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SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (CNN CROSSFIRE : NOVAK SAYS NO ONE IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CALLED HIM TO LEAK [ABOUT PLAME'S RECOMMENDATION FOR HER HUSBAND TO GO TO NIGER])
Novak made another statement about his column during a September 29 broadcast of CNN's Crossfire. "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this," he said. "In July, I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador [Joseph] Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing.
"When I called the CIA in July, they confirmed Mrs. Wilson's involvement in a mission for her husband on a secondary basis ... they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.
"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives. So what is the fuss about, pure Bush-bashing?" ----- "Plame Gate: Did Robert Novak willfully disregard warnings that his column would," by murray waas, The American Prospect, 2/12/04

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 : (CLIFFORD MAY KNEW ABOUT PLAME'S CIA CONNECTION THROUGH DEMOCRAT SOURCE) Clifford May writes in National Review Online that Plame's CIA connection "wasn't news to me. I had been told that--but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of." - The Corner September 30, 2003 Scroll down for May's comments.

(* Freepnote: May went on to say today that it was a democrat who told him Plame's employer in order to convince him that Wilson isn't as far left as May thought. May said this democrat told him before Novak's column was written. )