Cheney to FBI: No idea who leaked Plame's identity

According to courtroom testimony, Rove was one of Novak's sources for his column disclosing Plame's CIA identity and Rove and Libby were sources for Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, who also wrote a story identifying Plame.

Cheney said he was not aware of any discussions Libby may have had with Rove about Wilson or Wilson's wife, and Cheney said Libby did not tell him about any such discussions.

The vice president advised the agents that he had no idea what Libby knew in the days before Plame's CIA identity was publicly revealed. Cheney said he did not recall if Libby revealed to the vice president his independent knowledge about the fact that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

In a New York Times opinion piece on July 6, 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy a uranium "yellowcake" in the African nation of Niger. Bush referred to the yellowcake during his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union speech to Congress as he was trying to rally support for going to war with Iraq. Yellowcake is a powdered form of uranium that could be used in a nuclear weapon if purified and enriched.

The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports. Wilson brought back denials of any sale and argued such a sale was not likely to happen.

In his FBI interview, Cheney said his initial reaction to the Wilson article was his sense that it was "amateur hour" out at the CIA.

Cheney said The New York Times piece was disturbing. Cheney said he was most disturbed because it was now being made to look as though the vice president had personally sent Wilson on the trip. The vice president said that all he had done was to make a legitimate inquiry of a CIA briefer in February 2002 about Niger and Iraq.

Plame was outed in Novak's column as a CIA employee eight days after Wilson attacked the administration in The New York Times piece.

Cheney said it was then-CIA Director George Tenet who told him sometime before the July 6, 2003, publication of Wilson's opinion piece in The New York Times that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, but Cheney said he was uncertain when that was.

Cheney said he could not recall if he mentioned the content of his conversation with Tenet to Libby, but the vice president said that if he would have shared it with anyone, it would have been Libby.

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