Libby testifies that bosses OK'd CIA leak, papers say

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff testified that his bosses instructed him to leak information to reporters from a high-level intelligence report that suggested Iraq was trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to court records in the CIA leak case.

Cheney was one of the "superiors" I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby said had authorized him to make the disclosures, according to sources familiar with the investigation into Libby's discussions with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame.

But it is unclear whether Cheney instructed his former top aide to release classified information, because parts of the National Intelligence Estimate were previously declassified. The intelligence estimate is a classified report prepared by intelligence officers for high-level government officials, and some parts are regularly.

The disclosure in a legal document written by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald indicates Cheney's involvement in responding to public allegations by Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, that the administration had exaggerated questionable intelligence to justify war with Iraq.

In a letter written in January and released in court papers filed by Libby's defense Monday, Fitzgerald wrote that Libby testified that his "superiors" authorized him to disclose information from the report to reporters in the summer of 2003.

"We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors," Fitzgerald wrote.

The prosecutor's note of Jan. 23 does not, however, make any reference to Libby's involvement in the disclosure of Plame's identity, The New York Times reported on its Web site. The National Journal first reported on its Web site Thursday that Cheney had provided the authorization.

Libby was indicted in October on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the course of the investigation about how he learned Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters. Fitzgerald has been trying to determine since January 2004 whether administration officials knowingly disclosed Plame's identity to reporters to discredit Wilson's allegations, a possible violation of law.

Plame's name first appeared in a syndicated column by Robert Novak in July 2003, eight days after her husband publicly accused the administration of relying on questionable information about Iraq's weapons program to justify the war.

The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger.

Wilson's revelations cast doubt on President Bush's claim in his 2003 State of the Union address that an African country had sold uranium to Iraq to develop a nuclear weapon as one of the administration's key justifications for going to war in Iraq.

Cheney's name has surfaced in other court documents as well. According to an appeals-court decision made public last Friday, "the vice president informed Libby 'in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion' " that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA one month before her identity was made public, Reuters news service reported, citing Libby's grand-jury testimony.

William Jeffress, Libby's lawyer, told The Associated Press, "There is no truth at all" to suggestions that Libby would try to shift blame to his superiors as a defense against the charges.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to comment, referring calls to Fitzgerald's office. Fitzgerald's spokesman has declined to comment on the prosecutor's investigation and filings.

Additional information is from Reuters and The Associated Press.