Prometheus 6 has all the links you need to get both sides of the Plame story.
There are two petitions that I know of calling for an independent investigation.
Additional notable post from Juan Cole.
From my e-mail:
WHITE HOUSE LEAK CONTROVERSY BUILDS
“The President and I place deterring, detecting, and punishing unauthorized disclosures of U.S. national security secrets among our highest priorities, at all times, but especially in this time of war against terrorism of global reach,” Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote in an October 2002 report to Congress.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dojleaks.html
That unequivocal assertion is now being put to the test in the face of renewed allegations that Bush Administration officials improperly disclosed the identity of a CIA officer serving under cover who happened to be the wife of an Administration critic, Amb. Joseph Wilson.
Detecting and punishing the leaker didn’t exactly sound like one of the “highest priorities” of the White House at a rather evasive press briefing on the subject on September 29.
“My understanding is that if something like this happened and it was referred to the Department of Justice, then the Department of Justice would look to see whether or not there is enough information to pursue it further,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “But those are questions you need to ask the Department of Justice.” See:
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2003/09/wh092903.html
The Justice Department has reportedly opened an investigation into the matter.
Leaks, including intelligence-related leaks, are commonplace. But identification of leakers, let alone prosecution or other punishment, is rare.
“We file crimes reports with the attorney general every week about leaks,” said DCI George Tenet at his confirmation hearing on May 6, 1997, “and we’re never successful in litigating one.”
Although no one has ever been prosecuted for disclosing the name of a CIA officer under cover, such disclosures happen from time to time.
In 1998, an article in The New Republic named the CIA station chief in Tel Aviv, to the dismay of Agency officials and congressional overseers. See “CIA Station Chief in Israel Unmasked,” Secrecy and Government Bulletin, November 1998:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/bulletin/sec75.html
The text of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, which prohibits the identification of “covert agents,” is available here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/laws/iipa.html
Other reading:
White House Denies a Top Aide Identified an Officer of the C.I.A.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and RICHARD W. STEVENSON
The White House also rejected growing calls from Democrats for the appointment of a special outside counsel to investigate the matter.
Update 10/1:
PAST PROSECUTIONS UNDER THE INTEL IDENTITIES ACT
Speaking of errors, Secrecy News mistakenly advanced the notion that there has never been a prosecution involving the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, which prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of the identities of “covert
agents.”
In fact, there has been at least one prosecution under the Act, in the course of an espionage proceeding.
It was the 1985 prosecution of Sharon M. Scranage, a CIA employee who was charged with disclosing agent identities to Ghanaian intelligence officials and who pled guilty to two counts under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. (Thanks to Paul Wolf for pointing this out.) See (scroll down to middle of the
page):