White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley hinted on Friday he was not Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s source about the CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Hadley, briefing reporters in Pusan, South Korea, where President Bush was attending an Asia-Pacific summit, would not directly deny being Woodward’s source. Instead he said he had seen press report that Woodward had talked to three administration sources.
“I’ve also seen press reports from White House officials saying that I am not one of his sources,” he said, declining to comment further because the case is under investigation.
“It is what it is,” Hadley said when a reporter pressed him on the subject.
Plame’s husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, has called for an inquiry by The Washington Post into the conduct of Woodward, who criticized the investigation into who leaked Plame’s identity to the media without disclosing his own involvement.
Woodward said he testified under oath on Monday to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that a senior Bush administration official had casually told him in mid-June 2003 about Plame’s position at the CIA.
Woodward’s testimony appeared to contradict Fitzgerald’s assertion that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was the first official known to have told a reporter about Plame.
Two White House officials, who insisted on anonymity, told Reuters on Thursday that Hadley was not Woodward’s source on Plame.
Neither was Cheney nor Bush, according to current and former officials and their lawyers, none of whom would agree to be identified.
These people also denied that the following officials were Woodward’s source: White House political adviser Karl Rove, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, counselor Dan Bartlett, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former CIA director George Tenet and former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin.
Woodward’s disclosure could prolong the two-year leak investigation as Fitzgerald pursues new leads drawn from testimony given by Woodward and his source.
Libby’s defense team asserted that Woodward’s story undercut Fitzgerald’s case against Libby, who was indicted in late October on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.