Nov. 16, 2005
In a disappointing development, Bob Woodward, who had been seen as an honest, crusading journalist, now tells that he has been playing it cozy with the Bush team for a couple of years--that he had talked with a senior Bush administration official who "outed" Mrs. Wilson/Valerie Plame, to him a few years back but that he'd not even told his senior editor at the Washington Post, Mr. Downie, nor anyone else until he was subpoened in the "leak case" recently.
Thus, it shows that not only was Judith Miller of the NY Times involved in the lies, but also Bob Woodward--this pretty much destroys any faith anyone could have in the American major press. It has been up to us in the alternative media to tell the truth about the Bush administration, now it is apparent that we have few allies in the major media, save Helen Thomas.
There is little of the "4th estate" left--they are all part of the same right wing group, like Fox and its ilk. What's ironic about all this is that Bob Woodward has been hiding this information for years on all kinds of talk shows, in the major media outlets for which he writes and Judith Miller is trying to portray herself as a heroine of the media, standing up for freedom of speech and confidentiality while she herself lied to the American public on behalf of her friends in the Bush administration (especially her friend, "Scooter" Libby).
So now, Bob, what I suggest you do is to resign from the Washington Post, that you spend some time in jail, and that you give up trying to act like an innocent who had a "lapse."
Come now Bob, you were lying to Downie and you knew it, and you've been lying to the American public as well. It's time for you to go into selling used cars.
Dr.Sam Hamod, editor, www.todaysalternativenews.com
By MARIA NEWMAN
Published: November 16, 2005
Bob Woodward, assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, today apologized to his newspaper's executive editor for waiting two years to tell him that a senior Bush administration official had told him about the C.I.A. operative Valerie Wilson.
Timeline of the Leak
A trip by Joseph C. Wilson IV to Niger nearly four years ago was the beginning of a series of events now being investigated by a special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
Key Articles and Documents
Text: Bob Woodward's Public Statement (November 16, 2005)
Journalists Said to Figure in Strategy in Leak Case (November 16, 2005) The Post reported in today's edition that Mr. Woodward testified under oath on Monday about his conversation in mid-June 2003 with a senior administration official about Ms. Wilson and her position at the agency, nearly a month before her identity was disclosed. The disclosure makes Mr. Woodward, who broke the news of the Watergate break-in that helped bring down President Nixon and has written several insider books about Washington, the first known reporter to learn about Ms. Wilson from a top administration official.
Today's Post article also said that Mr. Woodward waited until last month to tell his supervisors about those conversations, even though the investigation into the matter had been consuming official Washington for months.
Mr. Woodward's disclosure adds a new element to - and potentially complicates - a case whose investigative phase appeared to be winding down late last month when a special prosecutor announced the indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Libby was indicted on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prosecutors said he misled a grand jury and investigators about his conversations with journalists about Ms. Wilson, who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.
Mr. Woodward's testimony also adds a new source for Mr. Fitzgerald to consider, and appears to rearrange the known chronology of discussions between reporters and high-level administration officials.
The Post and Mr. Woodward did not identify the senior administration official, citing an agreement under which the official freed Mr. Woodward to testify, but not to discuss their conversations publicly.
In his apology, which appeared in an article on the Post's online edition this afternoon, Mr. Woodward said he told Leonard Downie Jr., the executive editor, that he held back the information because he was worried about being subpoenaed by the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
"I apologized because I should have told him about this much sooner," Mr. Woodward said in an interview with Howard Kurtz, a Post media writer. "I explained in detail that I was trying to protect my sources. That's Job No. 1 in a case like this. . . .
"I hunkered down. I'm in the habit of keeping secrets. I didn't want anything out there that was going to get me subpoenaed."
Mr. Downie, in an interview with Mr. Kurtz, said that Mr. Woodward had "made a mistake."
Despite his concerns about his confidential sources, Mr. Downie said, Mr. Woodward "still should have come forward, which he now admits. We should have had that conversation . . . I'm concerned that people will get a misimpression about Bob's value to the newspaper and our readers because of this one instance in which he should have told us sooner."
On Oct. 27, the night before the indictments were announced, Mr. Woodward, in an appearance on "Larry King Live," said of the leak case: "There is deep mystery here. It only grows with time and people are speculating and there are -- there is so little that people really know.
He also told Larry King that Mr. Downie had called to tell him he had heard rumors that Mr. Woodward would be reporting a big development in the investigation.
"I hear you have a bombshell; would you let me in on it," Mr. Woodward said his supervisor said.
"And I said I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't," Mr. Woodward said he told him.
In the indictment of Mr. Libby, prosecutors cite a June 23, 2003, conversation Mr. Libby had with Judith Miller of The New York Times, in which Mr. Libby told her that the wife of Joseph Wilson might work at the C.I.A. Mr. Fitzgerald, at the Oct. 28 news conference in which he discussed the indictment, said that "Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson."
But Mr. Woodward said his conversation with the senior administration official came in mid-June - the exact date was not specified - apparently before Mr. Libby's conversation with Ms. Miller.
Ms. Wilson is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who became an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's use of intelligence on Iraq's weapons capability after he was sent to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had sought to buy uranium there.
In a statement in today's Post that accompanied the news article, Mr. Woodward said he testified to the special prosecutor about confidential interviews he had with three current or former administration officials "that relate to the investigation of the public disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame."
He said that the first interview was in mid-June, with an official he would not name, who "told me Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A. on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst."
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