“[Former secretary of state Richard] Armitage’s central role as the primary source on [former undercover CIA officer Valerie] Plame is detailed for the first time in “Hubris,” which recounts the leak case and the inside battles at the CIA and White House in the run-up to the war,” Newsweek says this week, teasing an upcoming book co-authored by one of its star investigators, Michael Isikoff.
The book confirms that Armitage was one of the initial sources of the Plame leak, for both conservative columnist Robert Novak and the Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward. Last week, AP reported that Armitage met with Woodward in June, on the same day Woodward had said he spoke with a source about Plame’s identity.
“The disclosures about Armitage, gleaned from interviews with colleagues, friends and lawyers directly involved in the case, underscore one of the ironies of the Plame investigation,” Newsweek says:
that the initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone.
Update: “Hubris” co-author David Corn has more.
