Novak: Armitage Leak Was Deliberate, Not Idle Chitchat
When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state’s interviews obscured what he really did. I want to set the record straight based on firsthand knowledge.
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘‘thought’’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.
Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.
An accurate depiction of what Armitage actually said deepens the irony of him being my source. He was a foremost internal skeptic of the administration’s war policy, and I long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me improbably into the president’s lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he and not Karl Rove was the leaker was devastating news for the left.
…Armitage’s silence the next 2 years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Rove of being my primary source. When Armitage now says he was mute because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s request, that does not explain his silence three months between his claimed first realization that he was the source and Fitzgerald’s appointment on Dec. 30. Armitage’s tardy self-disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive.
PlameGate gets smaller by the day; and so does Richard Armitage’s reputation…
Like I said before. No wonder Novak blew up on his CNN show, where he said “This is bulls**t!” The lefties were having a field day at Bob’s expense.
Armitage is a creep. Has he resigned yet? Why not?
There is a very interesting article on the Opinion Journal site regarding, in part, Fitzgerald’s actions
THE PLAME KERFUFFLE
What a Load of Armitage!
What did Patrick Fitzgerald know, and when did he know it?
BY VICTORIA TOENSING
Friday, September 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
“….What Mr. Fitzgerald knew, and chose to ignore, is troublesome. Despite what some CIA good ol’ boys might have told Mr. Fitzgerald, he knew from the day he took office that the facts did not support a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act; therefore, there was no crime to investigate. Although he claimed in Mr. Libby’s indictment that Ms. Plame’s employment status was “classified,” Mr. Fitzgerald refuses to provide the basis for that fact and, even if true, can point to no law that would be violated by revealing a “classified” (not covert) employment. It was this gap in the law that created the need to pass the act in the first place.
Mr. Fitzgerald knew (prior to indicting Mr. Libby) that Mr. Armitage was Mr. Novak’s original source, Mr. Libby never spoke to Mr. Novak, and Messrs. Rove and Libby had merely responded to reporters’ questions. Hardly acts of initiating a criminal conspiracy. Mr. Fitzgerald knows it is not criminal to discredit a mendacious attack on the president. There was a crime only if Ms. Plame were covert and the person revealed that fact with knowledge of her status. Mr. Fitzgerald learned during the investigation that not one person had any basis to think she was covert. Just ask Mr. Armitage, who asserted in his apologia, “I had never seen a covered agent’s name in any memo . . . in 28 years of government.”
During the investigation Mr. Fitzgerald learned that a former New York Times reporter, Cliff May, twice told the FBI that, prior to Mr. Novak’s column, he had heard in an offhand way from a nongovernment employee that Mr. Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, a clear indication that her employment was known on the street. Ditto columnist Hugh Sidey, who wrote that Ms. Plame’s name was “knocking around in the sub rosa world . . . for a long time.”
…..It is not just Mr. Armitage who should apologize. So should Joe Wilson and Pat Fitzgerald.”
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008948