Bob Novak says....

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SpeedoGuy: I read Wolf Blitzer's interview with Bob Novak on CNN's web page. Interesting stuff. Novak claims he didn't know Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative when he wrote the column in July that exposed her. He claims he is innocent of any wrongdoing because he wasn't warned by anyone that using her name would be illlegal or put anybody in jeopardy. Further, Novak goes on to insinuate that Valerie Plame never really was a covert operative but was, rather, just a CIA analyst. I don't know if this is true or not.

In any case, it seems Novak is a dupe of the leaker in the Bush administration. So a question arises: Is Novak telling the truth when he says he didn't know his July column would illegally 'out' a covert CIA agent? If not, did he have anything to gain by doing such a thing deliberately? Finally, why would such an experienced journalist not think twice before rushing ahead and publishing the name of any CIA employee.

SG

 

[jay_too]

sg..

check out john dean's piece on outting a CIA operative:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20031010.html

as i remember from a week or so ago, one of the reasons that the justice department gave for going slow on the request for an investigation was to make sure that v. plame was a CIA operative...nevermind that g. tenet said she was.

i do wonder at the mentality and ethics of the people in the bush administrtion and Bob Novak who felt they had to inform the world of an operatives identity. this was not a gaffe....six other reporters decided to kill the story rather than risk killing cia operatives and their contacts in the field. shame on the bush white house and on novak!

time selects the man of the year each december; maybe newsweek should select the slime of the year each year. a few people come to my mind...like novak and the leakers.

jay

 

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hawl: "Dupe"? We'll see what everyone's final story turns out to be, but it's important to remember that Novak has been doing "inside the Beltway" stuff since before I was born. Joshua Micah Marshall helped keep this story growing during the summer (check out the archives!)-www.talkingpointsmemo.com/index.html and like fellow early bird David Corn-www.thenation.com/capitalgames/ he by now must have a sort of parental interest in the ongoing story. Here's a short "mainstream" article that keeps things nicely focused-http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/US/cia031006_leak.html. By the way, for the "far-right" and others, Pat Buchanan has weighed in and agreed with "the left" that a certain President could start to end this mess in "less than an hour"-www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34933.

 

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hawl: I admit that I haven't paid that much attention to the WMD debate here and in other media. The big story is still: "The neoconservatives vs. the professonal intelligence community". So many other ongoing stories are just offshoots of that, and it doesn't seem to be going away. Seriously, if you disagree, please speak up and show me why. As far as I can see, no one has attempted to deny this situation, they've at most tried to ignore it. Not to sound like I'm whispering over the phone to Woodward and Bernstein, I promise right here and now I'm really just one more dude following the story, but THIS is what you should watch, please "connect the dots...", etc.. Anyway, here are three fairly recent stories that I thought kept things in perspective-http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/1214 and http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=8086 and http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1075530,00.html. Regardless of your current political affiliation, this stuff has to creep you out, right?