Deep Throat Gets Laryngitis

Bob Woodward, the star reporter for the Washington Post, apparently had some sort of epiphany and suddenly announced that he knew about Valerie Plame at least a month before Scooter Libby supposedly spilled the beans about her CIA job. Oops. This little revelation not only embarrasses Woodward and his employer, but creates some serious doubts about the whole underpinning of the Libby indictment.

Bob Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative contradicts a special prosecutor's contention that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was the first to make the disclosure to reporters.

Attorneys for the aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, described Wednesday's statement by the Washington Post's assistant managing editor as helpful for their defense, although Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury and the FBI, not with disclosing the CIA official's name.

"Hopefully, as information is obtained from reporters like Bob Woodward, the real facts will come out," lawyer Ted Wells said Wednesday.

Woodward, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, said he had not told his bosses until last month that he had learned about Valerie Plame's identity and her work at the CIA more than two years ago from a high-level Bush administration official.

When Woodward learned Plame's name, he told The Associated Press Wednesday, he was in the middle of finishing a book about the administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, and didn't want to be subpoenaed to testify.

"The grand jury was going and reporters were being jailed, and I hunkered down more than I usually do," Woodward said, explaining why he waited so long to tell Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. what he knew about the Plame matter.

What happened to Mr. Courageous Reporter? And now what happens to the Special Prosecutor's case? Some analysts I heard on TV suggest that the prosecutor may well have to drop the charge altogether since Woodward's story now casts doubts on the foundation laid out by the prosecutor in his famous press conference.

The defense attorneys are going to have fun with this.