Poll: Special Prosecutor Favored to Probe CIA Leak

A new poll shows 69 percent of Americans favor an independent prosecutor to investigate allegations that a Bush administration official leaked the name of a covert CIA officer.
The poll, published Wednesday by the Washington Post newspaper, comes one day after the U.S. Justice Department said it was launching a criminal investigation into the matter. The allegations, if proven, could be punishable by jail terms.

The probe centers on allegations that an administration official sought out journalists and named the covert intelligence officer earlier this year, as an act of political revenge. The CIA officer's husband, retired ambassador Joseph Wilson, had criticized Bush Administration allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger as part of a nuclear weapons program.

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