WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- The White House ordered all staff Tuesday to "preserve all materials" that may be relevant to a Justice Department investigation of an alleged administration leak of a CIA operative's name to the media to get back at a critic of the administration's justification for war with Iraq.
The order was contained in a memo from Alberto Gonzales, counsel to President George W. Bush.
"We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee," the memo, released to the media, said. "The department advised us that it will be sending a letter today instructing us to preserve all materials that might be relevant to its investigation.
"... You must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation."
The memo said Bush had directed "full cooperation" with the investigation and further instructions would be forthcoming.
The investigation was prompted by a CIA complaint after columnist Robert Novak, citing administration sources, named former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife as an undercover CIA operative. It also gave her maiden name, which she used as an operative -- Valerie Plame.
Plame, according to the anonymous sources, had been instrumental in Wilson being sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate suspicions Iraq had attempted to obtain weapons-grade uranium from there.
The suspicions, initially raised by the British, apparently proved false, but Bush used it in his State of the Union address to underline the danger posed by the Saddam Hussein regime and its alleged programs to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
Wilson in early July wrote a newspaper commentary that said some intelligence about an Iraqi nuclear program had been manipulated by the administration to justify invading Iraq.
Shortly after that Novak's column appeared.
Another journalist has since said he had been approached by an administration official with the same information.
Wilson originally indicated he believed Bush adviser Karl Rove was the leaker. He has since said he believes Rove was at the least aware of the alleged actions by the unidentified administration officials.
Under a 1982 federal law it is a crime for anyone with access to classified information to disclose the identity of undercover U.S. intelligence operatives.
The CIA, concerned the revelation about Plame could endanger those she worked with, filed a complaint with the FBI.
White House Spokesman Scott McClellan has denied any evidence of White House involvement in the leak. He said Bush had made it clear that if any of his staff were involved they would be fired.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have urged an independent investigation into the affair, but the White House has insisted that the Justice Department is the appropriate agency to conduct the probe.
