Fleischer: Libby discussed CIA officer at lunch

WASHINGTON - Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that then-colleague I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA.

Fleischer said the conversation happened on Monday, July 7, 2003, the day after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's op-ed article appeared in the New York Times, and he was a guest on "Meet the Press," accusing the administration of "twisting" intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs.  Libby -- according to prosecutors -- told Fleischer at lunch at the White House that the information that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA was "hush-hush."

That is the same day that the White House issued a statement saying that the "16 words" in the State of the Union address about Iraq seeking nuclear materials from Africa, should not have been included in the speech.

Fleischer was about to go overseas with the president and a number of other officials on an official delegation to various African countries. Fleischer would be traveling with the White House press corps on the trip.

July 7, 2003 was days before Libby told investigators he was surprised to learn about the CIA operative from a reporter. That discrepancy is at the heart of Libby's perjury and obstruction trial.

From Libby to Fleischer to NBC and Time?
Fleischer, who was the chief White House spokesman for the first 2 1/2 years of President Bush's first term, said Monday that Libby invited him to lunch to discuss Fleischer's planned departure from the White House. He said it was the first time he and Libby had eaten lunch together.

They talked about Fleischer's career plans and their shared interest in the Miami Dolphins football team, Fleischer testified. He can't remember who brought it up but he said the conversation then turned to the growing controversy over Wilson, who accused the White House of ignoring prewar intelligence on Iraq.

"Ambassador Wilson was sent by his wife," Fleischer recalled Libby saying. "His wife works for the CIA."

Fleischer said Libby also used the woman's name, Valerie Plame.

"My sense is that Mr. Libby was telling me this was kind of newsy," Fleischer said.

Fleischer also testified that while on a White House trip to Uganda on July 11, 2003, on the side of the road, he told NBC’s David Gregory and Time magazine’s John Dickerson, "If you want to know who sent ambassador Wilson to Niger, it was his wife, she works there" at the CIA.

(MSNBC.com is owned, in part, by NBC News.)

He added "[Never] in my wildest dreams would I have thought that information was classified."

Fleischer also said that the reporters he told did not seem very interested at the time about his revelation to them in Uganda.

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