Novak on MTP: It wasn't Armitage

[civildisoBDence]

Under very specific questioning by Tim Russert, Robert Novak just said that Richard Armitage was NOT the person who leaked Valerie Plame's status to him.

This puts to rest the speculation that Armitage may have leaked Plame's status in passing rather than as a tactic to undermine Joe Wilson.

It also pushes the timeline back a bit--Armitage had spoken to Novak in early June.

Novak basically said (paraphrased), "I don't reveal my sources unless and until they reveal themselves...and it's far past the time when this source should have come clean."

Looks like Fitzgerald still has word to do, and like the leak was most likely intended to punish Wilson for his anti-war stance.

News and commentary, left to right

[Kagemusha]

1. So much for Isikoff and Corn.

But based on the posts I've seen lately DU has forsaken the Fitzgerald investigation and thinks he's part of the grand conspiracy, so why put hopes up at all. Or care.

You know what? Just concentrate on electing Democrats. More profitable use of time and labor.

[notadmblnd]

4. when was the last time you heard something from Fitzgerald ?

DU hasn't abandoned this issue. My impression is that the investigation is at a standstill and if no information is coming out, then It's a little hard to discuss it.

[Kagemusha]

5. I said they abandoned FITZGERALD. Not the issue.

Last time I heard something re: Plame was the last time there was a hearing in the Libby case.

Last time I heard something from Fitzgerald, his office (the one where he has his day job, the one he was originally hired to do) was indicting 17 or 19, I forget which, members of a serious network of professional software media pirates. His office is also on Conrad Black's tail among other cases.

[annabanana]

8. "DU has forsaken"

um. no.
"DU" does what it always does. Some give up, some hang in there, some take the real info as it comes and works from there.

[PDittie]

11. DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!

Best answer award-winner.

[H2O Man]

12. Not everyone. n/t

[DesertRat]

2. Thanks for the info.

Hmm, so Scooter's not off the hook yet? :shrug:

[Armstead]

3. I think you misinterpreted

He wasn't denyhing it -- Just not confirming it, citing his personal policy.

[civildisoBDence]

6. You may be right--did anyone else see the segment?

Novak could be waiting for a more definitive acknowledgement by Arimitage, or he may be saving his own confirmation that it was Armitage for a column (he knows where his bread is buttered.)

[chieftain]

17. Here's what I heard.

Novak was asked to confirm the Isikoff story. He complimented Isikoff as a very careful reporter but said his personal policy was to not reveal a source unless released from his promise to protect confidentiality or the source confirms his/her role publicly. This non answer just continues the riddle. Was he slyly agreeing that it was Armitage by citing Isikoff's accuracy as a reporter? Is he expecting Armitage or whoever it was to hold a press conference to reveal the identity. Frankly I don't think his comments today do anything other than keep the muddy waters muddy.

[TheFarseer]

18. He never said it wasn't Armitage

He wouldn't say who it was, and that's nothing new.

[MADem]

9. That's what I heard too, he was cagey--but that said, it is my personal

belief that Armitage was a CONFIRMING source, not an initial source. The good, and the old school, journalists get TWO sources, and the very responsible ones get three.

But I'd guess that Armitage, after going to the FBI, called Novak and let him know the situation. And that's why Novak didn't go to jail--he sang.

It's entirely possible that Novak approached Armitage and said something like "Hey, I heard this story about a woman named Valerie Plame from a guy, well, let's call him POOTER or HOOTER or CUTER, over in the White House...whaddaya know about this?"

[Kagemusha]

14. Sounds reasonable to me.

If Fitz thought he'd heard the whole story he wouldn't even be bothering to prosecute Libby (because he'd have cooperated and told a true and consistent story).

[flpoljunkie]

10. Exactly. Read this from Isikoff in today's Newsweek. It was Armitage.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533384/site/newsweek/

The Man Who Said Too Much

A book coauthored by NEWSWEEK's Michael Isikoff details Richard Armitage's central role in the Valerie Plame leak.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

Updated: 10:49 a.m. ET Aug 27, 2006

Sept. 4, 2006 issue - In the early morning of Oct. 1, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell received an urgent phone call from his No. 2 at the State Department. Richard Armitage was clearly agitated. As recounted in a new book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Armitage had been at home reading the newspaper and had come across a column by journalist Robert Novak. Months earlier, Novak had caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had been trying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnist himself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided a tantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitage was shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."

Armitage's admission led to a flurry of anxious phone calls and meetings that day at the State Department. (Days earlier, the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the Plame leak after the CIA informed officials there that she was an undercover officer.) Within hours, William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser, notified a senior Justice official that Armitage had information relevant to the case. The next day, a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA. (The memo made no reference to her undercover status.) Armitage had met with Novak in his State Department office on July 8, 2003—just days before Novak published his first piece identifying Plame. Powell, Armitage and Taft, the only three officials at the State Department who knew the story, never breathed a word of it publicly and Armitage's role remained secret.

Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity. "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing," he later told Carl Ford Jr., State's intelligence chief. Ford says Armitage admitted to him that he had "slipped up" and told Novak more than he should have. "He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f---ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat," Ford recalls in "Hubris," to be published next week by Crown and co-written by the author of this article and David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation magazine.


As it turned out, Novak wasn't the only person Armitage talked to about Plame. Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has also said he was told of Plame's identity in June 2003. Woodward did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but, as late as last week, he referred reporters to his comments in November 2005 that he learned of her identity in a "casual and offhand" conversation with an administration official he declined to identify. According to three government officials, a lawyer familiar with the case and an Armitage confidant, all of whom would not be named discussing these details, Armitage told Woodward about Plame three weeks before talking to Novak. Armitage has consistently refused to discuss the case; through an assistant last week he declined to comment for this story. Novak would say only: "I don't discuss my sources until they reveal themselves."

more..

[annabanana]

7. "Puts to rest"??

Why the hell should we believe him? Sorry, all it means is that he said it isn't Armitage.:shrug:

[mucifer]

13. Did you also notice novak said that its time for his source to identify

himself. he sounded annoyed.

[rodeodance]

15. Novak did NOT deny that it was NOT Armitage-nor did he confirm it.

[bluedeminredstate]

16. That's what I heard too.

Novak also got a little pissy about his source leaving him to take the shit all this time for outing Plame and said it was long past time for his source to step forward and identify himself.
He did not let Armitage off the hook!

[Igel]

19. One could almost conclude Novak said it was Armitage.

It's far past time for his source to fess up.

Why?

Perhaps because enough people have taken enough guff because of him or her, whoever the person is.

Perhaps because the person clearly can't be prosecuted, and stands to lose nothing by confessing. The law is of difficult application.

Or perhaps because everybody already thinks it's Armitage, there's no justification for continuing the coy game he's playing. Speaking up would change little for anybody.