Cia Leak

A 1982 law makes knowingly disclosing the identity of a covert agent a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.The CIA leak investigation in Washington goes back to a timeline of events that began in 2002. In 2002, diplomat Joseph C. Wilson visited Niger in order to investigate intelligence claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy uranium from Niger. Now an investigation is undercover as to who leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, Valeria Plame, an undercover CIA officer, to the press. To make matters even worse, two powerful administration figures are under suspicion.

On January 28, President Bush announces to the nations in his State of the Union speech that, "The British government has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." In July, few months after the fall of Baghdad, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson writes in The New York Times that he investigated the Niger uranium report for the CIA in 2002 and found it "highly doubtful" such a transaction could have occurred. Because no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, there were increasing questions about the intelligence the Bush administration cited during the debate over war. On July 14th, a syndicated columnist and CNN "Crossfire" co-host Robert Novak writes that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA operative and suggested sending him to Niger, he cited "two senior administration officials" for the report. As a result the CIA requested the Justice Department to launch a criminal probe into the leak of Pamela's identity.