As PSM notes above, it was Richard Armitage who leaked Valerie Plame's name. And contrary to the left-wing narrative, her name was not leaked by Bush cronies to harm her in retaliation for her husband Joe Wilson's opinion piece. Armitage was an opponent within the Administration to the President's Iraq policy. He gave Plame's name to Bob Novak to boost her husband's credibility, since people were asking why a former Ambassador with no expertise in WMDs was sent on his so-called fact-finding mission to Niger. Novak asked Armitage why the CIA would have chosen someone like Wilson for this task, and Armitage basically told him that Wilson's wife was a counterproliferation analyst and recommended her husband due to his regional contacts. In other words, "outing" her enhanced Ambassador Wilson's credibility rather than undermining it.

So the leak, such as it was (she was driving to and from CIA headquarters every day already, so her cover was already an open secret to anyone to whom it would matter), was Armitage's inadvertant mistake, not a nefarious plot. But Washington insiders cover for each other, so Novak and Armitage, and Armitage's boss Colin Powell, let the whole investigation go on for months to the point of being a witch-hunt to find some way to justify the time and expense, and Libby was caught up in that. Over the course of the investigation, Libby made some inconsistent statements (some of which were really a matter of "he said/she said") and was charged with perjury and related offenses.

'em damn yellow cakes....:rolleyes:

Ah, Yes, I'd forgotten about Dick Armitage..... He was one GHWB's least shiny stars. I never understood why he was resurrected.