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Miller doesn't recall source of CIA name

By wire services
Published October 16, 2005

WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation repeatedly asked New York Times reporter Judith Miller how an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney handled classified information in their discussions, and even asked whether Cheney knew of their conversations.

In a first-person account, Miller recounted her recent grand jury testimony, which focused on her conversations in 2003 with Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating whether crimes were committed when Bush administration officials released the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters. Plame's covert status was exposed at a time when her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was criticizing the Bush administration.

Miller said that in her recent testimony, Fitzgerald "asked me questions about Mr. Cheney. He asked, for example, if Mr. Libby ever indicated whether Mr. Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer was no."

Miller also wrote that "Mr. Fitzgerald asked if I had discussed classified information with Mr. Libby. I said I believe so, but could not be sure."

Miller said she "didn't think" she got Plame's name from Libby. Recounting her testimony in a first-person article in the New York Times, Miller wrote: "I said I believed the information came from another source whom I could not recall."

Fitzgerald also asked Miller in recent days to explain how the name Valerie Plame - misspelled in Miller's notes as "Valerie Flame" - appeared in the same notebook the reporter used in interviewing Libby, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper said Miller and Libby met for breakfast at a hotel near the White House on July 8, 2003, two days after Wilson claimed the Bush administration had exaggerated the Iraqi threat.

Miller had been assigned to write a story about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Fitzgerald is wrapping up his investigation and is expected to decide soon whether to seek indictments.

President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified to the panel Friday, his fourth appearance.

Information from the New York Times and the Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified October 16, 2005, 01:33:15]