Ex-Diplomat Whose Wife Was Outed at CIA Is Next to Throw Book at Bush

Adding to a growing bookshelf of critiques of the Bush administration, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV says in an account being published today that two top White House officials played roles in retaliating against him and his wife for criticizing administration war plans.

But the question of who leaked the name of his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, to journalist Robert Novak remains a whodunit, Wilson said in an interview Thursday, admitting that he does not know who provided the information to Novak.

The leak is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. It is illegal to disclose the identities of CIA operatives.

In a book he described as part memoir, part political attack, Wilson says that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, helped organize a March 2003 meeting to start gathering dirt on Wilson.

The planning, which the book asserted also may have involved the vice president and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), came after Wilson publicly questioned now-discredited statements by President Bush that Iraq was attempting to purchase nuclear-weapons materials in Africa.

The “work-up,” as Wilson described it, laid the groundwork for a political and public relations attack that the White House launched against him and his wife in July after he further detailed his concerns in a New York Times opinion column -- which ultimately led to the outing of his wife by Novak.

Wilson also said he discussed how Bush political chief Karl Rove called journalists and others after publication of the Novak column in an effort to discredit him.

But Wilson said he did not identify Rove as the perpetrator of the initial leak.

Wilson entertained questions in a series of interviews with a handful of reporters Thursday as part of a highly orchestrated publicity campaign for the official release of his book, “The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity.” The launch included leaking the book itself to the New York Times on Thursday, a flurry of TV appearances, a nationwide book tour and a possible speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer, his publicist said.

Asked to respond to the allegations involving Rove and Libby, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan declined comment Thursday, except to say: “Joe Wilson has said his primary objective is a political agenda to defeat the president. I don’t intend to promote or review a book of someone whose primary objective is grounded in a political objective.”

A spokesman for Gingrich denied that the former speaker had any role in the affair. “The allegation that Newt attended any meeting ever to discuss Joe Wilson is completely false,” the spokesman said.

Wilson said he didn’t identify his sources in the book, which based on his description Thursday appeared to be largely a compendium of assertions and claims that have swirled around the episode for months.

As described by Wilson, the book recounted his tenure in charge of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War, where he was the last U.S. diplomat to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He includes a photograph of himself in the Oval Office with the President George H.W. Bush, and a copy of a note from the former president thanking him for his government service.

The balance of the work was an indictment of the administration of the current president, whom Wilson said he has never met.

Wilson became a lightning rod after challenging a statement by Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium “yellowcake” from Niger.

Wilson had been commissioned by the CIA to assess the claim the year before, and concluded that it lacked merit. Ultimately, he detailed his concerns in the July 2003 New York Times article.

The White House later acknowledged it was a mistake to include the statement in the speech.

Wilson said his book details a White House meeting involving Libby as early as March 2003 in which officials discussed responding to his attacks. He said he believes that Libby was the “driving force” behind the effort whose ultimate aim was to smear Wilson by unmasking his CIA wife and suggesting that his CIA-sponsored trip to Niger was an act of nepotism.

The book, he said, recounted an episode where Libby was heard to describe Wilson as a “playboy.” He said the book also reported that Rove “pushed the [Novak] story” for a week in discussions with journalists, among others.

He said around that time he got a call from MSNBC talk-show host Chris Matthews, who said Rove had told him that “Wilson’s wife is fair game.” Matthews declined to comment.

Wilson said Rove decided to stop hawking the story when newspaper stories began to question whether whoever unveiled Plame’s identity may have violated a federal law protecting CIA operatives.

Wilson said he also asserted that Rove and Libby had an argument about who should bear responsibility for any fallout from the episode.

In December, the Justice Department named U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago to examine whether laws were broken in connection with the disclosure of the occupation of Plame.

A grand jury in Washington has been investigating the case, and heard testimony from several White House officials earlier in the year. Among other materials, the grand jury subpoenaed telephone records from Air Force One, and minutes of a White House working group on Iraq whose members included Rove and Libby.

The law prohibiting disclosure of CIA operatives’ identities has been rarely used in part because journalists getting the tips are disinclined to reveal their sources and the people leaking the information are disinclined to come forward on their own.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment about the status of the investigation this week.