Russert: Why do you believe Fitzgerald knew your sources?
Novak: He knew from the beginning -- for 2.5 years who my sources were and decided no law was broken and didn't bring any indictment against my source.
Russert: When I testified, I told what I had said. Why did you wait?
Novak: My lawyer didn't want me to talk until Fitzgerald's investigation was ocmpleted. When Fitzgerald announced Rove wouldn't be indicted, my lawyer went to him and he said my involvement was over and I could talk.
Russert: WaPo Exec Editor says Armitage is likely source
Novak: I won't talk about that. I think it would be a violation of the tacit arrangement I had. Until he reveals himself as Rove and Harlow have, I will be quiet. It probably will come out someday, but I won't say.
Russert: What were the ground rules of your interview.
Novak: I have all kinds of interviews where there's a tacit agreement where I won't reveal the name. He's not a political gunslinger. We were the only people in the room, no tape recorder.
Russert: Waht did the source tell you about Plame?
Novak: Wilson had beenon MTP and I thought he was hostile to the admin. and I was curious why the CIA would send this hostile person with no background in Niger to this mission and he said "his wife suggested him". I thought it was interesting. The CIA said she didn't initiate it, she facilitated it. That's wrong, the Senate Intel Committee has the document to prove it. The Republican majority concluded it. There's a document that confirms it. He didn't give me her name.
Novak: Haven't spoken to primary source since interview.
Russert: You said some time ago that admin. official gave me her name.
Novak: That's a mistatement on my part. He told me it was his wife, not her name. I got the name from Who's Who.
Russert: They told you his wife but no name?
Novak: Yes. They didn't call her a covert operative.
Russert: Harlow, CIA official, says after Novak's call he checked Plame's status and confirmed she was an undercover operative and told Novak and he shouldn't use her name. But Harlow says he didn't (didn't catch it)
Novak: That's not testimony. It's an interview with the WaPo reporters. I still think she wasn't covert and other people in the CIA have told me that.
Russert: But she was under cover.
Novak: She was doing analysis at the CIA, not covert.
Russert: Neighbord didn't know she worked for the CIA.
Novak: Lots of people knew she worked at the CIA. She was outted by traitor Alrich Ames years ago.
Harlow said if she was to go overseas it would be embarrassing for her but it's highly unlikely she'll ever go abroad for the CIA. He never said she wasin danger. If he had called me or put Tenet on the phone and asked me not to run it, I wouldn't have run it.
Russert: Do you regret running the column?
Novak: I'd prefer not to be the center of news, I don't know.
LOL that had to hurt Mr. Potato Head.
I have always like Novak and consider him a relatively straight news journalist one of the few relatively straight shooters left.
I believe what he says about Pflame being outed by Aldrich Ames and feel certain that the only reason Wilson went to Niger was because his wife was in the CIA and arranged it.