Did a Full Court Press Lead to Leaks

At the time Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent was leaked to the media in July, 2003, both Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were working on a related matter.

Presidential advisor Rove and VP Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Libby are both identified as sources of Ms Plame's identification.

They were busy at work defending a 16 word statement in the President's State of the Union Address from earlier in the year relating to Iraq's efforts to get yellowcake uranium from Niger. Ms Plame's husband Joe Wilson had conducted a fact finding mission to Niger and said the claim wasn't true. He says the administration publicized his wife's role at the CIA in retaliation.

Mr Rove and Mr Libby were working on a statement to be issued by then-CIA Director George Tenent -- an explanation of how the "16 words" got into the President's speech.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is looking into that time frame and into the statement itself.

What's unusual is that the people working on the statement were from both the White House's "political" and "national security" operations. It's rare that those are combined.

It appears there was a full court press to defend the President. That climate is certainly on Prosecutor Fitzgerald's mind as he tries to determine just how far those operations might go to defend the President. (IHT)

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