Woodward Downplayed CIA Leak Case Despite Involvement

The White House is bracing for a possible expansion of the CIA leak investigation that took down Vice President Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Libby was indicted three weeks ago on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements.

The indictment came down after Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald accused Libby of telling New York Times reporter Judy Miller about the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame and then lying to investigators about what happened. Plame is the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

The investigation had appeared to be slowing down until this week. But the investigation has taken a surprise turn.

On Monday - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald questioned Washington Post editor and best selling author Bob Woodward for two hours. Until now Woodward - who is best known for breaking the Watergate story - had no known role in the CIA leak case. He actually appeared frequently as a TV commentator downplaying the severity of the leak. At one point he called Fitzgerald a "junkyard dog prosecutor" and also claimed there was no criminal White House effort to "out" the CIA agent.

But it turns out that Woodward was a central figure in the story. He was told of Plame's identity 29 months ago in June of 2003 before Miller or any other reporter. Woodward never reported this in the pages of the Washington Post and only mentioned it to his editors last month.

The revelation raises new questions about the status of the investigation and whether Fitzgerald will seek any other indictments. Questions are also being raised about Woodward and his style of reporting.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Woodward has been given unusual autonomy in the Washington Post newsroom as he writes a trilogy of books about the Bush administration. He is free to report for his numerous books but he isn't obligated to share his scoops before the books are published. This has allowed him to sit on stories of national significance for months - and even years.

In this case because Woodward concealed his own involvement, it hindered his paper's ability to report fully on the leak investigation.

Woodward's own editor Leonard Downie has admitted Woodward is in a special situation. Downie said, "It does require managing because a lot of his reporting is done under confidential agreements like this particular one, in which the interviews are for the publication of a book, rather than for the newspaper in a short time frame."

But criticism of Woodward is escalating even from his own colleagues.

Veteran staff writer Jonathan Yardley posted a message about Woodward on the Washington Post's confidential internal memo.

He said "This is the logical and perhaps inevitable outcome when an institution permits an individual to become larger than the institution itself."

* Steven Clemons, publisher of the popular political blog, TheWashingtonNote.com. He is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation where he co-directs the American Strategy Program.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/18/1535203