Novak justifies outing Plame & sources
Posted: Thursday, July 19, 2007 2:36 PM by Domenico Montanaro
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Security
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
At a breakfast meeting with reporters, Bob Novak defended his decision to print Valerie Plame Wilson’s name in his column -- which sparked the CIA leak investigation. And he justified his outing of several once-anonymous sources in his new book, The Prince of Darkness.Novak contends in his book that Plame Wilson was “not now and never would be again” a covert agent. But he admits that CIA spokesman Bill Harlow asked him “to keep Mrs. Wilson’s CIA connection out of my column” and that the “revelation of her name might cause unspecified ‘difficulties’ if she traveled abroad.” He inferred based on his “experience with CIA jargon” that Plame “at one time had been engaged in covert activities abroad but was not now and never would be again.” He says he “learned much later” she had already been outed by a Soviet spy, “which had ended her career as a covert agent long before I wrote about her.”
He also says in his book that if given the chance, he’d print her name again. “I broke no law and endangered no intelligence operation,” Novak writes. This morning, he added he felt “disappointed in the journalism profession” for its reaction to his printing Plame Wilson’s name. “I thought we stuck together in things like this. I guess that wasn’t the case.”
One reporter questioned Novak on the ethics of unveiling sources -- who say they never want to be revealed -- even after their death. After at least one of Novak's sources died -- the infamous “Senator X” -- Novak said he felt justified in revealing who he was.
Novak quoted the following from “Senator X” in his Evans & Novak column: “‘The people don’t know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot,' he told us. When 'middle America -- Catholic middle America, in particular’ -- once they find out, ‘he’s dead.’”
“A lot of people said I made it up,” Novak said. “I said I’d reveal it when the person dies.”
“Senator X” turns out to have been Tom Eagleton, who was at one point George McGovern’s vice presidential pick before resigning from the ticket after it was revealed that he was undergoing electro-shock treatment to treat depression. Novak labeled McGovern the Triple-A candidate -- supporting amnesty, abortion, and acid. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who worked McGovern’s campaign, said on Meet the Press this past Sunday that the label was one of things that sunk McGovern.
