Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Bolton's chief of staff gave information on outed agent to Libby, lawyers involved in leak case say

John Bolton, the former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was contacted by I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in late May 2003 to find out who sent Ambassador Joseph Wilson on a fact-finding mission to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from the African country, lawyers involved in the CIA outing investigation told RAW STORY over the weekend.

The attorneys, along with intelligence officials, have provided RAW STORY additional insight into the unnamed identities of key players referred to in the five-count indictment against Libby, who resigned last Friday as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

Specifically, they relayed what two key prosecution witnesses now cooperating with the probe told Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the events that led to Libby learning about Wilson’s mission and Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity. Plame Wilson, the wife of the former ambassador, was outed as a CIA agent working on weapons of mass destruction issues after Wilson begin criticizing the Bush Administration's failed Iraq intelligence.

Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald's spokesman, told RAW STORY he could not comment or offer “guidance” on the specifics of this story.

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