Armitage on CIA leak: I caused this whole thing

The book Hubris, which is now for sale, gives a detailed inside look at the Bush Administration's outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who at the time was listed under covert status.  Author Michael Isikoff writes in the book about how former Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell played a central, yet accidental role in revealing Plame's identity to the press.

The September 4th edition of Newsweek, Isikoff previews the book and explains how Armitage realized that he outed Plame:

In the early morning of Oct. 1, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powellreceived an urgent phone call from his No. 2 at the State Department.Richard Armitage was clearly agitated. As recounted in a new book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Armitage had been at home reading the newspaper and had come across acolumn by journalist Robert Novak. Months earlier, Novak had caused ahuge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war criticJoseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had beentrying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnisthimself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided atantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senioradministration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitagewas shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who theleaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "indeep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversationwho asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'msure he's talking about me."

(Entire article)

So apparently Armitage was used by the Administration to pass along information about Plame without knowing the implications of it.  Simply fascinating.  This comes just a few days after it was revealed that personal calendars show Armitage met with Bob Woodward right before the reporter testified to the grand jury that an Administration official spoke to him about Valerie Plame.

I am sure that by the time Bush leaves office, thanks to books like this and many others, we will know the full extent of the White House's effort to discredit Joe Wilson.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Hopes and Onions, Needlenose, Captain's Quarters,  Eyes for the Brambles, The American Thinker, AfterDowningStreet, Cannonfire, Drudge Retort, Just One Minute, Letter of Apology, ReBelle Nation, Newsache, Abramoff Journal.