Post should probe Woodward, Plame's husband says

WASHINGTON — The husband of a CIA operative whose identity was revealed to reporters in 2003 says The Washington Post should conduct an internal inquiry into why Bob Woodward didn't tell his editor what he knew about the leak until last month.

"I would hope that the Post would take the lead from what The New York Times did and do an inquiry about how this all happened and report back to its readers," said Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame.

Wilson was referring to an inquiry that the Times conducted concerning the way that former reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify about a source, and her editors handled the Plame matter.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilson said the Post owes its readers an explanation of how Woodward, "who is now part of the story, didn't share this information with his editors and with his readers."

Post officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, 55, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last month on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters.

Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium "yellowcake" in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Africa to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports; he concluded they were untrue.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in announcing the charges against Libby, portrayed Cheney's former chief of staff as the first government official to have shared Plame's name and her work at the CIA with reporters in the summer of 2003.

The Post said Wednesday that Woodward, who achieved fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, may have been the first reporter to learn about Plame.

Woodward gave a sworn deposition to Fitzgerald on Monday, telling the special prosecutor that a top administration official told him in mid-June 2003 that Wilson was married to Plame.

On Wednesday, Woodward said his source did not indicate that the information was classified — as most CIA operatives' identities are — but conveyed the tidbit in a "gossipy" way.

Woodward also said that he didn't tell his bosses at the Post what he had learned at the time because he was finishing a book on the war in Iraq and didn't want to be subpoenaed by Fitzgerald, as several other reporters had been.

Wilson, who first called for the inquiry on Fox News Radio, said the Post should examine why Woodward was allowed to take "a clearly advocacy position" in public appearances downplaying the significance of the leak investigation and calling Fitzgerald "a junkyard dog."