The Post piece on Woodward's Plame knowledge from Wednesday (not the new one in tomorrow's paper) says:

In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

But don't we know from the Libby indictment (page 5, point 9) that Cheney knew from June 12, 2003 that Plame worked in the Counterproliferation Division, in the Directorate of Operations?:

9. On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

So either a) Woodward's source didn't know that, or b) deliberately misled Woodward to think her position was not sensitive. I suppose a third possibility is that c) Woodward is not being truthful. But I am somehow tempted to believe it's a.

Also remember Woodward's source did not allegedly use her CIA name with Woodward, but referred to her as Wilson's wife.

But Point 13 of the indictment, page 6, is also looking interesting:

13. Shortly after publication of the [June 19 2003] article in The New Republic, LIBBY spoke by telephone with his then Principal Deputy and discussed the article. That official asked LIBBY whether information about Wilson’s trip could be shared with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice President had sent Wilson. LIBBY responded that there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly, and that he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line.

One other nitpicky issue. The New York Times story on the Woodward disclosure in Thursday's paper describes the small universe of US officials who knew about Plame's identity in early June:

In fact, only a small group of officials - at the White House, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency - are believed to have known by early June 2003 about Ms. Wilson's ties to the C.I.A. They included Secretary Powell, Mr. Tenet, Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Libby; Marc Grossman, then the under secretary of state for political affairs; Carl Ford, then the head of the State Department's intelligence bureau; and Richard L. Armitage, then deputy secretary of state.

But what we've read in the Post's accounts describe the timing of Woodward's learning of Plame being in mid-June, when the universe of US officials who knew about Plame was a bit larger than the list the NYT offers. So what's going on here? Does the NYT have reason to believe that the smaller universe they are describing is correct? And if so, is that coming from Fitzgerald's office? Or not? It seems the least the Post could provide its readers is the precise date of Woodward learning of Wilson's wife from a Senior Administration Official.

Posted by Laura at November 17, 2005 12:59 AM