, Hadley is the one who could be properly be referred to as `no partisan gunslinger.' From a strategic standpoint, it makes sense that Hadley-Rove-Libby would plot to have the leak come from a less political person, like Hadley, so there would be less of an appearance of political motivation.
No Higher Indictment
So there's my case for Hadley as the leaker-in-chief who will be indicted along with Rove and Libby.
And if Hadley is indicted for anything, it will probably be as high as this scandal goes - which is plenty high: The National Security Advisor - a post traditionally seen as one of the two highest foreign policy positions in the nation.