The Central Intelligence Agency has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover operatives. The CIA has concluded that the White House leaked the name of the female operative to a newspaper columnist, in apparent retaliation against the CIA operative’s husband. Attorney General John Ashcroft must put his Bush and Republican loyalties aside and immediately order a full-scale investigation into the CIA’s allegation. If true, it would mean that one or more White House officials broke federal law, risked national security, and possibly jeopardized the life of a CIA employee.

Why would White House officials engage in such bizarre and reckless behavior?

It helps to know that the CIA operative’s husband, former envoy Joseph Wilson (who was also acting ambassador to Iraq before the Gulf War) embarrassed the Bush administration by publically refuting Bush’s claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa. Bush made the claim in his January 28, 2003 State of the Union address. The claim was part of the White House’s overall case that Iraq allegedly possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat to the United States. In other words, Wilson publically debunked one of the primary reasons that the White House gave the American people for going to war against Iraq.

Wilson was dispatched to Niger in 2002 to investigate a British intelligence report that Iraq sought to buy uranium there. Wilson quickly learned that key documents to that claim were forgeries. When he returned to the United States, Wilson wrote a report and briefed a number of people with ready connections to the White House. Indeed, the CIA engaged in a near constant battle with White House speech writers, warning them not to include the uranium claim in any official White House communication.

But President Bush included the highly dubious uranium claim in the State of the Union address in January 2003, carefully attributing the uranium claim to “British intelligence.” Later, in July 2003, Wilson published an article in the New York Times, charging that the White House had recklessly made the uranium claim knowing that it was false. He wrote, “We spend billions of dollars on intelligence ... But we end up putting something in the State of the Union address, something we got from another intelligence agency, something we cannot independently verify, in an area of Africa where the British have no on-the-ground presence.”

President Bush’s popularity ratings began to slide nearly from the moment that Wilson publically stepped forward with his accusation. Bush has yet to recover as more and more details emerge regarding his administration’s questionable handling of intelligence data.

The next week following Wilson’s article in the New York Times, conservative columnist Robert Novak published his own article in which he revealed that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative specializing in weapons of mass destruction. “Two senior administration officials told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate,” Novak wrote.

The White House has denied being Novak’s source and Novak has refused to identifiy the two senior administration officials. Meanwhile, Wilson has revealed that other reporters have told him that White House officials indeed leaked his wife’s identity as a CIA operative.

Someone is lying and it is up to the Justice Department to find out who is responsible.

The CIA has concluded that federal laws have been broken and has asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation. The CIA has no law enforcement authority, so it is up to Attorney General Ashcroft to put the wheels in motion. This would involve calling in the FBI and beginning an inquiry.

Attorney General Ashcroft has said many times that national security is his top priority. If the CIA is correct and these allegations are true, one or more Bush administration officials should be held accountable for what would have been an obvious breach of national security.

Attorney General Ashcroft should not let his loyalty to the Bush administration or the Republican party cloud his judgment. The Justice Department should move forward without delay.