WTF! CIA Author Kessler on CNN trying to blame the leak on...Novak!

[TruthIsAll]

Peddling the new Bush spin. It's all Novak's fault for being stupid and revealing the Plame leak. None of the other reporters did.

Instead of conjecturing about the origins (Cheney?) and motivations of the leak (revenge, intimidation?), he claimed it was probably just a careless error on the part of the leaker in bringing up Plame. Right.

[wryter2000]

1. Should they piss of Novakula?

I doubt he'd go down without a fight. And that's a fight I'd spend $$$ on pay-per-view to see.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I think CNN will fire

Novak.

Now for the sake of an independent press he'd better not
have the book thrown at him.

[Fixated]

2. ...

This is great. If it comes to his career, he may just release the leakers name to save himself.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. No he won't

the code of journalism, he will not...

he reveals the source, that IS the end of his career
and a severe hit to freedom of speech.

[rucky]

5. Novak is CIA! Novak is CIA!

just kidding...i think. but that's the only way the allegations would stick, and you'd have to "out" Novak as an agent to do that.

Isn't it ironic? dontcha think?

[Beetwasher]

6. Before this is over, the admin. will hang Novak out to dry

They will offer up Novak first. I've been seeing the groundwork for weeks now. They will use this to undermine a reporters right to protect their sources. They will try to use it to their advantage to plug GOOD leaks. The race is on. They will have to offer a sacrifice soon to bring some heat off.

[drb]

7. Oh, man ---

--- I hadn't thought of that!

Novak rolls over on some imaginary lower level puke, and they both end up on the beach in the Bahamas for the rest of their lives, courtesy of the BFEE.

Protection of sources is lost to the Patriot Act.

[OneTwentyoNine]

13. Ok,I just heaved.....Novak on a beach? In shorts,speedo,etc???

uuuuuuuRALPHHHHHHHHHH!!!!


David

[Must_B_Free]

8. the dribbly drooler

built his own coffin.

sweet justice!

[KharmaTrain]

9. More Pieces?

First, Kudos to the great stuff here on the Chenney connection...I just hope there's more to come...it's all making way too much sense. My sincere admiration and thanks.

I've long suspected that Novak is being set up here. He's no friend of the PNAC'ers as he's always been anti-Israel and was against the Iraq invasion...or at least lukewarm in his support. Novak doesn't play the game a Rove or Chenney want and he's virtually untouchable among the chattering class that he's the perfect plant/fall guy here.

In his great stuff, Bye Bye Dick is showing how the chain of events...the two waves...could have played out (we must remain a tad objective here), now is using Novak a shot across the bow to the "journalists" to keep their noses out of the WH using Novak in the same way they used Joe Wilson?

[loudnclear]

10. Novak is to blame..but this doesn't let the source off the hook

Novak should get jail time and source should be executed.

Oh, my, I am beginning to sound like a freeper.

[zbdent]

11. Novak is a pedophile rapist!

But, in the interest of the first amendment, I will not reveal my sources.

[Snellius]

12. Then why did the WH keep pushing Novak's story

The origin of this scandal is not the Novak article but the W Post leaker who divulged that someone in the WH was pushing this story to at least 6 other journalists. That was not a "careless error."

[leftchick]

14. Loftus on Countdown with Olberman said the same...

Now we have a pattern from the WH shillteam and I don't like it. They want Nofacts to take the fall. Or is the CIA behind this move? I am so confused! :crazy: Just like a La Carre novel only scarier because it is real!

[Beetwasher]

15. I Smell Coordination

This is a story that's being pushed. They are trying to change the channel and scapegoat Novak. I can see it happening. It's a classic bait and switch to deflect and take the heat off the real story AND to use to their advantage to muzzle the press through intimidation.

[w4rma]

16. Wilson … said … would be a violation … by the officials, not the columnist

CIA seeks probe of White House

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman’s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush’s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned.
…
http://www.msnbc.com/news/937524.asp?0cv=CB10
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=135657

Rice 'Knew Nothing' About CIA Agent Leak

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday she knew "nothing of any" White House effort to leak the identity of an undercover CIA officer in July, a charge now under review at the Justice Department.

On the "Fox News Sunday" program, the top aide to President Bush said, "This has been referred to the Justice Department. I think that is the appropriate place for it."

Rice said the White House would cooperate should the Justice Department, headed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, decide to proceed with a criminal investigation of the matter, which centers on the alleged public disclosure of the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate a report that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger, but returned to say it was highly doubtful.
…
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030928/ts_nm/iraq_intelligence_probe_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=136932

A White House smear

Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security—and break the law—in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?

It sure looks that way, if conservative journalist Bob Novak can be trusted.
…
The sources for Novak’s assertion about Wilson’s wife appear to be “two senior administration officials.” If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what’s known as “nonofficial cover” and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson’s wife is such a person—and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her—her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.” If she is not a CIA employee and Novak is reporting accurately, then the White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer. That would not likely do her much good.

This is not only a possible breach of national security; it is a potential violation of law. Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison. Journalists are protected from prosecution, unless they engage in a “pattern of activities” to name agents in order to impair US intelligence activities. So Novak need not worry.

Novak tells me that he was indeed tipped off by government officials about Wilson’s wife and had no reluctance about naming her. “I figured if they gave it to me,” he says. “They’d give it to others....I’m a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it’s accurate. I generally use it.” And Wilson says Novak told him that his sources were administration officials.
…
http://thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823
http://www.arbiteronline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/07/23/3f1f5fa79c206
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18072&mesg_id=18072&page=
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=5913&mesg_id=5913&page=

…
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.”

Wilson and others said such a disclosure would be a violation of the law by the officials, not the columnist.

Novak reported that his “two senior administration officials” told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her husband, Wilson, to Niger.
…
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia0722,0,2346857.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=2326&mesg_id=2326&page=

A War on Wilson?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18113&mesg_id=18113&page=

White House striking back?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942095.asp?0cv=CA01

Schumer Urges FBI Probe Into Iraq Leaks
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030724/ap_on_go_ot/schumer_agent_1

Probes Expected in ID of CIA Officer
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia233384176jul23,0,5461415.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print

The Bush Administration Adopts a Worse-than-Nixonian Tactic: The Deadly Serious Crime Of Naming CIA Operatives by John W. Dean
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030815.html

[Catherine Vincent]

17. I heard some right wing nut on the radio say that Novak is a left winger.

Yeah, he said that Novak, a left winger, is a setup for the Bush administration. I said, huh? Apparently this guy doesn't listen to Novak's right wing spin day in and day out on Crossfire and Capital Gang.

[ComerPerro]

18. These people are stupid, plain and simple

The morons who think Novak is a liberal (I saw him speak at KU last year, trust me, he is NOT liberal) also consider the militant Islamic terrorists to be "left-wing".

Wouldn't it be great to point out to these people that, really, the only difference between the 9/11 hijackers and themselves was what God they prayed to?

[ShaneGR]

19. Novak will turn on them if them if they try to destroy him

And they know that. So why exactly would they try to destroy him? I think they know this is going to be a gigantic scandal. I think they're doing things now, based on what they know is going to happen. It has become apparent that someone is going to get duck-walked out of there. So what defense will they have? Not much, so they're grasping at straws.

[annagull]

20. Brilliant--let's see if the old dog takes the fall

something tells me the slippery Novak will find "his patriotic duty to out the person who endangered the US of A," and roll over on the leaker. Then he will retire.