Reading through Scooter Libby’s defense discovery motion makes for some intereting reading. I think I find the following to be the most intriguing. It relates to the documents the CIA drew up for the Department of Justice, asking that an investigation be opened. The prosecution has not turned the documents over to the defense.
CIA officials have been openly critical of the OVP – and indeed, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby was critical of the CIA as well. In that context, agency and witness bias are a legitimate concern for the defense. And, to the extent that Director Tenet was involved in
the creation of the referral documents, or actively pushed the DOJ to investigate the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity, the referral documents would show that the bias against Mr. Libby reached to the highest levels of the CIA and did not simply represent the complaints of lower ranking employees. Further, Mr. Tenet is a likely witness. If he was personally involved in the referral process, then the referral documents would be important for preparing to examine him on the issue of bias.
I have always thought George Tenet was the senior administration official in the Mike Allen and Dana Priest’s September 28, 2003 article:
Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak’s column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson’s account touched off a political fracas over Bush’s use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.
“Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge,” the senior official said of the alleged leak.
The Libby defense makes me think I had it right all along.
