Former CIA agent sues Dick Cheney and others

Washington, July 14 (UNI) A former CIA agent has sued several top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and former presidential advisor Karl Rove for their roles in disclosing her classified identity, thereby ruining her career.

Former agent Valerie Plame and her husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, also named Cheney's former chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and 10 other unnamed senior officials in yesterday's suit.

The suit alleged that the officials conspired to seek revenge against Wilson because had chosen to criticize the administration's reasons for invading Iraq.

One day earlier, the reporter who first revealed Plame's status as a CIA officer acknowledged that Rove was one of three people that provided him with the information. Robert Novak also named former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow as a source for the 2003 story. Novak said he is unable to reveal the third person's identity.

The report triggered a criminal investigation to determine who was responsible for revealing Plame's identity. A grand jury is investigating whether Bush administration officials leaked the information to wreck vengeance on Wilson.

Wilson traveled to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the west African nation. The administration used these claims as part of its reasons for toppling Saddam Hussein, even though Wilson had asserted that he did not find any evidence of any such transactions.

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