Posted on 07/16/2005 9:37:20 AM PDT by Checkers
An interesting post by Cliff May:
"This morning, I have a piece up elsewhere on NRO showing that The Nation’s David Corn--not syndicated columnist Bob Novak--was the first to reveal that Valerie Plame was an undercover operative. It further suggests that David did so based on information provided to him by none other than Joseph C. Wilson IV.
While working on that piece, I had an exchange with David and, with his permission, I thought I’d share that with you. Dear David:
I have a question--one you may not be willing to answer but I’m curious so let me try:
Novak’s column said that Plame was an “Agency operative.” Novak claims he didn’t know--and didn’t mean to imply--that she was a covert agent.
Your piece, a few days later, says quite explicitly that Plame was “a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to nationally security.”
How did you know that?
- Cliff David responded:
Come on, Cliff. I'm disappointed in you--especially as a former NY Times reporter. Here's what I wrote:
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?
You will note that this is a question, not a statement of fact. David then quotes extensively from his piece, which I had already read several times and which you can find here.
I then sent him this message: Dear David,
You’re too loyal to acknowledge that Wilson was your source.
You’re also too honest to deny it.
Allbest,
Cliff David replied: You wrote:
You’re too loyal to acknowledge that Wilson was your source.
You’re also too honest to deny it.
All I can say again is, nice try. When I spoke to Joe Wilson after the Novak leak, he would not tell me whether or not his wife worked at the CIA. He spoke only in hypotheticals. He said, imagine if she did, what would this leak mean, AND imagine if she did not, what would this leak mean. So I do deny that he told me because he did not. That's the truth, the absolute truth. No spin. No parsing. No stonewalling. If you find any wiggle room in this response, let me know and I will unwiggle it. And you can believe it or not.
David
PS Mind if I write about our correspondence?
My final message to him: Dear David,
You’re a good reporter. You know when a hypothetical is really a confirmation.
When Wilson told you: “So, hypothetically, here’s what it what it would mean if my wife were a top-secret agent--which I’m not saying she was; and here’s what it would mean if she had been on undercover on dangerous missions tracking WMD purchases abroad--which, of course, I’m not saying ever happened; and here’s what the consequence would be for her extensive network of sources if she were exposed, though I’m still not confirming anything…”--you knew exactly what he was telling you with a wink and a nudge.
Bob Novak did not know that Plame was or had ever been an undercover agent. His sources didn’t tell him that. He did not write that she was an undercover agent. If he had known she was a secret agent of any sort he says he would never have published her name.
Novak has maintained all that consistently. I’ve disagreed with Bob Novak on many issues and on many occasions. I’ve debated him publicly--on the war in Iraq, among other things, where he probably is more in agreement with Wilson than with me.
But one thing about Bob Novak: He’s been around this town about 50 years. He’s a patriot. He would not knowingly burn a spy. And he doesn’t lie. You don’t stay a major media figure for half a century if you’re a liar.
Let me say this clearly: Novak did not know and did not reveal that Plame had been an undercover operative.
You were the first to reveal that.
You did that hypothetically, of course. You were just asking a question, of course. You didn’t know whether she was or was not what you called “a top-secret operative”--but you thought it sure would be interesting if you raised that possibility.
And how much more interesting if you accused the Bush administration of purposely leaking that information as a way to punish Wilson--which has been Wilson’s allegation all along-- since he claimed (falsely it turns out) Cheney’s office sent him to Niger.
You and I know that he shared all this with you and more--hypothetically, of course.
You got this snowball rolling, David. And it produced the avalanche you and Wilson expected it would. I give you full credit for that.
You certainly may write about our correspondence.
I may do that, too.
Allbest,
Cliff"
RELATED POST:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443739/posts
RELATED POST:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443448/posts
Rush talked about this on his show yesterday, but I wasn't able to hear all the details. Thanks.
Corn's column:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823
Corn's column:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823
My pleasure.
Follow-up at http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_07_10_corner-archive.asp#069692 :
BURIED LEDE [Cliff May]
Rather deep in the Washington Times story today by Stephen Dinan and Joseph Curl is this revelation:
A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.
"She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.
"Her neighbors knew this, her friends knew this, his friends knew this.”
If her neighbors knew she worked for the CIA, if her friends new she worked for the CIA, no crime was committed by anyone passing such information along to a reporter--as long as they didn’t know and tell that she had once been undercover, and as long as the source of their knowledge was not classified documents.
It bears repetition: Knowing Plame worked at the CIA does not mean knowing she had ever been a covert agent.
Bob Novak did not know she had been undercover--until The Nation’s David Corn suggested that, based on information that clearly came from Joe Wilson himself. And Corn was the first to raise the suggestion that Plame was a secret agent--one who had been exposed by the Bush administration to punish Wilson. (My piece on this is elsewhere on NRO today.)
Also, while I hate say I told you so, I did write on NRO back on Sept. 29, 2003:
It’s the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA?
What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?"
Corn is a true jerk.
BTTT It would be absolute sweet irony if Wilson and Corn, a major writer of that Stalist rag, The Nation, were the ones indicted, or at least publicly exposed, as the architects of this kerfuffle.
David Corn is running scared. The above quote sounds just like something he would attack Rove for doing in his conversations with Cooper and Novak.
Thanks for that.
He's got rat-teeth... a slightly more masculine version of Elanor Clift.
Corn seems very scared, and not like someone who should be enjoying that he's been wrongly thrown into a headline-grabbing story which he actually has nothing to do with. Instead he sounds like someone starting to sweat.
You are welcome
Joe Wilson is like the arsonist who photographs the crime he has committed and ejaculates at the sight of the fiery spectacle.
Now, is this a question or a telling statement?
These lunatics are pathetic. How can Rove be the leaker if he was the receiver?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.