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Matter-eater Man said:
It's hardly splitting hairs Wonder Boy. Novak self rationalized something partisan Republicans would have condemned any other reporter for doing. The CIA don't blow their own agent's cover so couldn't do more than what they did. Novak has always been a partisan player, this time it at the very least clouded his judgement.

Novak doing legal wrong was something G-man threw in, not me. If G-man had a basis for saying it, I'll ask again what was the basis for it?



Again, M E M, my Meet the Press link of Novak. It's his story, and he detailed exactly how it was given to him and confirmed by sources:
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You can watch Novak at this link. It begins at 33:45 into the 48:00 minute broadcast.




To review:
  • Ben Bradlee, former Executive Editor for the Washington Post, expressed certainty that Assistant Sec of State Richard Armitage is the source, not Rove. (Novak would not confirm or deny, saying he is waiting for the unnamed source to reveal themself when they're ready)
  • Bill Harlow, former then-CIA Spokesman admitted to Novak that Valerie Plame in his words "facilitated" Joe Wilson's selection for the CIA/Niger/yellow-cake uranium mission.
  • But Novak confirmed, through the Senate Intelligence Committee, that Plame did more than "facilitate" Wilson's selection for the mission, she initiated his selection for the mission, which a Senate Intelligence document confirms, said Novak.
  • Novak says through confirmation with several sources in the CIA, he verified that Plame was an analyst in the Counter-Proliferation Division [of WMD's] in the CIA.

    And that in answer to a Washington Post article Russert presented, from July 27, 2005, that said...
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    [Bill Harlow], the former CIA Spokesman... said that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission, and that if he [Novak] 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.



    ... Novak said in response that's what Harlow said to the Washington Post later, but that's not what he said to Novak in their earlier interview.

    Again, Novak said he confirmed Plame's status by talking to other sources in the CIA. That Plame was not an undercover operative.

    And that through CIA sources, Novak was told that Plame had been outed years ago by traitor/Soviet CIA mole Aldrich Ames. So there was no risk at this point, in running her name.

    Novak said that many individuals try to hustle him into not running a story, saying "you can't run that", but he does anyway.
    But if he is approached by someone in authority, and if he had been on the Plame story, by Tenet or some other higher up, advised that Plame's life would have been in danger, he would have not run the story, or at least not run the paragraph with her name.
    But Novak says he was not approached in such a way, and so he ran the story.