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Steyn's take on the Wilson affair.

Reporters don't divulge sources,so I believe the important finding of the leaker may never happen.It is usually an exercise in futility.There is another question that is of concern.Steyn expresses this much better than I ever could.

By his drawing attention to it, Wilson did more to blow his wife's cover than any administation official did.

Great article, I just wish he had made it clear that the former Clinton apointee head of CIA testified to Congress that Wilson's report(verbal to people he didn't know after being sent by 8 or 9 people he didn't know)was never briefed to Cheney or Bush because it contained dubious and contradicting info. Therefore, Bush had every right to ignore it because he never knew about it until Wilson's article appeared in the NYT. Cheney never asked anyone to send over Wilson or anyone else to Niger. He did ask for more info on the yellowcake intel.

I think the fact Wilson outed the trip is in itself a leak of classified information and that is why his phone records are being looked at by the FBI. If he and the liberal press he and others with his viewpoint leaked to had kept their mouth shut everyone in the world wouldn't know the name Valerie Plame. Novak has never said he was given her name--his statement published after this became a feeding frenzy said he was told Wilson's wife,who worked in the CIA,had a hand in getting him this assignment. He and other's claim many in Washington knew her name.

It also sounds like Chris Matthews is the one that got Wilson going that Rove was involved. If Matthews called after the story Novak wrote to ask more questions,and someone said her involvement in the trip was fair game--her name would not be the important part of this story--I can just hear Matthews calling Wilson and turning that statement into "Rove says your wife is fair game now that the story is out there". After all,wouldn't that make for a better response from Wilson? Matthews always throws out loaded and exaggerated lines.

I also think the last sentence in a Newsweek article saying a grand jury is having sr.staffers from Senators in to testify about earlier classified document leaks(Bush Knew comes to mind) might be making liberals nervous. Bush is serious about the leaks stopping and has made it clear he intends to pursue them wherever they come from.

The main point is Bush and Cheney never were briefed on Wilson's tea sipping trip. He assumed they were because he said that was the protocol he was familiar with. He didn't count on someone filing it away because it was of little importance and someone in the CIA saw it for what it was--politics.

Why,then,was the Bush administration trying to discredit Wilson over a report that the CIA itself found worthless and never even passed on to them? No one in the major media ever reported what could really discredit Wilson when the frenzy began. His wife,along with mid level CIA employees,tried to use their power to stop or discredit a war our elected leaders felt was necessary. This is just one more black mark for an agency that seems incapable of protecting the American people.