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Novak: Real story behind Armitage story
Chicago Sun Times ^ | September 13, 2006 | Robert Novak

Posted on 09/13/2006 12:00:39 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy

When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state’s interviews obscured what he really did. I want to set the record straight based on firsthand knowledge.

First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘‘thought’’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.

Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.

An accurate depiction of what Armitage actually said deepens the irony of him being my source. He was a foremost internal skeptic of the administration’s war policy, and I long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me improbably into the president’s lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he and not Karl Rove was the leaker was devastating news for the left.

A peculiar convergence had joined Armitage and me on the same historical path. During his quarter of a century in Washington, I had no contact with Armitage before our fateful interview. I tried to see him in the first 2 years of the Bush administration, but he rebuffed me — summarily and with disdain, I thought.

Then, without explanation, in June 2003, Armitage’s office said the deputy secretary would see me. This was two weeks before Joe Wilson surfaced himself as author of a 2002 report for the CIA debunking Iraqi interest in buying uranium in Africa.

I sat down with Armitage in his State Department office the afternoon of July 8 with tacit rather than explicit ground rules: deep background with nothing said attributed to Armitage or even an anonymous State Department official. Consequently, I refused to identify Armitage as my leaker until his admission was forced by Hubris, a new book by reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn that absolutely identified him.

Late in my hourlong interview with Armitage. I asked why the CIA had sent Wilson — lacking intelligence experience, nuclear policy or recent contact with Niger — on the African mission. He told the Washington Post last week that his answer was: ‘‘I don’t know, but I think his wife worked out there.’’

Neither of us took notes, and nobody else was present. But I recalled our conversation that week in writing a column, while Armitage reconstructed it months later for federal prosecutors. He had told me unequivocally that Mrs. Wilson worked in the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division and that she had suggested her husband’s mission.

As for his current implications that he never expected this to be published, he noted that the story of Mrs. Wilson’s role fit the style of the old Evans-Novak column — implying to me it continued reporting Washington inside information.

Mrs. Wilson’s name appeared in my column July 14, 2003, but it was not until Oct. 1 that I heard about it from Armitage. Washington lobbyist Kenneth Duberstein, Armitage’s close friend and political adviser, called me to say the deputy secretary feared he had ‘‘inadvertently’’ (the word Armitage used in last week’s interviews) disclosed Mrs. Wilson’s identity to me in July and was considering resignation. (Duberstein’s phone call was disclosed in the Isikoff-Corn book, which used Duberstein as a source. They reported Duberstein was responsible for arranging my unexpected interview with Armitage.)

Duberstein told me Armitage wanted to know whether he was my source. I did not reply because I was sure that Armitage knew he was the source. I believed he contacted me Oct. 1 because of news the weekend of Sept. 27-28 that the Justice Department was investigating the leak. I cannot credit Armitage’s current claim that he realized he was the source only when my Oct. 1 column revealed that the official who gave me the information was ‘‘no partisan gunslinger.’’

Armitage’s silence the next 2œ years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Rove of being my primary source. When Armitage now says he was mute because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s request, that does not explain his silence three months between his claimed first realization that he was the source and Fitzgerald’s appointment on Dec. 30. Armitage’s tardy self-disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: anotherliarexposed; armitage; plame; wilson
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1 posted on 09/13/2006 12:00:41 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
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To: STARWISE

PING


2 posted on 09/13/2006 12:01:39 PM PDT by Txsleuth (,((((((((ISRAEL)))))) Pray for the release of the Israelis.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

This will further confuse Chris Matthews.


3 posted on 09/13/2006 12:02:06 PM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: CaptainK
This will further confuse Chris Matthews.

Increasing the spit on his lip into a blathering froth!
4 posted on 09/13/2006 12:05:10 PM PDT by yobid
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To: CaptainK
Yeah, this and most other basic concepts, are too complicated for him to feature on DNCBall with Chris Matthews.
5 posted on 09/13/2006 12:05:24 PM PDT by .cnI redruM (The LORD spoke to me ..."Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy")
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To: CaptainK

ROFL---although, somehow I doubt that this column will ever be talked about on Chrissy's show.


6 posted on 09/13/2006 12:06:25 PM PDT by Txsleuth (,((((((((ISRAEL)))))) Pray for the release of the Israelis.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
Neither of us took notes...

um...er...ah...oh nevermind.
7 posted on 09/13/2006 12:06:38 PM PDT by stylin19a
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To: Bubba_Leroy
Indict Fitzgerald.
8 posted on 09/13/2006 12:07:28 PM PDT by msnimje (What part of-- "DEATH TO AMERICA" --do the Democrats not understand?)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
THIS IS HUGE

First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘‘thought’’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.

Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.

9 posted on 09/13/2006 12:07:40 PM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestu s globus, inflammare animos)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘‘thought’’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.

The gloves are finally off! This makes Scooter's prosecution even more partisan looking.

10 posted on 09/13/2006 12:08:13 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

Good Lord, how many versions of this story are there?


11 posted on 09/13/2006 12:08:49 PM PDT by RexBeach (Will Rogers Never Met Bill Clinton.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

This whole episode is starting to look so Rovian.


12 posted on 09/13/2006 12:09:18 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

What I don't understand is Novak who seemed to throw everyone off of the trail of Armitage by assuring us all that his source was "non-partisan and not a gunslinger" and now he seems to be implying that Armitage did disclose in a partisan, gunslinging way! Shouldn't Novak be assigned some of the blame for this misdirection?


13 posted on 09/13/2006 12:10:28 PM PDT by redgirlinabluestate
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To: .cnI redruM

Time for the DC dim-wits of all stripes to duck & cover!
Should be interesting to see all the stilettos flashing....what a-bunch o' clowns!


14 posted on 09/13/2006 12:10:46 PM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: Bubba_Leroy
Yow! Armitage caught in a major fabrication or his role. Let's see if the press does its job and eviscerates Armitage. He has done immeasurable harm to the country. it does raise an interesting conundrum, however. Imagine if the amended suit of the Wilsons gets a judgment against Armitage but all other defendants are dropped from the suit by the judge? It would be sweet for Armitage to pay a price for his gossipy big mouth but a bummer for the Wilsons to profit when Joe himself has much to answer for.
15 posted on 09/13/2006 12:10:50 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Katherine Harris for US Senate!)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

And why is Fitzgerald still on the job.
He owes the American taxpayers three years back pay!


16 posted on 09/13/2006 12:11:21 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: neodad
This whole episode is starting to look so Rovian.

It's all Bush's fault.

Women and minorities will be hardest hit.

17 posted on 09/13/2006 12:11:43 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (What did Rather know and when did he know it?)
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To: Yo-Yo

How long could Armitage spend in jail for this?


18 posted on 09/13/2006 12:12:08 PM PDT by listenhillary (Only the stupidest of animals fouls it's own nest - Democrats provide a fine example of this)
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To: neodad
"This whole episode is starting to look so Rovian."

Yes, I know the Rovians!


19 posted on 09/13/2006 12:12:27 PM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: billorites

LOL!


20 posted on 09/13/2006 12:13:18 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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