Armitage On CIA Leak: 'I Screwed Up'

CBS Exclusive: Interview With Man Who 'Outed' CIA Agent Valerie Plame

(CBS)  In an exclusive interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, Richard Armitage, once the No. 2 diplomat at the State Department, couldn't be any blunter.

"Oh I feel terrible. Every day, I think I let down the president. I let down the Secretary of State. I let down my department, my family and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," he says.

When asked if he feels he owes the Wilsons an apology, he says, "I think I've just done it."

In July 2003, Armitage told columnist Robert Novak that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and Novak mentioned it in a column. It's a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer. But Armitage didn't yet realize what he had done.

So, what exactly did he tell Novak?

"At the end of a wide-ranging interview he asked me, 'Why did the CIA send Ambassador (Wilson) to Africa?' I said I didn't know, but that she worked out at the agency," Armitage says.

Armitage says he told Novak because it was "just an offhand question." "I didn't put any big import on it and I just answered and it was the last question we had," he says.

Armitage adds that while the document was classified, "it doesn't mean that every sentence in the document is classified.

"I had never seen a covered agent's name in any memo in, I think, 28 years of government," he says.

He adds that he thinks he referred to Wilson's wife as such, or possibly as "Mrs. Wilson." He never referred to her as Valerie Plame, he adds.

"I didn't know the woman's name was Plame. I didn't know she was an operative," he says.

He says he was reading Novak's newspaper column again, on Oct. 1, 2003, and "he said he was told by a non-partisan gun slinger."

"I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, 'I'm sure that was me,'" Armitage says.

Armitage immediately met with FBI agents investigating the leak.

"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however.

"First of all, I felt so terrible about what I'd done that I felt I deserved whatever was coming to me. And secondarily, I didn't need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth. I as already doing that," Armitage explains. "I was not intentionally outing anybody. As I say, I have tremendous respect for Ambassador. Wilson's African credentials. I didn't know anything about his wife and made an offhand comment. I didn't try to out anybody."

That was nearly three years ago, but the political firestorm over who leaked Valerie Plame's identity continued to burn as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald began hauling White House officials and journalists before a grand jury.

Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."

"I thought every day about how I'd screwed up," he adds.

Armitage never did tell the president, but he's talking now because Fitzgerald told him he could.

[evotelution]

I screwed up. I have never said go to hell to anyone before. I am sorry. I also have no evidence Armitage was a CIA operative. I am an idealist and am frustrated by the dishonest way the CIA openly promotes our intersts. I can not trust them anymore. If Armitage was the source of Novak...I think he should be tried for treason. We need more honor in our country. I noloner like Novak also for publishing this.

[slowww1]

No, I am not letting of the press, they get behind the conspiracy theories and demonize before any trilals or heck even the real story emerges. More liberal blathering comparing mistakes between the administration and the media. Stop the conpspiracy theories, the spin and report the news, not fake documents, not fake crying women in front of different buildings the same day, not opinions just the facts. that is why Fox is smoking this dinosaur.

[drgoodwin12]

Has anyone really read this story,Armitrage does not mention Bush,Cheney or Rove.As far as the Bush admin. It is a known fact that Cheney wanted Wilson discredited.Fitzgerald would not be continuing this story if there was not something there.Lay off the press,they have made less mistakes in their existence than Bush has in 6 years.

[abbe7]

Armitage is the fall guy.

The question is, how many other Republicans knew that it was Armitage that gave away Plames identity.

If it is true that Alberto Gonzales, Patrick Fitzgerald, Colin Powell or even Bush himself, then they need to be held accountable for what they knew.

Of course, there is more to this then has been revealed and those involved will no doubt get away it.

Because that is the Republican way.

lnguyen3 wrote:

"I am sick and tired of the maintream media trying to discredit the Bush administration."

Exactly. After all, he's doing a good enough job on his own.

[jtynoble]

We the people!
To soon we get old,
To late we get smart.
Uncle Sam!
Keep them fed and entertained,
and you Uncle Sam can do whatever you wish.

[slowww1]

The Media Knows that We are Idiots!
This is why more planes will fall. Our generation is a joke and are a bunch of mindless drones who think themselves educated because they read the New york times, watch guys like Dan Rather or Lou Dobbs, or believe that Fahrenheit 911 was a documentary. They say Iraq is a failure well it must be a failure, they say that Bush is stupid, well he must be stupid, they say Bush is a diabolical evil genius, we he must be that too, I have an ingrown toenail that is Bush's fault and global warming that is absolutely real beceause Al gore's movie said so and it is Bush's fault....
Our generation is unfortunately mostly a bunch of cowards who beleive the world problems should be solved in 30 minutes like a citcom. We do not have the stomach for war even when we lose 3000 people attacked on our shores....These guys are winning the war because they are using the liberal bush hating media to win our hearts and minds. *** near every islamic fascist over there hates us and they themselves are weapons of mass destruction...let them take a plane, a bus, a train, a bridge a tunnel...We could retreat from every place in the world and hide in our houses and they would follow us!
Why do I even talk, maybe a couple people will wake up, maybe some will even be mad enough to do research past the all knowing Google or Michael Moore, or Al Franken, or the NY Times ,ABC<NBC<CBS<CNN.
Probably not.
Have a great day
Jim

[blackhawk454]

If Fitzgerald, knowing, full-well that te responsible party had come forward, told him to shut up and continued a Grand Jury Inquisition, he deserves ethics action by his state bar association, at he very least.

[mememe54]

Armitage has no honor. What kind of person lets this kind false prosecution go on without stopping it. Powell and Armitage have leaked information before so his excuse for sitting back and enjoying the show is at the least lame.

Fitzgerald shoud be fired, if not prosecuted himself for wasting lives and our tax dollars.

When are we all going to standup and refuse to except this kind of behavior from our government officials.

[effallah]

It is AMAZING how much influence Rush and right wing radio have over hard working americans. Don't you guys understand that Armitage was not the only one to 'mention' Mrs. Plame? Anyone with a brain can see that Cheney got angry at Wilson for discrediting his Iraqi nuke ploy and wanted revenge so he told everyone around him to let it 'slip' that Wilsons wife worked for the CIA. As for the idiots who say Plame was not a undercover CIA agent...time to get the GOP out of your head and know the truth:

Valerie Wilson was a career undercover officer who was Chief of operations of the CIA's Joint Task Force on Iraq--part of the Counterproliferation Division of the agency's clandestine Directorate of Operations--who were mounting espionage operations to gather information on the WMD programs Iraq might have. The JTFI was trying to find evidence that would back up the White House's assertion that Iraq was a WMD danger.

So you see Cheney wanted us to find any rational possible to goto war with Iraq. When Wilson refuted Cheneys yellow cake lies he started smearing the Wilsons along with the rest of the GOP.

[lnguyen3]

I am sick and tired of the maintream media trying to discredit the Bush administration. It has been a waste of time and money. Why can't the media just leave them alone to do their jobs which tax payers hired them to do. Partisanship is so strong in those reporters's mind that they don't even care if it is destructive or even harmful to the country's interest. They just want to see blood from those people that they hate.

[lnguyen3]

Good Job, tshan17 and cjreuschel. Expose the hypocrisy some more.

[cjreuschel]

Where are the demands for David Shuster's firing at MSNBC. Shuster is the one who "broke" the story that Rove would be indicted on Chris Matthews show. Shuster has been on a 6 year anti encumbant nefarious witch hunt at MSNBC and has been allowed to operate with malevolent reckless abandon. Why is he still employed at MSNBC and contributing in any capacity. He risked his career to be the one on the front end of the breaking indictment story. Every time I see Shuster's face I associate him with the most egregious form of slanted jaded reporting with an obsessive idealogy being the genesis of his evident bias. Fire Shuster now!

[tshan17]

WHERE ARE ALL THE NEWS STORIES NOW, RETRACTING THE ACCUSATIONS THAT THE LEAK WAS AN "ORCHESTRATED WHITE HOUSE ATTACK ON JOE WILSON" AND THAT IT WAS KARL ROVE WHO LEAKED PLAME'S NAME (SHE HAD LONG SINCE BEEN OUT OF UNDECOVER WORK ANYWAY). WHY AREN'T ALL THE LIBERAL NEWS OUTLETS,INCLUDING CBS, COMING OUT NOW RETRACTING ALL OF THE ACCUSATIONS AND ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE BUSH ADMINISTATION? I'LL TELL YOU WHY THEY AREN'T - BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T HURT BUSH, THAT'S WHY. WHAT A BUNCH OF GARBAGE.

[cjreuschel]

Ohhhh come on man. This is all you got? Fitzgerald spent how many months and all he could get was a charge of "cover up" by Scooter Libby with no underlying crime. If no underlying crime was commited (which is admitted as there was no charge) how can there possibly be a cover up. What was he covering up? MSNBC "broke" the story on Chris Matthews show that "Rove will be indicted". That turned out to be egregiously and nefariously erroneous. Meanwhile the Democrats charged "culture of coruption" while Cynthia Mckinney slapped a Capital Officer, Patrick Kennedy drove the D.C. streets like a 16 year old hooligan, William Jefferson had $90K in his freezer while Katrina ravished his state and Harry Reid was as cozy with Jack Abromoff as classified documents are in Sandy Bergers socks. And you wonder how Sandy can get away with sayin word one about this ABC Sept 11 speical. How can Sandy say word one? He has no credibility. Come on Sandy - What did you sneak out in your socks that the 9/11 commission couldn't see? Your a disgrace. And the media just gives a free pass to the Dems as they always have. Now we can just wait for Bob Iger to pull or "edit" the 9/11 movie because the Clinton team is "demanding" they do so. Thank God for Fox News. The only news source remotely to the center.

[avgeno]

Here we go again...two days in a row...the neo-dittoheads (Rush's brain dead friends) are out in force screaming bloody murder for revenge against anything that even resembles a liberal slant. We said it yesterday and I'll say it today...their scared. They come out in the dark of night like slime breathing hate instead of reason. They only do it when their scared....less then 60 days left before we really know what lies they have told for the past 6 years...the cover-ups they have contributed to...it's all going to surface. The shredders are working overtime. I am loving every minute of it......watching their fear of whats coming this November is more exciting then the election itself.

[cyrusfx]

I'm sorry to have to tell you people this, but this isn't news. You should stop talking about it, and pick up long overdue interest in any other of the world's ongoing affairs.

Since the get go, this whole story has been a ploy by Bob Novak to buffer his own ego, and secondarily to force more people to read his column; he knew from the beginning that the equally guilty demofrauds had nothing on him, but let the story work itself into an empty media frenzy. In a time when there are so many more important issues to cover, this is a sin in itself.

Everyone in the media should be ashamed for pushing this nothing of a story so hard on us.

Ooh, who leaked the name of Valerie Plame.. ask yourself: do you actually care? Why?

I'm never reading another Bob Novak column again.

[sallystride]

I thought ignorance of the law is no excuse?

[psuess]

It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer. This did not apply to Valerie Plame and that was known day #1 of the investigation. Why the investigation? Why the wasted millions of dollars and all the lathering of the mouth from "Scary" Harry Reid, Nancy "tough talk" Pelosi and other no nothing democrats. Where is the fire? Where is the smoking gun? You talk about the presdient's popularity numbers. Look at your own. They are significantly lower.

Good Luck in November. With no ideas and no direction to a better future for America, the democratic party rips bush and offers no vision of where they would take us. They just tell us with perfect 20/20 hindsight what has failed without even having the ability to offer a better solution.
Perfect!!