So Novak is going to be the fall guy?

That won't be very interesting.

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.

...[Novak] has...claimed in various public statements that intelligence officials falsely led him to believe that Plame was only an analyst, and the only potential consequences of her exposure as a CIA officer would be that she might be inconvenienced in her foreign travels.
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So who're you gonna believe?

I haven't read many good comments about Robert Novak - well, any - and the "officials'" stories may be true, but if they did tell him that he wasn't to name Plame and that she was involved in covert work, weren't they still guilty of divulging national security information? I don't think this gets them off, even if Novak is the one lying. But then, I'm not going to be asked my opinion.

...In his July 14 column, Novak claimed that Plame had played a role in the selection of her husband for a mission to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was buying enriched uranium. Yet White House and CIA officials have since said that Wilson, a former national-security senior director for African affairs, was chosen only because of his expertise, and that his wife had no role in his selection.

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."

..."At best, he is parsing words," said the other official. "At worst, he is lying to his readers and the public. Journalists should not lie, I would think."

What gall.

The fact that they "leaked" the information about Plame at all and did it at exactly the time that the White House was attempting to discredit her husband for coming out with the truth about the Niger-Iraq connection is enough for me to believe that they intended to harm.

What if Novak indeed purposely misled readers of his column-- as the two administration officials have asserted to the FBI?

In an interview, Colón, while saying he could not speak to the specifics of this particular story said: "Any time a journalist purposely deceives his readers, he undermines the newsperson's or [his or her own] news organization's credibility" and "threatens the trust between the reader and reporter."

So, again I ask, is the White House ever going to take responsibility for anything done there?

I think I know the answer to that.

Novak may be history. But whoever leaked the information to him in the first place should also be.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Keeping track of the Plame affair here.