But praise was not what Wilson got. Even as Wilson's disclosure forced the Bush administration to retract the uranium claim -- a sentence in the State of the Union that became known as "the sixteen words" -- Wilson became the target of a nasty counterattack.
Novak exposed Plame's identity as a CIA officer, destroying her intelligence career and putting her network of foreign operatives in danger. The right-wing echo chamber rumbled with denunciations of Wilson and his wife.
The Investigation
But the Bush administration's leaking of Plame's identity had a surprise consequence. The CIA filed a complaint about the outing of Plame, prompting a Justice Department investigation.
Initially, the inquiry hit a stonewall as Bush and other senior officials denied any White House role in the leak or in the efforts to undermine Wilson. Eventually, however, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald determined that the leak had involved several senior officials, including Libby, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and White House political adviser Karl Rove.
Novak had gotten his information from Armitage and Rove. Libby had told New York Times reporter Judy Miller about Plame and then had lied about his role.
In 2007, Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. No one else was charged in the case, although prosecutor Fitzgerald told Libby's jury that a "cloud" remained over Vice President Cheney.
To spare Libby jail time, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence. Fitzgerald wrapped up his investigation without explaining why he took no action against Cheney, Rove and other individuals implicated in the case.
As for Fitzgerald's interviews with Bush and Cheney, the Justice Department -- under both Attorneys General Michael Mukasey and Eric Holder -- resisted releasing the FBI's reports. However, the Cheney report was finally made public Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
[To read more about the Plame-gate scandal, see Consortiumnews.com's "Zeroing In on Bush-Cheney" and "Plame-gate: Time to Fire WPost's Hiatt."]
