When They Knew

A source familiar with the memo says neither Powell nor Armitage spoke to the White House about it until after July 6. John McLaughlin, then deputy head of the CIA, confirms that the White House asked about the Wilson trip, but can’t remember exactly when. One thing he’s sure of, says McLaughlin, who has been interviewed by prosecutors, is that “we looked into it and found the facts of it, and passed it on.” *_Related Stories From The TIME ARCHIVE: • Leaking With A Vengeance* – Did someone in the Bush Administration unmask a CIA spy to punish her husband for challenging the case for war? A classic tale of whispers, retribution and rivalries [10/13/2003]. • Anatomy Of A Leak – Reports that Iraq was buying African uranium sparked Joseph Wilson’s trip to Niger, his wife’s exposure as a covert agent and a bitter fight between the White House and the CIA. [10/13/2003] • The Rove Problem – Did Bush’s top aide commit a crime talking to reporters about a spy? Here’s what the case is really about—and why it grows more fascinating_ [7/17/2005].

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.

The previously undisclosed fact gathering began in the first week of June 2003 at the CIA, when its public-affairs office received an inquiry about Wilson’s trip to Africa from veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus. That office then contacted Plame’s unit, which had sent Wilson to Niger, but stopped short of drafting an internal report. The same week, Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman asked for and received a memo on the Wilson trip from Carl Ford, head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Sources familiar with the memo, which disclosed Plame’s relationship to Wilson, say Secretary of State Colin Powell read it in mid-June. Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage…

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