Memo Underscored Issue of Shielding Plame's Identity

The paragraph in the memo discussing Ms. Wilson's involvement in her husband's trip is marked at the beginning with a letter designation in brackets to indicate the information shouldn't be shared, according to the person familiar with the memo. Such a designation would indicate to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Wall Street journal. Eastern edition
Main Author Anne Marie Squeo and John D. McKinnon
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, N.Y Dow Jones & Company Inc 19.07.2005
EditionEastern edition
Subjects
Bush, George W
Classified information
Criminal investigations
Grand juries
Informers
National security
Obstruction of justice
Plame, Valerie
Presidents
Reporters
Rove, Karl
Scandals
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Summary:The paragraph in the memo discussing Ms. Wilson's involvement in her husband's trip is marked at the beginning with a letter designation in brackets to indicate the information shouldn't be shared, according to the person familiar with the memo. Such a designation would indicate to a reader that the information was sensitive. The memo, though, doesn't specifically describe Ms. Wilson as an undercover agent, the person familiar with the memo said. Generally, the federal government has three levels of classified information -- top secret, secret and confidential -- all indicating various levels of "damage" to national security if disclosed. There also is an unclassified designation -- indicating information that wouldn't harm national security if shared with the public -- but that wasn't the case for the material on the Wilsons prepared by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. It isn't known what level of classification was assigned to the information in the memo. It is possible that reporters learned Ms. [Valerie Plame]'s identity from government officials who hadn't seen the memo. Mr. [Matthew Cooper] has testified and written that he was first told of Mr. Wilson's wife by Mr. [Karl Rove], the White House deputy chief of staff. Mr. Rove didn't identify Ms. Wilson by name. Similarly, one of Mr. Cooper's other sources, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, said he had heard Mr. Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, but he didn't identify her any further, according to Mr. Cooper.
ISSN:0099-9660