Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame

[DeclinetoState]

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer5 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

In a column, Novak also says his recollection of his conversation with Rove differs from what the Rove camp has said.

"I have revealed Rove's name because his attorney has divulged the substance of our conversation, though in a form different from my recollection," Novak wrote. Novak did not elaborate.

A spokesman for Rove's legal team, Mark Corallo, said that Rove did not even know Plame's name at the time he spoke with Novak, that the columnist called Rove, not the other way around, and that Rove simply said he had heard the same information that Novak passed along to him regarding Plame.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060712/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_novak

[DesertFox]

Yost was the guy who published the article that accused the GOP of announcing an investigation of some Democrat bigwig back in the 2004 campaign. Dan Rather immediately went on tv, shaking with anger, and accused the GOP of "dirty tricks." Turned out it was a liberal Democrat judge who told Yost about the impending investigation of that Democrat. Yost simply lied in his article.

Dan Rather, of course, did not then go on tv and retract his statement about GOP dirty tricks. In fact, AFAIK, he never again mentioned the thing. Good old honorable Dan, just doing his job. Good old Yost, just helping Dan along.

[Lubbock]

Novak says the source was Joe Wilson.

Yost says the source was Rove.

Yost, along with most of the rest of the Leftstream Media is having a hissy fit.

Novak will be all over FOX this evening --beginning with the Hume Report. I guess we'll just have to see what Novak has to say.

[DoctorDoom]

The text of the page has been changed since OP.

WASHINGTON - Now that Karl Rove won't be indicted, now that the president won't fire him, now that it really doesn't matter anymore, more details of the Valerie Plame leak investigation trickle out.

In his latest syndicated column released Wednesday, columnist Robert Novak revealed his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer, underscoring Rove's role in a leak President Bush once promised to punish.

The columnist said he learned of Plame's CIA employment from a source he still refuses to publicly identify, and then confirmed with Rove and then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, whose roles in talking to Novak have been previously reported.

Novak said for the first time that prosecutors looking into the leaks already knew his sources when he agreed to disclose them.

Novak comes late to the Plame game, long after several other reporters talked publicly about the involvement of Rove and of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, in leaking the CIA identity of the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Novak says he kept his mouth shut so long because prosecutors asked him to.Any trace of objectivity and journalistic integrity has been thrown out.