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Posted on 08/01/2005 1:48:56 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A statement attributed to the former CIA spokesman indicating that I deliberately disregarded what he told me in writing my 2003 column about Joseph Wilson's wife is just plain wrong.
Though frustrated, I have followed the advice of my attorneys and written almost nothing about the CIA leak over two years because of a criminal investigation by a federal special prosecutor. The lawyers also urged me not to write this. But the allegation against me is so patently incorrect and so abuses my integrity as a journalist that I feel constrained to reply.
In the course of a front-page story in last Wednesday's Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei quoted ex-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow describing his testimony to the grand jury. In response to my question about Valerie Plame Wilson's role in former Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger, Harlow told me she "had not authorized the mission." Harlow was quoted as later saying to me "the story Novak had related to him was wrong."
This gave the impression I ignored an official's statement that I had the facts wrong but wrote it anyway for the sake of publishing the story. That would be inexcusable for any journalist and particularly a veteran of 48 years in Washington. The truth is otherwise, and that is why I feel compelled to write this column.
My column of July 14, 2003, asked why the CIA in 2002 sent Wilson, a critic of President Bush, to Niger to investigate an Italian intelligence report of attempted Iraqi uranium purchases. All the subsequent furor was caused by three sentences in the sixth paragraph:
"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA (Harlow) says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."
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. His denial was contradicted in July 2004 by a unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee report. The report said Wilson's wife "suggested his name for the trip." It cited an internal CIA memo from her saying "my husband has good relations" with officials in Niger and "lots of French contacts," adding they "could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." A State Department analyst told the committee that Mrs. Wilson "had the idea" of sending Wilson to Africa.
So, what was "wrong" with my column as Harlow claimed? There was nothing incorrect. He told the Post reporters he had "warned" me that if I "did write about it, her name should not be revealed." That is meaningless. Once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as "Valerie Plame" by reading her husband's entry in "Who's Who in America."
Harlow said to the Post that he did not tell me Mrs. Wilson "was undercover because that was classified." What he did say was, as I reported in a previous column, "she probably never again would be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties.' " According to CIA sources, she was brought home from foreign assignments in 1997, when Agency officials feared she had been "outed" by the traitor Aldrich Ames.
I have previously said that I never would have written those sentences if Harlow, then-CIA Director George Tenet or anybody else from the Agency had told me that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger herself or anybody.
The recent first disclosure of secret grand jury testimony set off a news media feeding frenzy centered on this obscure case. Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate committee reported much of what he said "had no basis in fact."
The re-emerged Wilson is now accusing the senators of "smearing" him. I eagerly await the end of this investigation when I may be able to correct other misinformation about me and the case.
Novak is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington.
Well, thank you very much!
Nothing worse than a sanctimonious libertarian.
I'm betting that he was in Iraq at the same time that Rumsfeld was there. I hope I'm right - want to see pictures of him with the troops wearing their Club G'itmo gear. LOL
Don't ya just love these pot addicted dopers, who bad rap someone else that's living a clean and sober (pot free) life. :):)
Be Ever Vigilant!
Sonds good to me ~ we'll know in about 26 minutes. :):)
Exactly LOL
"If you want to support a lying druggie, that's fine!"
Tell us about YOUR major spinal injury and failed surgery.
That's more than a little unfair to use the term "assumptions." My recollection may be incorrect, since I haven't listened to him much in several years. But my strong feeling was that--since I listened religiously from 1988(?1989) through 1999--he was a hard-core Warrior. I could be mistaken, but I would have to have proof to the contrary, not that the burden of proof is on you. But I didn't make an assumption. My statement was made based upon my strong conviction that the tenor of his arguments was Warrior.
This is a fine example of how dirty little Washington games are played. Pincus and Van der Hei don't care if Novak gets screwed, as long as they get their story that helps Dems and hurts Republicans. I lived in Washington a long time, and it's the dirtiest cesspool in America.
Bob "Prince of Darkness" [as he liked to call himself on Crossfire] Novak firing off both barrels will be QUITE something to see [I sure wouldnt want to be in his sights when he is free to talk on this matter]
Mr Novak you have been a critic of President Bush so are you to be trusted to tell the truth?
The story is not Wilson, his wife, press agents or other diversions. The story is his Niger report.
Of course it's about his Niger "report" and why he was sent and why he was lying about it.
Novak performed a valuable service by finding out why anti-Bush activist Wilson was sent to Niger, period. On that reporting Novak has been shown to have been 100% accurate.
Most of the time they get to talk about victims. This time, they get to play the victims...and they are loving every single minute of it.
Where did Mr. Novak write there were lies in the report?
Besides, when you said "the story is", I figured you meant the entire story, not merely Novak's role.
At any rate, Wilson's story was that the CIA (implying with Tenet's blessing) sent him off and he further presented his story as a definitivie finding that Iraq was not seeking uranium in Niger and he said his findings surely would have been told to the WH (of course they were not). In Novak's first column he wrote (correctly):
Wilson's report that an Iraqi purchase of uranium yellowcake from Niger was highly unlikely was regarded by the CIA as less than definitive, and it is doubtful Tenet ever saw it. Certainly, President Bush did not, prior to his 2003 State of the Union address, when he attributed reports of attempted uranium purchases to the British government.
~snip~
Furthermore, after Novak correctly reported that Plame had a role in sending Wilson off Niger way Wilson has been denying it (even in the face of the memo she wrote surfacing).
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The title is engaging enough to get one to read the entire piece.
As for Rush, I choose not to listen very often. I guess his appeal grew cold, but I still do tune in to hear some thoughts bandied by his callers... Just like here on FR...
Here, though, you get a little voice, and a lot of grief, when you upset an iconic image!
My long departed friend used to remind me of an old adage. "Opinions are like a..holes. Everybody's got one!"
I never got caught up in any drug or alcohol addiction, thank God, but I have used both, and still do. I enjoy a good red wine with dinner, and a brandy or B&B with a cigar later. I like a good margarita. But something in my being keeps me from getting drunk. I limit myself, and keep reminding myself of a twelve year old friend and I, of the same age, that got into his dad's bottle of rum. It is enough memory for me, even with two years of Navy!
As for drugs, I admit that a friend, or two, have recently shared a doobie with me, but it is not a habit, and I have no stash. I have admonished those friends that have offered me anything white. I have never and would never do it, because I know I would like it too much!!! I can't afford the repercussions! I would buy pot immediately from an ABC&D store, as soon as it were legalized!!! Hopefully Jose Cuervo would get into that business, as well!
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