Novak Defends Actions in CIA Leak

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/01/national/w083437D41.DTL

Novak Defends Actions in CIA Leak

(AP)

Columnist Robert Novak broke his silence Monday about his disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity, defending himself against a former agency official's account that he twice warned Novak not to publish the name.

In his syndicated column, Novak did not dispute that former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow told him he should not print the covert officer's name, Valerie Plame, during conversations they had prior to Novak's July 14, 2003 column.

But Novak reasserted that no CIA official ever told him in advance "that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger her or anybody else."

....

Novak, whose role in the investigation is unknown, has been silent on the series of events he set in motion. But he wrote about it Monday, saying he was ignoring his lawyers' advice because Harlow's account is "so patently incorrect and so abuses my integrity as a journalist."

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