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September 30, 2003
TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: The Justice Department has informed the White House that it is launching a formal investigation into the leaking of the fact that former ambassador Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. There is talk of a special counsel, conflict of interest, this all sounds familiar.
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Columnist Robert Novak wrote a column a couple of months ago identifying Ambassador Wilson's wife as a CIA officer. Amb. Wilson was sent to investigate the reports that Iraq had been trying to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger. That report, since discredited, made its way into the President's State of the Union address, and has been a central issue in the controversy over the prewar intelligence on Iraq and how the White House used it. Wilson says that his wife's position was leaked in an effort to discredit him, and he blames the White House.
Now Novak said yesterday on TV that administration officials didn't call him, although I have to admit that I don't really see the significance of that. The issue is not who called whom. The issue is whether an administration official did identify an intelligence officer. That is, after all, illegal. The first President Bush said, and the tape of this is being used repeatedly, that people that do that are the worst kind of traitors.
Now there is an investigation. White House officials have been told to keep all materials related to this matter. Wilson accused Karl Rove of being behind it, although Rove and the White House have denied that, and Wilson has backed off of it a little. And there is talk of a special counsel. In the wake of the impeachment of President Clinton, the special counsel law was scrapped, but Democrats, who see a major political windfall here, are arguing that the Justice Department cannot investigate the White House objectively.
This is a fairly quick moving story, and John Donvan will wrap up the day's developments tonight. We're still working out who Ted's guests will be.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.
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