WP: Miller's Testimony/also an account from the WSJ [View All]

[Bumblebee]

Here's the interesting part:

As early as May of that year, Cheney's office was actively seeking information about Wilson from the CIA, according to former senior administration officials. Libby was aware of the diplomat and his mission by the time he talked with a Washington Post reporter in early June. By then -- one month before Plame was unmasked -- the State Department had prepared a memo on the Niger mission that contained information in a section marked "(S)" for secret. Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, brought the memo on a trip to Africa by President Bush in the days before Novak's column was published.

The lawyers said Fitzgerald does not appear likely to charge anyone with the crime he originally set out to investigate: whether anyone in the Bush administration knowingly disclosed the identity of a CIA operative whose covert status the agency was actively trying to keep secret. That crime is difficult to prove because Fitzgerald would have to show that the officials knew Plame was a covert operative and that the CIA did not want her name revealed.

Instead, based on the questions Fitzgerald is asking, the lawyers surmised that he is looking into a broad conspiracy charge against a group of administration officials or into charging one or more officials with easier-to-prove crimes such as disclosing classified material, making false statements or perjury.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101202499.html

and here is an account, mostly about the NYT's reaction or lack of it, from the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112913942726766844-3CCi3ToSECn3bo7lFjx4AtbDp_g_20061012.html?mod=blogs