Copyright 2003 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
October 08, 2003, Wednesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 587 words
HEADLINE: Bush: 'No idea' if sources of leak will be identified
SOURCE: Hearst News Service
BYLINE: STEWART M. POWELL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
WASHINGTON - President Bush voiced doubts Tuesday that Justice Department investigators would track down two senior administration officials who illegally identified undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame in an alleged scheme to silence her husband, Iraq policy critic Joseph Wilson IV.
Bush commented as presidential spokesman Scott McClellan announced that three top presidential aides had denied leaking the identity of the CIA officer - a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $ 50,000 in fines.
McClellan said he had obtained face-to-face denials from White House political director Karl Rove; I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff; and Elliott Abrams, an official with the National Security Council.
While stressing that the three officials had denied telling syndicated columnist Robert Novak about Wilson's wife, McClellan declined to discuss whether any of the officials later tried to widen the impact of the published leak by calling the attention of other journalists to the Novak column.
McClellan's comments drew a sharp distinction between the original leak to Novak and a so-called second wave of unidentified White House officials who allegedly alerted other journalists to Novak's revelation.
We see how much the narrative has changed since then, and how well the administration managed to shape that narrative at the time.