WASHINGTON -- Then-Deputy Secretary...

WASHINGTON -- Then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met with Washington situation reporter Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003 the same time the reporter has testified an administration official talked to him about CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Armitage's official State Department calendars, provided subject to the Freedom of Information Act, exhibit a one-hour meeting marked "private appointment" with Woodward in succession June 13, 2003.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has investigated whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame's identity as a one-time CIA stealthy operative to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing the administration's march to war with Iraq.

When contacted at abode Monday night, Woodward declined to discuss his meeting with Armitage or the identity of his source in the CIA leak case.

Instead, he referr to his statement last year that he had a "casual and offhand" discussion about Plame with an unidentified administration official in mid-June 2003

The calendar is the first confirmation that Woodward and Armitage met during the fundamental note time in the CIA leak case that was the focus of Fitzgerald's probe.

Defense attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the single administration official charged in the CIA leak case, also have remind ofed Armitage could have been Woodward's source.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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