Valerie Plame cia leak investigation

Feb. 2002	In the prewar effort to uncover information about weapons in Iraq, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a retired ambassador who was a secret envoy of the Bush administration to Africa, made a fact-finding trip to Niger in February 2002 at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency. His findings challenged contentions in an unsubstantiated document that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear-weapons material from the West African country.
July 6, 2003	Mr. Wilson made his account public in an op-ed article in The New York Times , to the intense discomfort of President Bush's aides, that the White House acknowledged that it had erred in including the disputed accusations in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address in January. The former U.S. ambassador alleges that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was "twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
July 7-12	President George W. Bush visits sub-Saharan Africa, making stops in Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.
July 14	Mr. Wilson's wife is identified by name as a covert C.I.A. operative in a column by the conservative columnist Robert Novak. Novak cites "two senior administration officials" as his sources.. Time magazine has said officials provided similar information.
July 22	In a story by Washington bureau chief Timothy M. Phelps and staff writer Knut Royce, Newsday reports Plame worked at the CIA "in an undercover capacity." The story cites "intelligence officials" as its source. Wilson and other administration critics assert the Bush administration violated the law in an effort to punish Wilson for his report debunking an accusation that Iraq had tried to buy enriched uranium in Africa.
Aug 21	The question of whether to investigate who in the Bush administration blew Plame's cover surfaces at a forum about intelligence failures on Iraq held by Rep. Jay Inslee, a fervently anti-war Democrat. Wilson, who was present, had this to say: It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.
Aug. 29	Mr. Wilson identifies Karl H. Rove, Bush’s so-called White House advisor, as who had leaked it out to the Washington Post that Wilson’s wife is a CIA agent of 26 years. As a consequence of this leak, her entire team of 70 overseas assets were liquidated.
Sept. 26	CIA asks Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman’s husband who publicly criticized President Bush’s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa
Sept. 29	Novak on CNN disputes the notion of a leak. "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this," he said. However, in an interview with Newsday on July 21, Novak had said his sources had come to him with the information about Plame. "I didn't dig it out. It was given to me," he said. " ... They gave me the name and I used it."
Sept. 30	The Justice Department initiates a full-scale criminal inquiry into the leak allegations. The White House, in response, orders its employees to preserve all records relevant to the probe.
Oct. 2	The Justice Department begins looking beyond the White House and CIA to the State and Defense departments for the source of the disclosure. A Justice official says he wouldn't call it an expansion as much as a natural progression of the probe.
Oct. 3	White House staffers are given, 5 days, until Tuesday, Oct. 7, to turn over pertinent records -- telephone records, e-mails and other documents related to the leak -- to the Justice Department.
Oct. 15	CIA officer Valerie Plame steps out of the shadows for the first time since having her cover blown when she attends a Washington luncheon where her husband is awarded a $10,000 "truth-telling" prize for his revelations about the now discredited claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa.
Dec. 30	Attorney General John Ashcroft removes himself from the criminal investigation, and Chicago's top federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is assigned to lead the probe.
Jan. 22, 2004	A federal grand jury begins hearing testimony in the case, according to a Time magazine article. The article, which was posted on the magazine's Web site and cites unidentified sources, said that federal prosecutors seated a grand jury a day earlier and have begun eliciting witness testimony.
Feb. 10	Several top White House press aides are among the first to go before a grand jury in the investigation, the aides and other sources confirm. Among those confirming that they appeared before the grand jury are chief White House spokesman Scott McClellan, former press aide Adam Levine and Republican consultant Mary Matalin, who served as a counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Jun 4	Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name: Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
Jun 4	Bush Consults Lawyer in CIA Leak Case : President Bush has consulted an outside lawyer about possibly representing him in the grand jury investigation of who leaked the name of a covert CIA operative last year
sources:	NY times Seattle Post-Intelligencer AL Martin Newsday