CIA Director and Clinton administration holdover George Tenet has requested the Justice Department to investigate the Bush White House for the leak of a CIA operative’s name to heavily medicated journalist Robert Novak: Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry. The WaPo article about this investigation is thick with unnamed sources, but very light on specifics.

The operative’s identity was published in July after her husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly challenged President Bush’s claim that Iraq had tried to buy “yellowcake” uranium ore from Africa for possible use in nuclear weapons. Bush later backed away from the claim.

The intentional disclosure of a covert operative’s identity is a violation of federal law.

The officer’s name was disclosed on July 14 in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak, who said his sources were two senior administration officials.

Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak’s column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.