Coverage of the CIA leak investigation

State ex-deputy says he told Novak about Plame

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage confessed to the FBI three years ago that he was the government official who first tipped columnist Robert Novak about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband's CIA mission, according to an article in this week's Newsweek.

Novak: I named leak sources to jury

In a column to be published today, Washington journalist Robert Novak said he named his three confidential administration sources - including White House adviser Karl Rove - in testimony before the federal grand jury in the CIA leak probe.

A pardonable issue?

Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the CIA leak probe, President George W. Bush must weigh whether to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the only one indicted in the three-year investigation.

Rove off the hook on leak

With the decision announced yesterday not to pursue charges against senior White House aide Karl Rove, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has closed a major avenue of his investigation of who in the Bush administration in 2003 leaked the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame to the news media.

Rove testifies again for grand jury

Key presidential aide Karl Rove testified yesterday for the fifth time before a federal grand jury investigating the 2003 leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

White House: It was no leak

When is a leak not a leak?

Leak campaign traced to Bush

For more than two years, President George W. Bush has decried leaks and threatened to fire anyone who revealed classified information. But a former White House aide told prosecutors it was Bush himself who authorized him to leak sensitive intelligence to rebut an Iraq war critic.

Libby says he got OK on leak

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has told a federal grand jury that his "superiors" authorized him to leak highly sensitive intelligence to journalists, including a New York Times reporter he allegedly tipped off to the name of an undercover CIA operative.

Novak: Bush knows who leaked CIA agent's name

President George W. Bush knows who leaked the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame and could end the two-year probe into the leak by revealing who it is, according to the newspaper columnist who first outed her two years ago.

Woodward admission raises questions in leak case

A Bush administration official's belated admission in recent weeks that he told the Washington Post's Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003 about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame raises new questions in the special counsel's two-year-old leak investigation.

Miller resigns from the New York Times

The New York Times announced Wednesday that correspondent Judith Miller, who went to jail for 85 days rather than divulge a source in the CIA leak investigation, had resigned, effective immediately.

Amid Libby indictment, Bush polls at new low

Former White House aide I. Lewis Libby pleaded not guilty to perjury charges yesterday, while new polls showed how his indictment in the CIA leak case helped push President George W. Bush's standing with the American public to its lowest point ever.

Secret session riles Senate Republicans

Senate Democrats staged a stunning parliamentary ambush yesterday, using the "closed session" rule to force enraged GOP leaders into moving ahead with a long-delayed probe into possible manipulation of prewar intelligence.

White House spurns shake-up

The White House yesterday rejected calls for a staff shake-up or presidential apology after I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's indictment, and Vice President Dick Cheney went one better, replacing Libby not with a new face, but with two hard-liners from Cheney's inner circle.

BUSH'S TROUBLES

Observers: Bush must address recent setbacks

To pull his presidency out of a potentially debilitating quagmire, George W. Bush must forthrightly address the recent setbacks that threaten to stall progress on a host of domestic and foreign policy concerns, political observers said yesterday, taking stock of the administration.

How Libby got tangled up in his own web

If President George W. Bush was worried about a new probe into whether top aides leaked a covert CIA agent's identity, he didn't show it that day in October 2003.

COMMENTARY

Ellis Henican: He's not a guy to scoot easily to any prison

The new man on a cellblock should never have to introduce himself like this:

INDICTMENT: THE LEGAL ISSUES

Cheney's link in the chain

He's directly referred to only twice in the 22-page indictment of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

I. LEWIS LIBBY

A man so secretive he refuses to say what the 'I' stands for

Until recently, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was the most powerful figure in Washington that most people had never heard of.

INDICTMENT: THE LEGAL ISSUES

Reporters' testimony key to the case

Journalists usually cover criminal indictments, they don't figure prominently in them.

INDICTMENT - THE OVERVIEW

Charge against Libby: He lied

After two years of investigation and suspense, the special counsel in the CIA leak case dealt a severe blow to the Bush administration Friday by indicting the vice president's top aide on charges of obstructing justice while weighing whether to charge influential presidential adviser Karl Rove.

INDICTMENT: THE LEGAL ISSUES

The prosecutor's point

By charging I. Lewis Libby with trying to cover up a leak about a CIA agent but never alleging that the leak itself was a crime, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald dealt himself a strong courtroom hand but left questions about the underlying basis for his two-year probe, legal observers said Friday.

ANALYSIS

Backstory: The push for war

President George W. Bush's administration did all it could Friday to close the book on I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

INDICTMENT: THE LEGAL ISSUES

For some, no surprise in decision to indict

Some area residents said they had it figured all along.

Results of prosecutor's CIA leak inquiry expected soon

The special counsel in the CIA leak case is expected to announce today or tomorrow the results of his nearly two-year investigation, including whether he will issue indictments against top White House officials.

The Vice President's war on Saddam

It was the last week of August 2002, and the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq was running into serious headwinds - internal dissent, go-slow warnings from Republican elders, grumbling in Congress.

Indictments could have big impact

The White House is bracing for possible indictments this week in the CIA leak investigation that could ensnare the single most important aides to both the president and the vice president - a moment of potentially debilitating political danger for a presidency already struggling through its weakest point yet.

Counsel has special power

The federal prosecutor investigating the leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity has extraordinarily broad authority to pursue the case, with powers much greater than most special counsels.

Text of Keller's e-mail to NYT staff

Text of an e-mail sent to the staff of The New York Times by Bill Keller, the paper's executive editor:

Leak Web site spurs talk indictments are imminent

The office of the special counsel investigating the leak of a CIA operative's name posted a new Web site on the Internet Wednesday, fueling speculation that an announcement of indictments might be near.

Aides' woes could badly harm Bush

Washington // It's not often that President Bush, who casts himself as decisive and bold, is cut off from decisions of grave importance to his presidency.

Novak defends actions in leak

In another installment of the cat-and-mouse game that the affair of the CIA spy's leaked name has become, conservative columnist Robert Novak gave an unexpected glimpse yesterday at his role in the matter, something he promised he would not do until it was all over.

Bush changes his firing line

President George W. Bush gave trusted aide Karl Rove some added job security yesterday by shifting his stance on when he would fire White House staff in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity -- now signaling that the person must have broken the law to get the ax.

Plame case shines a light on the value of CIA operatives' cover

WASHINGTON - Several months after her identity as a CIA operative was exposed in a newspaper column, Valerie Plame had dinner with five of her classmates from the agency's training academy.

Note shows official knew Rove talked to reporter

WASHINGTON - After mentioning a CIA operative to a reporter, Bush confidant Karl Rove alerted the president's No. 2 security adviser about the interview and said he tried to steer the journalist away from allegations the operative's husband was making about faulty Iraq intelligence.

Dems urge Rove to clear air on leak

Democrats yesterday pressed White House aide Karl Rove to "clear the air" about his role in the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity to the news media after disclosures that he was a Time reporter's source on that story.

Silence costs her freedom

New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed yesterday for refusing to reveal her confidential sources to a special prosecutor who insists her cooperation is essential for his probe into who in the Bush administration leaked a covert CIA officer's identity.

President says he won't prejudge Rove

WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday that he would not judge the role that senior aide Karl Rove might have played in revealing the identity of a CIA agent until a federal criminal investigator had finished his work.

N.Y. Times reporter is sent to jail for withholding source

WASHINGTON - Declaring no one to be above the law, a federal judge sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail yesterday for refusing to divulge a confidential source to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity.

Prosecutor asks judge to jail reporters; ruling set today

Time correspondent Matt Cooper still must testify or go to jail even though the magazine turned over his confidential notes to a grand jury Friday, the special prosecutor probing the leak of a CIA officer's identity argued in a court filing yesterday.

Time Inc. gives up reporter's notes

Time Inc.'s decision yesterday to turn over one of its reporter's notes to the special prosecutor in a federal leak probe brought a rebuke from The New York Times amid criticism that the weekly has set a bad precedent.

No jail for reporters, for now

Two reporters who refuse to reveal their confidential sources to a federal leak probe won a week's reprieve from going to jail yesterday when a federal judge put off a ruling on their fate until next Wednesday.

Jail looms for two journalists

After the Supreme Court rejected their appeals yesterday, two journalists who refused to reveal their confidential sources in a federal leak probe could face an order to go to jail as soon as this week.