Why Woodward's Source Came Clean

Time.com ^ | Friday, Nov 18, 2005 | Viveca Novak

[YaYa123]

As reporters keep scrambling to find out who told Bob Woodward about Joe Wilson’s wife, Woodward himself has told TIME about a related mystery: what made the source finally come forward. When the Washington Post reporter went public with his involvement in the CIA leak case earlier this week, he failed to explain why his source waited silently for two years before coming clean to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. In an interview today, Woodward described the sequence of conversations with his source and Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr. that led to the latest twist in Fitzgerald’s investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of administration critic Wilson.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

This was posted by FP libstripper
I think he/she is hit the nail on the head in the post 133.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1518814/posts

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Take a look at Fitzgerald's Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Fitzgerald He spent most of his career before September 1, 2001 in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, eight years of which was under the Clinton administration, whose AG was Janet Reno.

Fitzgerald was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois on September 1, 2001. At the time it was likely he'd only serve about four years, ending September 1, 2005, after which he'd be looking for other employment. Indeed there were rumors to that effect in Chicago. Being appointed special prosecutor was a gold mine for him in that it opened up a host of new career opportunities, including becoming Hillary's AG if he could destroy the Bush administration with this investigation.


The investigation was of a non-crime, something he could have determined in the first few days just by looking a Plame's personnel record and discovering that she wasn't legally "covert" in the five years before her identity was revealed. If he wasn't a self-seeking climber out to destroy the Bush administration, he'd have wrapped it up right then. Instead he continued in an effort to manufacture "crimes" out of air.


In the course of this search he managed to develop discrepancies between the testimony of Libby and three reporters about alleged conversations between Libby and those reporters. At the time Libby didn't have any motive to lie about his recollection of the conversations because the incident Fitzgerald was investigating was a non-crime.


OTOH all three reporters either misspoke or had real motives to lie. Before Andrea Mitchel backtracked a day or two ago, she pointed out that Russert failed to remember, in his GJ testimony, how generally known Plame's identity was. Judy Miller was on the skids at the NYT because of her earlier, probably accurate, reporting on the WMD issue and had every reason to slant her testimony against Libby to try to keep her job. Cooper, of Time, had almost as much motive to slant his testimony against Libby because his employer was also trying to get the Bush administration.


Nevertheless, Fitz chose to believe these three very flawed witnesses instead of Libby. That leads straight to the reasonable conclusion that he did it for an ulterior motive, the most logical of which is being on Hillary's short list for AG.


A few weeks ago Newsmax picked up on the fact that Gerald Nadler, a far left New York Democrat, thought Fitz would be great to lead an impeachment investigation against President Bush. Nadler is a close ally of Hillary's. It's very unlikely he would have made this suggestion if he didn't know a lot about Fitz that we don't. Hence, I stand by my view that Fitz is an ambitious, unscrupulous lawyer who's just let his real colors show, something that would make him well qualified ethically to be Hillary's AG.


133 posted on 11/13/2005

[Zhangliqun]

Is Viveca Novak related to Bob Novak?

Or Casey Novak or Law & Order SVU?

[Toskrin]

Woodward is hardly a leftist. The guy seems like more of an ornery conservative. Most leftists hate the guy, even more so because he was the lead in the Left's biggest glory, Watergate, but has never wanted anything to do with their movement. Various dim freaks have called Woodward a deep cover CIA operative and a crypto-fascist. He probably knows Bush and the inner White House better than any other reporter, and I get the impression that he holds them in great respect.

[Sacajaweau]

Notice it says he or she......

[HawaiianGecko]

There's nothing that says there aren't yet other reporters that knew even before Woodward.
That's why I never really understood the indictment being based upon Libby learning before Judy Miller and Matt Cooper, therefore, he was a liar.
Until the SP interrogates every reporter on the planet, he really can't say for sure that Libby didn't hear it from a reporter.

[Texas Songwriter]

Is anyone bothered by the moral terpitude exemplified by Woodward in coming forward only after his 'position' was jeopardized by his contact, who told Woodward that he was going to notify Fitzgerald that he spoke to Woodward on the subject a month before the Novak article came out. Woodward was perfectly content to let an innocent man twist in the wind to keep from being called to the grand jury. Morally vacuous position. This is the same morality Andrea Mitchell has demonstrated.

Does anyone believe they can tell anyone the unvarnished truth?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Since there was NO crime committed why is my tax money being spend on this?

Because you are the only one who can afford it. :-)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I guess I wasn't cut out to be a modern journalist.:)

Probably not. You sound much too ethical and fair.

[Dolphy]

Interesting, huh? And, as he describes it, it seems he or she said they had no choice but to go to the prosecutor. I wonder if that was to correct the record or a first contact.

[wardaddy]

what about us?

[fish hawk]

I don't know but Pat Boone is a descendant of Daniel Boone.

[caseinpoint]

Careful. I wouldn't speak too quickly. See I became a lawyer. LOL But then I represented a religious school as a fulltime in-house counsel and have done estate planning since, when I wasn't raising my kids.

[Ethan_Allen1777]

LOL!

[beyond the sea]

"deconclusified" what the situation was ----

***

LOL.

[Sacajaweau]

If Woodward had come out earlier, someone could have changed their story to "fit" the outcome they wanted which is what seems to have happened several times. My bet is that this Valerie cr** started in the Dem camp and was deliberately switched to make it "seem" to come out of Bush's administration.

I also believe someone actually changed Valerie's records.

I can just see some 50 year old dames in the Dem camp making "goo goo" eyes at Wilson. The Vanity Fair article backs that up. That was a Playboy not a Political Prodigy on the Cover.

[Sacajaweau]

Considering Pincus was picnicking in Joe's backyard on July 4th, two days before Joe's article, I'd say the "feed" that day was cooked in "Plots and Plans".

I'm sure that Christopher Wolf, who is Joe's attorney, best friend and next door neighbor was also there.

In this situation, and if everyone is in agreement, attorney/client privilege could cover everyone.

Wolf's firm is NYC based.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Well, if journalism lost you at least you raised the level of another profession.

My opinion is based on the fact that it didn't occur to you to exploit a situation instead of just solve the problem. That kind of attitude stems from core values and those hold no matter where you are..

[caseinpoint]

Thank you. Actually I combined the two and do a regular newspaper column commenting on legal decisions which, being in California and the Ninth Circuit, gives me no shortage of commentable material.

[BushCountry]

I liked "Tricky Dick" because he accomplished a lot as president and was a great communicator. Can you tell me what the Watergate Burglers were looking for? Which is actually the biggest story never reported (because of the harm it would have done to the Dems) by your great Woodward.

[virgil]

I don't think the press is independent anymore. The press is ran by large media conglomerates that wants political access just as much as the insurance industry, lawyers, oil, special interests, etc. It's not about reporting facts anymore, it's about political allegiances...quid pro quo.