Reply #173: Will this hurt the Plame case? [View All]

[shraby]

FBI names new Phila. chief

The FBI agent in charge of investigating whether top Bush administration officials leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent as political payback against her husband has been named to head the Philadelphia FBI office.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has designated John C. Eckenrode, a 29-year veteran, to be special agent in charge of the Philadelphia division, the agency announced today.

Eckenrode heads the current probe of the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to conservative syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Bush administration critics have charged that someone in the White House or administration leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent last year in order to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger, provided evidence to the government that undercut President Bush's claim that the government of Iraq had sought uranium from Niger to develop nuclear weapons.

<http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/9249173.htm?1c>