Douglas Jehl finally breaks the Valerie Plame story (he seems to have concluded that she is, professionally, Ms. Plame) in the news columns of the New York Times (*). There seems to be no new fact, but most of the major issues are raised, though in terms of an accusation by Wilson rather than in terms of fairly obvious evidence of serious crime by high officials.
Jehl’s story is cautiously reported — he merely quotes unnamed administration sources as denying everything, rather than either putting senior figures on record or noting their refusal to speak on the record, and the fact that the apparent actions of two senior administration officials would constitute an aggravated felony is toned down to the assertion that “officials are barred by law” from doing what they seem to have done — but it’s there.
I’m trying to figure out what could generate the next round of news stories on this, and coming up rather dry.
Update Here’s (*) an even more cautious story from the Washington Times, which doesn’t even mention the law about burning CIA undercover officers, but does have a gratuitous slam at Wilson from ex-convict Caspar Weinberger. Note the technique of framing the issue in terms of Wilson making an accusation, rather than concentrating on the ample independent evidence of high-level criminality.