Journalist Murray Waas had an interesting Plame Game scoop yesterday at The American Prospect. His sources have reported that Robert Novak, who received the leak about Valerie Plame from two “senior administration officials” last July, was specifically told that his column could endanger an undercover CIA agent.
After the controversy broke in the fall, Novak insisted he didn’t know the leak would endanger national security.
“When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in the mission for her…they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else,” Novak said in September. He added, “According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives.”
Waas’ report explains that Novak’s effort to explain his participation in the illegal leak is untrue.
Two government officials have told the FBI that conservative columnist Robert Novak was asked specifically not to publish the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame in his now-famous July 14 newspaper column. The two officials told investigators they warned Novak that by naming Plame he might potentially jeopardize her ability to engage in covert work, stymie ongoing intelligence operations, and jeopardize sensitive overseas sources….
The two administration officials questioned by the FBI characterized Novak’s statements as untrue and misleading, according to a government official and an attorney official familiar with the FBI interviews.
The two officials say Novak was told, as one source put it, that Plame’s work for the CIA “went much further than her being an analyst,” and that publishing her name would be “hurtful” and could stymie ongoing intelligence operations and jeopardize her overseas sources.
Waas’ report also noted that government officials are now explaining that Novak’s fact-checking calls to the CIA included warnings that Novak ignored.
A government official also questions Novak’s claims that the columnist “called the CIA” and “they confirmed Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in her husband’s mission.” Rather, this person says, the CIA at first declined to comment. Still later, the same official contends that Novak was categorically told that Plame had played no role in the selection of her husband for the Niger mission.
“He was told it just wasn’t true — period,” said the government official. “But he just went with the story anyway. He just didn’t seemed to care very much whether the information was true or not.”
I know nothing bothers a reporter more than becoming part of a story, but at this point, Novak is already integral to the leak investigation. It’s only a matter of time before he’s called in to talk to the grand jury and asked to justify how and why he carelessly ignored CIA concerns about national security.