An Important Bit of Misinformation in the Plame Case?

This is just off the wires from the AP:

According to Miller's account of a July 8, 2003,
meeting with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis
Libby, she wrote in her notes that Wilson's wife
worked for the CIA's Weapons Intelligence,
Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control, or
Winpac, unit, which tracks the spread of
unconventional arms.

A former intelligence official said Plame did not
work at Winpac but for the CIA's clandestine
service, known as the directorate of operations.
The former official, who is familiar with
Plame's activities at the CIA, spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.

It is unclear how the discrepancy might affect
the investigation. The former intelligence
official said the WINPAC error could bolster
Libby's defense, if he was charged with
intentionally outing a covert operative, since
most of Winpac's employees are not
undercover.

This is interesting. Apparently Libby gave Miller inaccurate information about Valerie Plame's job at the CIA. Plame never worked for Winpac. Let's assume that Miller's recollection of her conversation with Libby is accurate, and let's further assume that Libby genuinely thought Plame worked for Winpac. What follows from that? Well, it would seem to follow that Libby did not find out about Plame from an official report or briefing. It's hard to imagine that such a glaring factual error would have found its way into any official report or memo sent to the White House. It seems more likely that Libby would have heard such information informally, through the grapevine so to speak. But from whom?

Well, almost a month ago, Arianna Huffington wrote the following:

According to two sources, Bolton's former
chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, was at least one of
the sources of the classified information about
Valerie Plame that flowed through the Bush
administration and eventually made its way
into Bob Novak's now infamous column.

Fred Fleitz, as most of you probably know, was John Bolton's chief of staff at the State Department. But guess where else he worked? Arianna tells us that "[w]hile working as Bolton's top aide, Fleitz also continued his work in the CIA's WINPAC division."

Perhaps Fleitz had seen Plame at Langley and assumed that she worked for Winpac. He could have then passed this (mis)information along to the Vice President's office, perhaps via his boss, John Bolton. I realize this is pure conjecture, but it seems to be as good an explanation as any for why this information would have ended up in Judith Miller's notes.

Then again, maybe this entire story is wrong, and Miller really did work for Winpac. Jeralynn Merritt thinks the AP might have been duped by Libby's lawyers.