Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here. | csmonitor.com

Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here. | csmonitor.com:

"Timeline of the CIA leak case

2002

February The CIA sends Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate whether Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium. He concludes it did not.

September The British government asserts that Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy uranium from an African country.

2003

January President Bush mentions the British claim in his State of the Union address.

March Mr. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq.

July Mr. Wilson disputes Bush's claim about the Iraq-Africa uranium connection.

CIA Director George Tenet and other White House officials say Bush's reference to African uranium should not have been included in his State of the Union address.

Columnist Robert Novak names Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

September The Washington Post reports that at least six journalists had been told of the Plame story before Novak's column appeared.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan says that '[i]f anyone in this administration is involved in [the leak], they would no longer be in this administration.'

The Justice Department launches a probe of the leak.

December Patrick Fitzgerald is named special prosecutor in the case.

2004

January A grand jury begins hearing testimony. Dozens of powerful government and media figures testify over the next 22 months. White House aide Karl Rove appears before the grand jury four times.

July The British and US governments publish separate reviews of prewar intelligence estimates. The reports express skepticism about the credibility of some aspects of prewar intelligence assessments, and they note that some of the evidence used to allege an Iraq-Africa uranium connection relied on Italian documents that later proved to be forgeries. However, the British and US reports generally support the reasonableness of Bush's claim at the time that he made it.

2005

June US Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals from Ms. Miller and Time magazine's Matt Cooper to avoid testifying before the grand jury.

July Mr. Cooper testifies before the grand jury, after his source releases him from a confidentiality pledge.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller goes to jail to protect the identity of source(s) who leaked Plame's name to her.

September 29 Miller is released from jail and testifies before the grand jury.

October 28 The grand jury was scheduled to expire Friday."