The douchebag for liberty

“Also murky is the role of Novak, who first publicly identified Plame in a syndicated column published July 14, 2003.”

It looks to me like Novak played a pivotal role in all of this. And he’s still free to spew his venom while a reporter who refused to play a role in the conspiracy sits in jail. That, in and of itself says a lot about who’s guilty and who isn’t; and brings to mind the old cliché “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“Lawyers have confirmed that Novak discussed Plame with White House senior adviser Karl Rove four or more days before the column identifying her ran. But the identity of another "administration" source (Elliot Abrams, Ari Fleisher, Karl Rove, Andy Card, take your pick) cited in the column is still unknown. Rove's attorney has said Rove did not identify Plame to Novak."

Was it the ninth or the tenth (the same day that Wilson was finally able to talk to Novak after learning of the “outing” of his wife)? A phone log will probably reveal the truth. But the Special Prosecutor needs to determine whether Novak uses the terms “administration source” and “CIA source” interchangeably because he was using both as sources when he was trying to get confirmation. Novak can argue that the CIA is part of the administration, thereby using the same false source to spread the rumor. In this scenario it’s possible to get Rove off the hook and place the blame at Harlow’s feet, unless Harlow recorded his conversations with Novak.

“In a strange twist in the investigation, the grand jury -- acting on a tip from Wilson -- has questioned a person who approached Novak on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 8, 2003, six days before his column appeared in The Post and other publications, Wilson said in an interview. The person, whom Wilson declined to identify to The Post, asked Novak about the "yellow cake" uranium matter and then about Wilson, Wilson said. He first revealed that conversation in a book he wrote last year. In the book, he said that he tried to reach Novak on July 8, and that they finally connected on July 10. In that conversation, Wilson said that he did not confirm his wife worked for the CIA but that Novak told him he had obtained the information from a ‘CIA source.’”

Is this the deus ex machina that will tip the scales in favor of impeachment? This says a lot about the lengths to which the evil one was willing to go to help his pals in the Republican Party exact retribution. Was Novak using Harlow as the “CIA source” that told him Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent? If so, and if Harlow is telling the truth, then Novak lied to Wilson in his effort to get the info he wanted. Still, it seems that somebody fed Novak the info in the first place.

“Novak told the person that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA as a specialist in weapons of mass destruction and had arranged her husband's trip to Niger, Wilson said. Unknown to Novak, the person was a friend of Wilson and reported the conversation to him, Wilson said.”

The next two paragraphs describe the evolution of the CIA man’s response to Novak’s queries. His initial denial re the authorization of Joe Wilson’s trip was apparently dismissed by the evil one. Harlow must have been somewhat tentative or seemed unsure. The fact that he felt compelled to verify his facts after talking to Novak lends credence to that impression. It seems highly unlikely that Novak was referring to Harlow when he told the total stranger that a CIA source told him of Wilson’s wife. Unless he was just flat out lying.
The time line seems to start on the day that Novak blabbed to Wilson’s friend (July 8th, 2003.) Was it Novak’s frustration with Harlow’s denials that set his gums to flapping with what he thought were malevolent lies? Or did someone else at the CIA really pass on classified info to the douchebag for liberty?

“Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

“Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.”

This is where Novak starts to look truly evil. Harlow calls him back after confirming her status and lies to him about Mrs. Wilson’s status in a last ditch attempt to stop the “douchebag for liberty” from blowing her cover. The evil one lamely claims that the “difficulties” Mrs. Wilson might suffer were not enough to deter him; “endangerment” is another story. At what point do difficulties pass through the threshold into endangerment?

“In a column published Oct. 1, 2003, Novak wrote that the CIA official he spoke to ‘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.’”

If the CIA official had suggested that people’s lives would be endangered, that would have been a confirmation of her covert status – and that was classified information. Novak is a savvy old scumbag; he knew that but he chose to publish the information anyway. Another thing is that when Novak said “…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 is being too cute by half and purposefully vague. Did Mr. Harlow tell him that she would not be given an overseas assignment if her cover were blown? Or did he mean that she wouldn’t be going overseas but don’t publish her name anyway? Another question is who inserted the word “probably” into the dialogue. Novak didn’t attribute a direct quote to Harlow, and the use of the vague qualifier makes him look like a man with an axe to grind.