Editorial: Keep Plame case alive

Monday, March 19, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

The conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice was justified, but in a way rang somewhat hollow. The investigation that led to his conviction didn't result in convictions against the other people who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent.

No administration official other than Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was ever even charged.

The incompleteness of the case was brought out Friday, when Plame testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. She said she felt like she had been "hit in the gut" when she saw her name in print.

Her name was leaked as a way of undermining a July 2003 New York Times column written by her husband, Joe Wilson. A former ambassador to African nations, he wrote about a trip he had taken to Niger to check on whether Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from that country for a nuclear weapons program.

Wilson wrote that although he filed a report stating he found no evidence of such a fact, President Bush went ahead and promoted the idea of a Saddam-Niger connection in his 2003 State of the Union address.

Columnist Robert Novak used Plame's name to suggest that she had arranged her husband's trip as a junket, and that his report should be taken with a grain of salt.

Plame testified Friday that her "name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department." She said the leak had "jeopardized and even destroyed" multiple networks of CIA intelligence contacts, according to a Hearst Newspapers report.

Also testifying was James Knodell, director of the White House security office. He told House committee members that there had been no internal investigation into the leak, and no disciplinary action against those involved, according to the Associated Press.

Congress should not let the case stop with Libby's conviction. Bush promised four years ago to hold accountable anyone responsible for the leak. He should be held to that promise.