Novak Defends Actions in CIA Leak

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/01/national/w083437D41.DTL

Novak Defends Actions in CIA Leak

(AP)

Columnist Robert Novak broke his silence Monday about his disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity, defending himself against a former agency official's account that he twice warned Novak not to publish the name.

In his syndicated column, Novak did not dispute that former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow told him he should not print the covert officer's name, Valerie Plame, during conversations they had prior to Novak's July 14, 2003 column.

But Novak reasserted that no CIA official ever told him in advance "that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger her or anybody else."

....

Novak, whose role in the investigation is unknown, has been silent on the series of events he set in motion. But he wrote about it Monday, saying he was ignoring his lawyers' advice because Harlow's account is "so patently incorrect and so abuses my integrity as a journalist."

<</SNIP>>

[dbeach]

1. NOFACTS

has lived the fat cat life for way too long!!

ifin he don't know the rules about CIA agents by now..he ain't gonna learn em..

Another DC insider who is most likley a paid repuke stoogola..or worse..

[HereSince1628]

2. As was said already, Novak's defense depends on parsing words

But then so doesn't everyone of the other people involved in the leak and its communication to the public.

[rodeodance]

27. so--is Novak taking the fall??

[tk2kewl]

3. if i said don't cross the street against the light...

would you understand that i meant you might get hit by a car? :eyes:

[bushisanidiot]

4. So this is why Rove told Novak Wilson was "fair game". He must've asked

Rove about the CIA warning and then got the go ahead from Rove to print it.

[rfkrfk]

30. in what way is Novak culpable?

Enlighten me.

Novak is private citizen, writing for some two bit scandal sheet.
Whatever secret there was, I don't see it
as Novak's secret to keep.

[Skittles]

32. come on

he assisted bush inc in trying to descredit someone who was telling the truth about bush and that piece of shit Iraq war - Novak is NOT A JOURNALIST - he is a BUSH WHORE

[rfkrfk]

35. explain Novak's culpability

what does Novak owe to anybody?

OK, lots of people don't like this guy,

a supermarket tabloid 'journalist'
publishes what others have supposedly told him...

this is news ?

do you believe everything you read?

[Skittles]

37. he is part of a conspiracy to out a covert CIA agent

you see no culpability in this? Remember, other journalists saw through the plot and refused play along

[dooner]

5. guess he thought the CIA spokespeople

were going to say "She's an undercover operative so don't reveal her name." What a treasonous fool.

[The Night Owl]

6. So, let me get this straight...

The CIA told Novak not to use Plame's name, but he did so anyway because no one at the CIA would tell him why he couldn't use her name?

What a gigantic idiot Novak is.

I will be hugely surprised if Novak isn't prosecuted at this point.

[Supersedeas]

8. but the point is that the CIA is responsible itself for the initial leak

so, will Bill Harlow take the fall for Rove/Cheney/Libby's political dirty tricks.

[MGKrebs]

12. That's speculation, I believe.

The CIA would have been authorized to give this information to those in the administration cleared to get it. That would not be a "leak". I think the issue is what those officials then did with it.

It would appear that Novak called Harlow. Harlow tried to talk Novak out of using her name while staying within the law.

"There never was any question of me talking about Mrs. Wilson 'authorizing.' I was told she 'suggested' the mission, and that is what I asked Harlow," {Novak} wrote."

"Harlow said he could not tell Novak that Plame was a covert officer because that information itself was classified. But in at least two telephone calls, Harlow told Novak that Plame had not authorized her husband's mission and that her name should not be used even if Novak went ahead with a story, according to the Post."

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Why are these assholes

getting more arrogant every day?

It seems that they think they can still get away with this crap and that no one can stop them.

[Guckert]

9. he would have to have a shred of integrity to have it abused...

[Pithy Cherub]

10. Novak's nigthmares must be especially haunting now.

Woe is me and all that for Novak, a smarmy guy who realizes nobody is out there defending his lack of marals and Grand Canyon sized "journalistic" ethical gaps. :eyes:

[Eloriel]

25. GAWD, I hope so

That would be the very, very LEAST he deserves: haunting nightmares. If so, may they last for eternity, all the while he burns in hell.

[Pithy Cherub]

11. Dupe

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. ...and besides, dammit, I'M A REPUBLICAN

...so the rules of civilized behavior don't apply.

[geckosfeet]

14. Thats alright mr.novackula,,, we know you meant well,,, you dirty little

sausage sucking pig.

Your legacy will follow you to your grave and beyond.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

15. How does one defend the commission of treason?

Arrogant sonofabitch. This man needs to stand on the business end of a firing squad.

[Garbo 2004]

16. "integrity as a journalist" A "journalist" that publicly blows the cover

of the CIA front company that was Plame's employer of record, Brewster Jennings, saying he's convinced that the company is completely fictious and Plame violated CIA practice by listing it as her employer. At the time Brewster Jennings was listed in Dun & Bradstreet. But what are mere facts when you're engaged in a smear campaign?

He's musta attended the Judith Miller School of Journalism. Judy claimed that fact checking was not her job as an "invesigative journalist." LOL

[AtomicKitten]

17. Jon Stewart is right

Novak is the Douchebag of Liberty.

[rodeodance]

29. te he---i did not know Stewart said that.

[xxqqqzme]

18. wonder which part of

'do not print the covert officer's name' nofacts didn't understand?

[LeftyElvis]

19. And they like to call us traitors.........

Rove and Novak should be headed to jail.........

[kestrel91316]

34. They should be headed to the guillotine nt

[Barrett808]

20. "...abuses my integrity as a journalist"

Wiping the tears from my eyes...hoo boy...

[rocktivity]

21. What makes him such a "douchebag for liberty," as Jon Stewart puts it

is that his actions were NOT motivated by any journalistic purposes, but to please his GOP masters. His "assignment" was to hurt Wilson by outing Plame, and HE KNEW IT!!!

:grr:
rocknation

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

22. I used to respect him; no more. All I can ever think about him

is what a sad individual he is, how far he's sunk since his days with Tom Braden on Crossfire. Now that I think of it, he never seemed to have a lot of integrity, even then. How can anyone ever forgive him for what he did unless he asks for forgiveness?

[ieoeja]

23. Novak's Excuse in Plain English...

"I was too stupid to understand that 'do not use the name of an operative' meant 'conceal the identify of the operative'. I was also too stupid to understand that when they told me doing so could cause 'difficutlties' they meant it could get people killed."


Stupidity is actually the perfect excuse. He has four decades of published material that proves his point.

[Eloriel]

26. I don't buy that

He's not stupid, nor is he unsophisticated. Right now, he's "spinning," altho I'd call it more lying. (To me "spinning" is "the glass if half full," not outright lying, which is what the word has come to mean.)

He knew what it meant for a CIA guy to warn him off printing her name. If he didn't, he should have OR had enough contacts due to his lengthy Washington career to find OUT. IOW: ignorance is no excuse, and IMO it's not even honest, but a lie.

[Benhurst]

24. In the Nineteenth Century, a man in Novak's position would

have taken the honorable way out. A bottle of port, a Cuban cigar, and a brass pistol on a silver tray ... .

[daleo]

28. He was told not to blow her cover

He didn't need to be told why not. It was obvious. Besides, it was the law, and ignorance of the law is no excuse.

[Pryderi]

31. Looks like Rove's going to be exonerated and Traitorgate dies

[Oreegone]

33. I ain't buying it

It looks like a "duck and cover" to me. I don't think the desk is big enough to protect any of them. I think Novak is such a habitual liar, this won't get him or anyone else off the hook. Fitzgerald is a sharp cookie and this case is the chance of a lifetime to go down in history, by showing your true ability.

[Swamp Rat]

36. ¡Buena suerte douchebag!

Pox on your house Novakula! :puke: