NOVAKULA: The question no one is asking him, IMPORTANT

[ShaneGR]

Why did he have to use her name? He's writing a column about Wilson, not his wife. He's trying to say that his wife was somehow involved in having Wilson sent to Nigeria. So why not just say, "Wilson's wife"

Why does he have to use her name?

And there's this off the msnbc website:

"Novak said that when he called the CIA to confirm the information, a CIA official asked him not to use the name. That official, however, did not say there would be any danger to Plame or her sources if her name were disclosed, Novak said."

So let me get this straight, the CIA asked you not to print her name? What was your fascination with printing it then? Don't you think, as a journalist, that when the agency responsible for our intelligience tells you not to do something, you shouldn't??? All you had to do was the copy. You could still say Wilson's wife, even though that's still heavyhanded.

BUT WHY ACTUALLY USE HER NAME? IT'S UNNEEDED.

[MoonAndSun]

1. Excellent question, sgr2 - I just sent an email to woflie...

I think we all need to email CNN and insist they ask this question of Novak.

[patdem]

2. In fact if the CIA agent would have said to print her name would be

dangerous that would in effect ADMIT she was an operative...his only response would have been to plead for Nofacts NOT to print her name, and deny that doing so would be dangerous?

[pw]

3. For the CIA to say it would endanger people

would be confirming the identity of an operative. Which is exactly what it's their policy not to do. hey neither confirm nor deny stuff like that. So Novak's claim smells to high heaven.

(I can just imagine the conversation if the CIA source had tried to make the point stronger: "So, can you tell me the names of some of the people who would be endangered and what countries they operate in? Were any of them connected to the Niger investigation?")

[DrBB]

5. When my wife worked on a "black" project

...one of the things that was so weird about it was not only that she couldn't tell anyone about it (obviously), including me, but that technically she couldn't tell anyone THAT she couldn't tell them about it. I.e., if someone said, "what do you work on"--a frequent follow up to "where do you work" at parties where engineers are present--the answer "I can't tell you" was NOT acceptable. Pretty damn hard to follow in fact.

Which means you're exactly right. I am quite sure these guys are under a strict "neither confirm nor deny" rule on something like this. The agent was in a very very tricky situation: can't say she's not an agent, can't say she is, and then this journalist is saying "I'm gonna print her name, want me not to?"--a pretty transparent journalistic trick to produce an indirect confirmation or denial. Of COURSE anything the person said was going to sound terse and minimal.

[DrBB]

4. Want to know why the other 5 journalists didn't publish it at ALL?

Because her name was not the only thing that was irrelevant--the whole ITEM was irrelevant. Even if the story were true--that his wife recommended him for the job--so effing what? What was it ever supposed to prove? That Wilson got an all-expenses trip to Niger for ten days? Whoo hoo, what a bribe. Not a fee, just expenses. Well, geez, but Niger is so coooooool!--that your point, No-facts? I mean, Hawaii maybe I could see, but Niger?

But seriously, I have just NEVER understood what they were supposed to be trying to insinuate with this thing. Which is, I am quite sure, why none of the others it was offered to went with it. It didn't advance the story in any way, as any reasonably competent journalist could see.

The fact that it the item was irrelevant is itself QUITE relevant, I think, because it emphasizes that the only possible point was to punish Wilson by harming his wife ("We can get to you"--a basic Mafia message) and secondarily to intimidate any other potential whistleblowers. Something that, again, any reasonably competent journalist would instantly grasp.

Now here's the question: Is Novakula that bad of a journalist? Or did he understand very well what was being done and decide that the role of flunky in a game of slimeball politics was right up his alley?

[TomNickell]

9. Novak was actually against the Iraq invasion.....

Quite loudly, actually.

Don't exactly know what this has to do with answering the posted question. Except that he is not a complete Bush operative.

[Bandit]

11. It has nothing to do with Iraq ~ It is all about exertion of Power

It is about the GOP and the way they operate. Novak is nothing if he isn't GOP through and through. He revels in being a GOP "Operative". He was given his orders and he loyally carried them out. He may not like what they are doing but he is so thouroughly indoctrinated that he could not say no. Anything for the cause and I do mean Anything

[DrBB]

12. Yup, I know. The alternative

...is that he published this out of sheer opportunism--he knew it would make a splash and be good for HIM, even if it was irrelevant to the story and served the purpose of the Rove slime machine. Course, I notice that a lot of DUers are not above serving the Rove slime machine recently....

[symbolman]

6. Look

if the CIA has the goods and I guess they wouldn't make a case unless they had NAMES --

then WHO in the White House SPILLED THE BEANS?

WHY won't the CIA say who the SUSPECT/S is/Are?

THAT's what I want to hear.

[SoCalDem]

7. Why does it MATTER who "advised" that he (Wilson) go to Africa??

If it's because SHE'S CIA undercover....Novak/Rover are BUSTED..

Why would an appointee from a former administration be sent to look for wmd in Africa on the "advice" of his WIFE????

That's stupid , any way you look at it, UNLESS it was because SHE had secret information, and recommended her husband, so that SHE could accompany him (undercover) and not look out of place :):)

[Robin Hood]

8. A CIA official asked him not to use the name

Jeezus, what more of a hint do you need?!! I mean really, the CIA asks you not to do something, but because they didn't tell you that it would make you dick smaller, you do it anyway.

No facts, If that is the truth, which I doubt. Then you are one stupid mother f***er and I can not comprehend why you would play an authorotive figure on anything let alone TV.

[RainDog]

10. Wilson mentioned this in an interview

He noted that they not only named her name, they used her maiden name...apparently her "work" name.

He noted that this was just more evidence that the leak was intended to hurt him and his family.

So Karl (I will fuck him like he's never been fucked before) Rove should start practicing picking up the soap with his butt cheeks.