Monday, March 19, 2007
Re Plame [Cliff May]
One thing worth adding to Byron’s good piece this morning: Bob Novak has consistently maintained that when he referred to Plame as a “CIA operative” in his column he did not mean to imply she was covert – on the contrary, he would not have named her had he believed that. I see no reason to doubt Novak on this.
And surely Novak’s source, Richard Armitage, would not knowingly reveal the name of a CIA agent he believed had covert status. Armitage may be a gossip but he is not a traitor: He would not intentionally do anything that might endanger the lives of American spies and their contacts.
So I ask again: If Armitage and Novak did not believe Plame was (or had formerly been) undercover, where did that idea come from? The answer: It was first raised in a story by the Nation’s David Corn. And the only source named in that story is Joe Wilson, who had a close relation with Corn and with the Nation.
Does this suggest it was really Wilson who exposed his wife’s covert status and did so, in league with Corn, as a way to damage the White House? If there’s a more logical or likely interpretation of the facts as we now know then, I haven’t heard it. 03/19 09:15 AM
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