The CIA leak (Latest From Novak)

townhall.com ^ | 10/01/03 | Robert Novak

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON -- I had thought I never again would write about retired diplomat Joseph Wilson's CIA-employee wife, but feel constrained to do so now that repercussions of my July 14 column have reached the front pages of major newspapers and led off network news broadcasts. My role and the role of the Bush White House have been distorted and need explanation.

The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.

The current Justice investigation stems from a routine, mandated probe of all CIA leaks, but follows weeks of agitation. Wilson, after telling me in July that he would say nothing about his wife, has made investigation of the leak his life's work -- aided by the relentless Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. These efforts cannot be separated from the massive political assault on President Bush.

This story began July 6 when Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one.

During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.

At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.

How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.

A big question is her duties at Langley. I regret that I referred to her in my column as an "operative," a word I have lavished on hack politicians for more than 40 years. While the CIA refuses to publicly define her status, the official contact says she is "covered" -- working under the guise of another agency. However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations.

The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor.

©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Robert Novak | Read Novak's biography

[woofie]

Oh my God !!!! What shall we do ?!!! We need an investigation at the top and the bottom !!!or maybe the middle!!!!

[Steely Glint]

The vile Demonrats will stop at nothing to try and smear Bush.

[woofie]

You know it wasnt much of a secret when your hairdresser tells you in confidence that she heard Mrs Wilson worked for the CIA

[Jeff Chandler]

This smear should drop Bush's credibility with the voters another 10-15 points. A little lower and hillary can jump in the race.

[CobaltBlue]

So what's the bigger story here? Doesn't anyone still find it incredible that Wilson, a Bush hater, was given the task of vetting one of the most important allegations in Bush's State of the Union Address?

[YaYa123]

EXCELLENT CATCH!!! Thank you kattracks!

[Sabertooth]

Novak says it's a non-story, and it's his story.

Conduct the routine CIA leak investigation, and plant daisies on it

[YaYa123]

Over here, y'all. This is a good nightcap.

[Dialup Llama]

What form of rectal cranial inversion made Novak think it was OK to reveal the identity of CIA employees?

[Shermy]

Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else.

What do they have to say? They said don't tell - isn't that enough? Novak created this mess.

Also, this article might confirm the idea that the "leak" was from gabbiness, and an assumption Novak wouldn't tell. That is, saying the words "CIA" to Novak wasn't intended to do anything political.

[Chad Fairbanks]

PinG!

[america-rules]

What he doesn't say is Wison said two years ago Irag had the NUKE material using the same intel Bush and the CIA used before we took Saddam out !

[YaYa123]

Didn't you read his explanation? Here tis:

He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad.

He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name.

I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission"

[WSGilcrest]

The stiff is froze, the case is closed.

[paul51]

However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations

A little late for damage control

[swilhelm73]

This actually, it seems to me is key.

Bush's administration has turned the other cheek again and again in the face of Democrat dirty tricks, sometimes verging on treason.

This can go on no more. The press will not try to get to the bottom of how Wilson got the nod here - though there does seem some evidence of a planned smear from the get go.

So, the Bush White house *must* go public with this process, point out the anti-war loonies are willing to misuse even the CIA to futher their ambitions, and show how the Democrat's press work tireless for the Democrats.

If he doesn't the press will make sure that their is always some lingering doubt about this affair clouding Bush's reputation.

[jtill]

Unless I'm interpreting everything I read wrong, Wilson actually went to Niger in 2002 - BEFORE the President's SOTU Address. Then, when the question of the uranium came up after the SOTU, he leaked his own confidential/secret report to the press.

Everything I've read has 2002 as the year Wilson went to Niger, so unless all the articles have typos in them, he went months before the SOTU Address.

[Destro]

We Balkan posters WARNED (AND WE WERE THE ONLY ONES TO DO SO ON FREEREPUBLIC) Bush to cut ties off from Clintonista Balkan holdovers like Wilson. what was Bush doing keeping them on? The only bad thibg this reflects on the Bush White House is that they were stupid enough to keep these enemies in positions of authority.

[GWfan]

I think it's Tenet and he is gone.