LETTER TO JON DION FROM <SANITIZED> RE POSSIBLE VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01094024
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 18, 2022
• Case Number: F-2021-00422
• Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
Office of General Counsel
16 September 2003
VIA COURIER
John J. Dion, Esquire
Chief, Internal Security Section
Criminal Division, Bond Building, Room 9400
1400 New York Avenue, NW
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530
Re: Crimes Report: UD-2003-0025
Dear Mr. Dion:
Nc By letter dated July 30, 2003, we notified you of
a possible violation of federal law concerning the
unauthorized disclosure of classified information in a July
22, 2003, Newsday article entitled, "Columnist Blows CIA
Agent's Cover," authored by Timothy M. Phelps and
Knut Royce, and a July 14, 2003, syndicated article
published in the Chicago Sun-Times entitled, "The Mission
to Niger," authored by Robert D. Novak.
(U//F000) At that time we advised that CIA's Office
of Security had opened an investigation into this matter
and was preparing responses to the standard "11 Questions."
The investigation is now complete, and the results are
incorporated in the enclosed memorandum.
SEC ET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET//X1
John J. Dion, Esquire
(U//FOU0) We request an FBI criminal investigation
into this matter. Please respond to this request as'soon
as possible, directing any correspondence to me. Your
attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Assistant General Counsel
Enclosure
cc: Michael Chertoff, DOJ
Michael T. Rochford, FBI
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET/ /X1
John J. Dion, Esquire
�
Distribution:
Original - Addressee
- Michael Rochford, FBI
- Michael Chertoff, DOJ
- Director OCA
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
�
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET/hX1
CentrallraelligmeAgalcy
Vbshington. D. C. 20505
SEP 0 8 2003
MEMORANDUM FOR: Assistant Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
ATTENTION: Michael T. Rochford
Counterintelligence Division
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Chief, Personnel Security Group
Office of Security
(U//FOU0) Unauthorized Disclosure
Investigation, Federal Bureau of
Investigation's "11 Questions"
(S) On 22 July 2003, Newsday published an article
entitled "Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover" (attachment A)
authored by Timothy Phelps and Knut Royce. The article
references a 14 July 2003, syndicated article authored by
Robert D. Novak, which was published in the Chicago Sun-Times
and entitled "The Mission to Niger" (attachment B.) The
information disclosed in both articles constitutes
unauthorized disclosures of classified information at the
SECRET level.
(C) This document provides the responses to the
"11 Questions" required by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in determining whether to initiate an
investigation into the unauthorized disclosures outlined
below.
1. (U//FOU0) The date and identity of the articles
disclosing classified information.
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET/ 41(1
SUBJECT: (U//FOU0) Unauthorized Disclosure Investigation,
Federal Bureau of Investigation's '11 Questions"
Response
a. 22 July 2003, Newsday article entitled "Columnist
Blows CIA Agent's Cover."
b. 14 July 2003, Chicago Sun-Times article entitled
"The Mission to Niger."
2. (S) Specific statements in the articles that are
considered classified and whether the data was properly
classified.
Response
Attachments A and B identify the specific statements
that are classified and the respective classifications.
All data was properly classified.
3. (U//FOU0) Whether the classified data is
disclosed accurately.
Response
The information cited above is accurate.
4. (S) Whether the data came from a specific document
and, if so, the origin of the document.
Response
Not applicable
5. (U//FOU0) The extent of the official
dissemination of the data.
Response
By virtue of Ms. Plame's various work assignments, her
covert relationship with the Agency was widely known
throughout the Intelligence Community.
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECIZET//,X1,
SUBJECT: (U//FOU0) Unauthorized Disclosure Investigation,
Federal Bureau of Investigation's '11 Questions"
6. (U//FOU0) Whether the data has been the subject of
prior official releases.
Response
This information was not approved for prior official
release.
7. (U//FOU0) Whether prior clearances for publication
or release of the information was sought from proper
authorities.
Response
No such approval was sought.
8. (S) Whether the material, or portions thereof,, or
enough background data has been published officially or in
the press to make an educated speculation on the matter
possible.
Response
No material or background data has been published either
officially or in the press to enable speculation on this
matter.
9. (U//FOU0) Whether the data can be declassified for
the purpose of prosecution, and if so, the name,of the person
competent to testify concerning the classification.
Response
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will work with
the prosecutor to make available information necessary
for prosecution and to provide an appropriate
information review officer to testify concerning
classification. Due regard must be paid to protecting
sources and methods information; therefore, CIA expects
that the case will be framed to limit exposure of
3
SECRET/ /X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET/rX 1,
SUBJECT: (U//FOU0) Unauthorized Disclosure Investigation,
Federal Bureau of Investigation's "11 Questions"
certain classified information and that the Classified
Information Procedures Act would be used to its fullest
extent.
10. (U//FOU0) Whether declassification had been
decided upon prior to the publication of the release of the
data.
Response
No decision to declassify any of the information was
made prior to the date of the publications.
11. (S) What effect the disclosure of the classified
data could have on the national defense.
Response
The disclosure of Ms. Plame's covert relationship with
the Agency could have a negative impact on her future
operational deployments and possibly impact the
operational equities of her previous operational
-contacts.
12. (U//FOU0) Please direct any inquiries regarding
the above information to the Office of Security, Pe
Security Group, Investigations Division, Attention:
FOR THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE:
Attachments:
A. (S) 22 July 2003 Newsday article
B. (S) 14 July 2003 Chicago Sun-Times article
4
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET/tX1,
SUBJECT: (U//FOU0) Unauthorized Disclosure Investigation,
Federal Bureau of Investigation's '11 Questions"
�
Distribution:
Orig
- John J. Dion, DOJ (w/atts)
1
- Michael T. Rochford,
FBI (w/atts)
1
- Christopher A. Wray,
DOJ (w!atts)
1
- D/OCA (w/atts)
1
- OGC Front Office,
(w/atts)
1
- OS/LGL (w/atts)
1
-
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
a
SECRET//X1
Published on Tuesday, July 22, 2003
by the Long Island, NY Newsday �
Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover
by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce
WASHINGTON - The identity of an undercover CIA officer whose husband started the Iraq uranium intelligence
controversy has been publicly revealed by a conservative Washington columnist citing "two senior administration
officials."
Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday yesterday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity - at least she
was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak
Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's employment, said the release to the press of her relationship to him and
even her maiden name was an attempt to intimidate others like him from talking about Bush administration
intelligence failures.
"It's a shot across the bow to these people, that if you talk we'll take your family and drag them through the mud as
well," he said in an interview.
It was Wilson who started the controversy that has engulfed the Bush administration by writing in the New York
Times two weeks ago that he had traveled to Niger last year at the request of the CIA to investigate reports that Iraq
was trying to buy uranium there. Though he told the CIA and the State Department there was no basis to the report,
the allegation was used anyway by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union speech in January.
Wilson and a retired CIA official said yesterday that the "senior administration officials" who named Plame had, if
their description of her employment was accurate, violated the law and may have endangered her career and
possibly the lives of her contacts in foreign countries. Plame could not be reached for comment.
"When it gets to the point of an administration official acting to do career damage, and possibly actually endanger
someone, that's mean, that's petty, it's irresponsible, and it ought to be sanctioned," said Frank Anderson, former
CIA Near East Division chief.
A current intelligence official said that blowing the cover of an undercover officer could affect the officer's future
assignments and put them and everyone they dealt with overseas in the past at risk.
"If what the two senior administration officials said is true," Wilson said, "they will have compromised an entire
career of networks, relationships and operations." What's more, it would mean that "this White House has taken an
asset out of the" weapons of mass destruction fight, "not to mention putting at risk any contacts she might have had
where the services are hostile."
Deputy White House Press Secretary Claire Buchan referred questions to a National Security Council spokesman
who did not return phone calls last night.
"This might be seen as a smear on me and my reputation," Wilson said, 'but what it really is is an attempt to keep
anybody else from coming forward" to reveal similar intelligence lapses.
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET//X1
Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to
me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
Wilson and others said such a disclosure would be a violation of the law by the officials, not the columnist.
Novak reported that his "two senior administration officials" told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her
husband, Wilson, to Niger.
A senior intelligence official confirmed that Name was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who
worked "alongside" the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.
But he said she did not recommend her husband to Undertake the Niger assignment. "They [the officers who did ask
Wilson to check the uranium story] were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising," he said. "There
are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up,
for some reason," he said. "I can't figure out what it could be."
"We paid his [Wilson's] air fare. But to go to Niger is not exactly a benefit. Most people you'd have to pay big bucks
to go there," the senior intelligence official said. Wilson said he was reimbursed only for expenses.
Copyright � 2003, Newsday, Inc.
SECRET//X1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
�
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
SECRET//X 1
Chicago Sun-Times
July 14, 2003
The Mission To Niger
By Robert Novak, Sun-Times Columnist
The CIA's decision to send retired diplomat Joseph C. Wilson to Africa in February 2002 to investigate
possible Iraqi purchases of uranium was made routinely without Director George Tenet's knowledge.
Remarkably, this produced a political fire storm that has not yet subsided.
Wilson's report that an Iraqi purchase of uranium yellowcake from Niger was highly unlikely was regarded
by the CIA as less than definitive, and it is doubtful Tenet ever saw it. Certainly, President Bush did not,
before his 2003 State of the Union address, when he attributed reports of attempted uranium purchases
to the British government. That the British relied on forged documents made Wilson's mission, nearly a
year earlier, the basis of furious Democratic accusations of burying intelligence though the report was
forgotten by the time the president spoke.
Reluctance at the White House to admit a mistake has led Democrats ever closer to saying the president
lied the country into war. Even after a belated admission of error last Monday, finger-pointing between
Bush administration agencies continued.
Wilson's mission was created after an early 2002 report by the Italian intelligence service about attempted
uranium purchases from Niger, derived from forged documents prepared by what the CIA calls a "con
man." This misinformation spread through the U.S. government. The White House, State Department and
Pentagon asked the CIA to look into it.
That's where Joe Wilson came in. His first public note had come in 1991 after 15 years as a Foreign
Service officer when, as U.S. charge in Baghdad, he risked his life to shelter in the embassy 800
Americans from Saddam Hussein's wrath. My partner Rowland Evans reported from the Iraqi capital in
our column that Wilson showed "the stuff of heroism." The next year, President George H.W. Bush
named him ambassador to Gabon, and President Bill Clinton put him in charge of African affairs at the
National Security Council until his retirement in 1998.
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of
mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me his wife suggested sending Wilson
to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected
Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told
me.
After eight days in the Niger capital, Wilson made an oral report in Langley that an Iraqi uranium purchase
was "highly unlikely," though he also mentioned in passing that a 1988 Iraqi delegation tried to establish
commercial contacts. CIA officials did not regard Wilson's intelligence as definitive, being based primarily
on what the Niger officials told him and probably would have claimed under any circumstances. The CIA
report based on Wilson's briefing remains classified. All this was forgotten until reporter Walter Pincus
revealed in the Washington Post on June 12 that an unnamed retired diplomat had given the CIA a
negative report. Not until Wilson went public on July 6, however, did his finding ignite the fire storm.
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Wilson had taken a measured public position--viewing weapons
of mass destruction as a danger but considering
SECRET//X 1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 CO1094024
. ,
SECRET//XI
military action as a last resort. He has seemed much more critical since revealing his role in Niger. In the
Washington Post on July 6, he talked about the Bush team "misrepresenting the facts," asking: "What
else are they lying about?"
After the White House admitted error, Wilson declined all television and radio interviews.
"The story was never me," he told me, "it was always the statement in [Bush's] speech."
The story, actually, is whether the administration deliberately ignored Wilson's advice, and that requires
scrutinizing the CIA summary of what their envoy
reported. The agency never before has declassified that kind of information, but the White House would
like it to do just that now�in its and in the public's
interest.
S EC RET//X 1
Approved for Release: 2021/12/06 C01094024