Novak says administration didn't name CIA operative (CNN)

[UpInArms]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/29/novak.cia/

Columnist: 'There is no great crime here'

Monday, September 29, 2003 Posted: 10:10 PM EDT (0210 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newspaper columnist Robert Novak said Monday that no one in the administration called him to identify the wife of Bush critic Joe Wilson as a CIA operative.

<snip>

"Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this," Novak said on CNN's "Crossfire," of which he is a co-host. "There is no great crime here."

The Washington Post quoted a "senior administration official" in a story Sunday as saying that two top White House officials disclosed the identity of Wilson's wife in calls to at least six Washington journalists. Novak was the only recipient of the information who published it, the Post reported.

...more...

next this prick will say that he didn't even write the friggin' column ....

sheesh! Give me a break! We are not stupid - this is ridiculous!

[Nevernose]

1. How does he explain the other SIX reporters

who got called at the same time?

[Birthmark]

2. Tell us...

Did he happen to mention how he came by his knowledge?

[The Zanti Regent]

11. Did he get it from Miss Cleo?

OOPS, I forgot, she's in jail--the same place where Novak is going!

[northzax]

33. nope, sorry

by no stretch of the imagination did Novak commit a crime, it is only a crime for federal employees to reveal the name of an undercover operative, and there is a long tradition of protecting sources by journalists. Novak is a lying scumbag on this issue, but he has commited no legal crime, that we know of.

[NicoleM]

29. Yes

He says he was interviewing one of the sources and s/he gave him the name, apparently unsolicited. I guess he thinks that's different somehow than if the person called him up and told him.

[KoKo]

3. Here's What Novak said in July.....read it and see what you think.....

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030714.shtml


"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is
an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior
administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending
him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its
counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife
to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife,"
Wilson told me."

[BenFranklinUSA]

38. Could HE be the "leak"?

Sounds just as plausible that Novak knew of wife's CIA role, and he just plain spilled the beans.
Dumbass.

[not systems]

4. If they didn't name her.

Then there is a great crime here and Robert Novak is the criminal.

Does he think this will get the WH off the hook and that the
hook is just going to take early retirement.

Someone is in big trouble here and if not the WH, who?

[Must_B_Free]

9. Interesting that Novak is contradicting the published record

i.e. his own columns

I just don't get it. Bald face lying against what he wrote. Does this mean we sank their battleship, as in "You sank my Battleship!"?

[Old and In the Way]

18. Maybe he received a dusty envelope?

Anyone know if he's on a Cipro diet?

[Warpy]

10. Nofacts

...knows the sheep on the right have attention spans of a nanosecond and memories that extend back only as far as the last AM radio talk sho they listened to. He's underestimated the rest of us, and he's seriously underestimated the anger within the CIA. Of course, he was fed the information, he's admitted that already, and in print. Unless Asscrock is able to stall this thing until after the 2004 election, I think Nofacts is going to find his butt hauled in front of a grad jury, at the very least. Any way it plays out, it is not going to be pretty.

Of course, the Chimp will pardon him and Rove and anyone else involved in the crime. The stacked supreme court will refuse to hear the suit brought that treason is not a pardonable offense, and all the players will retire and live like sultans on the money they have stashed in the Caymans.

[Dhalgren]

24. According to NPR this morning,

Asscrack already has stalled for two months! The report said that that was why the CIA went public, because after two months there had been no action. This was the first I had heard about this particular aspect of this disgusting episode.

[underpants]

28. BBC last night "Gratuitous" "Childish"

They had a former CIA agent on and he said that this whole thing is just gratuitous and childish behavior on the part of the White House.

[benfranklin1776]

5. Ah yes the classic Goebbelsian approach.

Keep telling thse lies loudly and often so eventually enough distracted people will believe them and forget what all the fuss was about . Yes I suppose he was discussing the weather, golf and the Redskins' chances with the White House boys and they "just happened" to let that info slip about Ambassador Wilson's Wife, very casually and then he accidentally put it in the column. "Oh my how did that get there." RIIGHTIO. He is playing CHA, CKA and CJA. Cover His Ass and Cover Karl's Ass and Cover Junior's Ass.

[markses]

6. Nobody CALLED me TO LEAK this

Possible outs:

Did you MEET somebody somewhere, at which point they leaked it in person?

Or did they call you TO SCHEDULE A LUNCH, at which point they leaked it.

Headline does not match Novak's phrasing in the least.

[Nottingham]

8. Oh Wouldn't it be fun to get his telephone records & Novak

has some goodies on his telephone log book!:evilgrin:

It would only be fair for him to go through the hazzle!

[IggleDoer]

21. They didn't have to call him

he was already there when the WH offered up Plame.

Maybe what he's saying is "Don't bother checking the telephone records. They didn't call anyone. They leaked into the course of casual conversation with 'Senior Officials'".

[Mandate My Ass]

7. still either gross dereliction of duty or gross stupidity

if you discount the obvious treachery.

Novak said Monday that he was working on the column when a senior administration official told him the CIA asked Wilson to go to Niger in early 2002 at the suggestion of his wife, whom the source described as "a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction."

Another senior administration official gave him the same information, Novak said, and the CIA confirmed her involvement in her husband's mission.

Why would two senior administration officials be mouthing off to a reporter regarding the identity of a CIA operative and her alleged input into the decision to send a former ambassador to check out this spurious claim?

Wilson was totally correct today in his CSPAN interview when he said the mention of his wife's name in Novack's article was totally gratuitous and added nothing to the story. She was only mentioned because he repudiated the patently false info in Bush's 2003 SOTU.

[benfranklin1776]

12. So here is the million dollar question.

Exactly what lame brained political advantage was the White House dirty tricks crew trying to achieve with this leak? Discredit the CIA so that they take all the public blame for all the phony intel and thereby also elevate the stature of their personal shop, the Pentagon Office of Special Plans, which they have control over, to a more vaunted level enhancing its power, which of course serves their long term PNAC interests? Don't know. Just speculating as to what numbnuts one and two were "thinking."

[MaineDem]

25. My take on the reasoning

I think Ambassador Wilson may have said it. This was leaked to show him up for disagreeing witht he Niger claim and to warn off anyone else who might go public with contrary information. Seems to be retaliation by the White House. Nasty stuff.

[0007]

20. Who else other than Dick Cheney

knew who Joe Wilson's wife was and was working in the CIA?

If this is an act of treason does Robert Novak have to reveal his source?

[Rex]

13. I've always considered Novakula to be a paleo-con

one with at least half a brain. Seems like all the statements, and then counterstatements he has made of late are proving me wrong. Rove couldn't have picked a worse person to leak this info.

Or

Novakula has his own agenda.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. Semantic tap-dancing.

So someone arranged to MEET him somewhere, and then said "You know Wilson's wife? Well, she's a deep-cover Agency asset." Which means that, technically, a) no one CALLED to identify her, and b) they didn't NAME her, just said who and what she was. But it still comes down to the same thing in the end.

[pansypoo53219]

15. yeah right

and he isn't a bush lover either, so there.
not

[bobthedrummer]

16. This story gives credence to Al Martin's story about planting WMD's

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/IRA308A.html

[Zhade]

22. I don't follow.

I've read the Al Martin story (which I can't buy without independent evidence), but can't see what you mean. Can you clarify?

[thebigidea]

23. then again, Al Martin writes fanciful fiction

Karl Roverer (sic) !?

[JackSwift]

17. Yes, we are this stupid!

They dissemble, we believe.



We hear the stuipid mediawhores;
believing all Bush crimes are snores.

We bend over and take up the ass,
while Bush and Cheney rake in all the cash!

They expose the secret agents,
In a fit of pique.

Then they lie about it,
sending up a reek.

They lie in 16 word blocks,
Then they scream about Billy Clinton's cock.

They kill
without slight remorse
Iraqis and Afghanis
genocide of course

How long will they
wallow in the oil
the Trans Afghan pipeline
Loot Iraqi spoils

They relish each GI death
Laugh at their own
Press conf jokes
With their vomit breath

[Gunit_Sangh]

19. Another problem with nofacts story

This paragraph also raised my eyebrows:

Wilson's mission was created after an early 2002 report by the Italian intelligence service about attempted uranium purchases from Niger, derived from forged documents prepared by what the CIA calls a "con man." This misinformation, peddled by Italian journalists, spread through the U.S. government. The White House, State Department and Pentagon, and not just Vice President Dick Cheney, asked the CIA to look into it.

I did a google search on "niger uranium documents" and the first hit is a newsweek article at findlaw.com

http://news.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20030720/20jul2003114549.html

I have read several reports that state the Italian reporter did not get this documents until Oct 2002 and of course they weren't turned over to any intelligence agency until that month either. And didn't the Italian intelligence agency deny getting those documents?

Doesn't it seem a little odd that this administration knew of these documents shortly after the robbery at the Nigerian embassy? Or is my caffeine-deprived brain's logic centers misfiring?

[underpants]

26. FOX (surprise) and NBC poo-pooing this this morning MEDIA CHECK

Fox News lead into this with a light hearted story and were actually laughing about it on the lead-in. They went to their correspondent Kelly Whoever in DC and he said that technically (all of a sudden they are into details) Novak never said she was a CIA undercover operative. They spun it as simply politics and I was waiting for Rove's name to come up, finally it did. They also said that Tenet never signed a request to look into this it was handled through the normal legal channels in the CIA.I wonder how many Fox watchers know who Rove is and how much influence he exerts.

Our local TV station said she was a "analyst"

Lauer had Senator Schumer on the Today Show and went right at him. Lauer pointed out that no one from the WH or the Repubes agreed to be on the showand then tried to turn that around asking the Senator why he was on? Schumer could see what was coming and said that this is a serious security breach and it needs to be looked at immediately.


Lauer asked why can't the DoJ handle the investigation becasue the Special Prosecutor law which has expired (emphasis kust like that) required the AG to collect all the facts and determine if laws had been broken and even IF they had why a Special Prosecutor, couldn't they handle it (in an Aw come on kinda way).

Schumer would have none of it. He said that Ashcroft is too close to the President and that without a SP the President could kill the investigation at any time and that the conflict of interest that IS present would undermine the credibility of any result it came up with.

Lauer then showed the quote of MCClellan saying,~"If anyone in this White House did that they would not be in this White House!!!" Lauer follows with "Pretty strong words!" Schumer ignored the whoring and went on to say that this is serious and needs attention now. He pointed out that he firs tbrought this up on July 22d (something Fox forgot to tell it's viewers as they said that it was only coming to light now).

Lauer then asked him "Isn't this all just politics?" Schumer of course said no it is about national security and transparency.

When Lauer thanked him for being on Schumer didn't say anything he just stared into the camera, could have been a cut audio I don't know.

[underpants]

27. In this age of endgame politics here's the endgame WE NEED A NAME!!!

Actually TWO. That is what the end game is and it might just have to be Novak.

Rove will never let this get back to the President (wasnt it off McClellan brought the VP's office into it) and W will never let Rove go.

WE NEED A NAME!!!!!!!!!!

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

30. When will CNN Fire Him!!!

How can they justify having someone on the payrole that jeopardized
National Security. At a minimum he should be suspended until his
sentencing.

[BenDavid]

34. Will Not Fire Him,

Hell, they have not fired McCafferty and he was involved in a hit and run and was drunk. You know one thing CNN has sucked ever since Ted Turner stopped being in control.

[UTUSN]

31. Thread Headline. He Said Didn't CALL, Not Didn't NAME. (transcript)

******QUOTE*****

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0309/29/cf.00.html

Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July, I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing.
*****UNQUOTE****

[Maeve]

32. And a SENIOR administration official

Don't palm some nobody off on us and claim it's all his fault!

[On the Road]

35. But Notice Exactly What Novak Said:

"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is
an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.

Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife,"Wilson told me."

While it would easy to assume, Novak did NOT say that "senior administration officials" identified Wilson's wife as CIA. They told him that Wilson's wife made the suggestion for his trip.

The leak might have been made by someone else. Or it might have been made carefully in order to provide plausible deniability.

[argonne]

37. I believe you call such a transfer of information a

"cut-out." Someone IN the White House tells a pre-arranged person OUTSIDE the White House who gives the information to Novak. Therefore Novak can say no one IN the White House provided him the information. EASY.

[acropolis]

36. anyway, novak already said the opposite.

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

c/o atrios, he said it in an interview after he published in july.

happily, he hasn't had time to get his story straight or figure out how to match his story with the white house yet.

i find it likely he'll contact some whit house staffers on what the party line is soon, and i'm hoping he's bugged when it happens.

edit:
that and the whole thing that he specifically wrote in his article that she was an "operative"
and is now claiming that he was told she was an analyst, not an operative.
that he made nine consecutive typos in that unfortunate arrangement seems unlikely to me.

[lebkuchen]

40. Novac is lying his ass off.

Now he's in "desperate attack" mode, the Bushies' favorite position.

[Clovis Sangrail]

39. headline?

Novak did NOT say "administration didn't name CIA operative", nor is that the title of the article.

I'm not defending Novak, but the title of the Thread is misleading.

[MaineDem]

41. Why is he still talking about this?

Why is he still on Crossfire giving his views? Once the investigation started I think he should have remained quiet.

Has CNN had an official statement yet?