Dear Mr. Prosecutor

By Jim Lobe, AlterNet. Posted February 17, 2004.

Editor's Note: Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, is heading a Justice Department probe into the administration leak exposing the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA undercover operative. The information, which was revealed to syndicated columnist Robert Novak (and possibly as many as five other reporters), was designed to discredit her husband, Amb. Joseph Wilson. The former ambassador went public with the information that the White House knew that there was no evidence that Iraq was buying uranium yellowcake from Africa, but still included the claim in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald:

Please forgive my presumptuousness in writing to you, but as a concerned citizen I could not help but notice that the White House has been less than cooperative in your efforts to identify the source of the Plame leak. I think I may have a solution to your problems. His name is Clifford May.

According to the news reports, several key members of the senior White House staff questioned by your investigators have refused to sign waivers that would release reporters, presumably including Mr. Novak, from any promise they made to maintain the secrecy of their sources. It is a serious blow to your efforts since such information could well be critical to the outcome of your investigation. Compelling journalists to disclose their sources in the absence of a waiver is a very sensitive issue which threatens the foundations of a free press. It is the reason why Justice Department attorneys must first show that all other methods of obtaining the essential information have already been exhausted.

Here is a possible way out of this thorny dilemma. There is at least one person who knew of Valerie Plame's relationship to the CIA even before Novak published his column: Clifford May. He is the president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-profit organization founded two days after the 9/11 attacks that, in its words, "conducts research and education on the war on terrorism." More importantly, there is no reason why Mr. May should have known about Plame's CIA credentials, nor did he possess the requisite security clearances to do so. Tracking down the source of his "leak" could well bring us closer to identifying the culprits who gave the same information to the likes of Bob Novak.

Mr. May has not been coy about sharing his knowledge of Plame's CIA background. On Sept. 29, the same day that the Washington Post confirmed that the CIA had asked for a criminal investigation of Novak's sources, the National Review Online published a column by Mr. May claiming to be in the know long before Novak blew her cover. "That wasn't news to me," he wrote. "I had been told that -- but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of." Mr. May later told Fox News the same day that Plame's identity was "something of an open secret."

Mr. May's assertions raise some troubling questions. Exactly who were the "insiders" for whom this was "something of an open secret?" How did they obtain this information and why did they pass it on so readily to someone like him?

Mr. May is, of course, a longtime Republican operative. Once the director of communications at the Republican National Committee, he also worked for BSMG Worldwide, one of the world's largest and most politically connected public and media relations firms, before founding the FDD in 2001. His organization is packed with Republican "insiders." The board of directors includes Steve Forbes, Jack Kemp, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former CIA director R. James Woolsey are on its list of "Distinguished Advisors."

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