WASHINGTON - Former CIA officer Valerie Plame is considering suing the recent No. 2 State Department official in a case accusing members of the Bush administration of conspiring to leak her identity to the media, Plame's attorney said Tuesday.
Official State Department calendars, provided to the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage held a one-hour meeting marked "private appointment" with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on June 13, 2003.
That was the day Woodward met with a confidential source who spoke to him about Plame, the Associated Press reported, citing an anonymous source.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has investigated whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame's identity as a one-time CIA covert official. Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been accused of lying to investigators and to a grand jury.
Plame has sued Vice President Dick Cheney, White House aide Karl Rove and Libby, saying they leaked her name to punish her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Plame attorney Heidi Sloan said she was considering adding Armitage's name to the suit. The real question, Sloan said, is whether Armitage revealed Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, who was the first to get the information into print. If so, she said it widens the conspiracy.
McCain says realities of Iraq war downplayed
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican Sen. John McCain, a staunch defender of the Iraq war, on Tuesday faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."
McCain said the administration had failed to make clear the challenges facing the military.
"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required," McCain said. "Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders. I'm just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."
Meanwhile, Americans increasingly see the war in Iraq as distinct from the fight against terrorism, and nearly half believe President Bush has focused too much on Iraq to the exclusion of other threats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. In it, 51 percent saw no link between the war in Iraq and the antiterror effort, a jump of 10 percentage points since June.
Bush recorded a gain of 4 percentage points in how the public views his handling of terrorism, rising to 55 percent approval.
Also ...
KATRINA: State officials in Louisiana are still struggling to ensure that money to rebuild houses hit by Hurricane Katrina is fairly distributed, Don Powell, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast coordinator, said Tuesday. Nearly a year after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, $44-billion has been spent to rebuild the region, Powell said. More than $110-billion has been designated for rebuilding.
HEALTH CARE: President Bush signed an executive order that the administration said would help Americans choose health care the way they shop for airline tickets and cars. The order will require various federal agencies to compile information about the quality and price of health care they pay for, and share that information with their customers and each other.
SEQUOIA LOGGING: U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled Tuesday that a Bush administration plan to allow commercial logging inside the Giant Sequoia National Monument violates environmental laws. Environmental groups had sued the U.S. Forest Service over its plans for managing the 328,000-acre preserve, home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees.
