The Sunday Times (London): Security adviser Hadley named as Woodward's source in CIA scandal
Posted on Sunday, November 20 @ 10:06:37 EST
THE mysterious source who gave America's foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington's biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.
Woodward, the Washington Post reporter who broke the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon out of office, has refused publicly to divulge the name of his informant without permission, which has thus far been withheld.
The naming of CIA agent Valerie Plame as the wife of Joseph Wilson, the former US ambassador sent to Niger to investigate disputed claims that Saddam Hussein was trying to purchase uranium yellowcake for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, led to the indictment last month of Vice-President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for lying to a grand jury.
It is an offence in America to reveal the identity of a covert agent, although doubts remain about Plame's precise status.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council (NSC) denied that Hadley was the journalist's source. However, in South Korea on Friday during an official visit with President George W Bush, Hadley dodged the question.