The WaPo has the latest on the Plame leak investigation. Senate Intelligence committee chair Pat Roberts may not be interested in administration influence on pre-war intelligence misstatements, but Fitzgerald apparently is:

Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.

In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed.

Maybe the Senate Select Intelligence committee would like to outsource such investigations in the future to Justice Department prosecutors, if they are too busy or predisposed to do it themselves? Check out the Boston Globe's latest on Robert's efforts to free up committee time from such an investigation and devote it instead to exploring the nuances of why some CIA officers deserve less protection from being outted by US government officials than others.

Posted by Laura at July 27, 2005 10:37 AM