So...NRO is saying David Corn leaked Plame's name, not Novak or Rove...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200507150827.asp

So if Novak did not reveal that Valerie Plame was a secret agent, who did? The evidence strongly suggests it was none other than Joe Wilson himself. Let me walk you through the steps that lead to this conclusion.

The first reference to Plame being a secret agent appears in The Nation, in an article by David Corn published July 16, 2003, just two days after Novak’s column appeared. It carried this lead: “Did Bush officials blow the cover of a U.S. intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security — and break the law — in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?” Since Novak did not report that Plame was “working covertly” how did Corn know that’s what she had been doing?

Corn does not tell his readers and he has responded to a query from me only by pointing out that he was asking a question, not making a “statement of fact.” But in the article, he asserts that Novak “outed” Plame “as an undercover CIA officer.” Again, Novak did not do that. Rather, it is Corn who is, apparently for the first time, “outing” Plame’s “undercover” status.

Corn follows that assertion with a quote from Wilson saying, “I will not answer questions about my wife.” Any reporter worth his salt would immediately wonder: Did Wilson indeed answer Corn’s questions about his wife — after Corn agreed not to quote his answers but to use them only on background? Read the rest of Corn’s piece and it’s difficult to believe anything else. Corn names no other sources for the information he provides — and he provides much more information than Novak revealed.

THE DAVID CORN / NATION ARTICLE:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823

[xray s]

1. ROFLMAO

That is the dumbest shit I have ever read!

[skids]

2. LOL.

Hey see that person over there working at a civilian company?

They are a CIA agent.

What, me traitor?!? I didn't say they were undercover!


Man, are they getting desperate.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. The freepers are wetting their little red undie-pants over this one:

1). To: Checkers

BTTT It would be absolute sweet irony if Wilson and Corn, a major writer of that Stalist rag, The Nation, were the ones indicted, or at least publicly exposed, as the architects of this kerfuffle.

11 posted on 07/16/2005 9:51:59 AM PDT by mondonico

2). To: Checkers

Joe Wilson is like the arsonist who photographs the crime he has committed and ejaculates at the sight of the fiery spectacle.

18 posted on 07/16/2005 10:01:58 AM PDT by citizencon

3). To: Checkers

Mrs Wilson never ever was an undercover agent defined by the law.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

22 posted on 07/16/2005 10:04:37 AM PDT by bray (Pray for the Freedom of the Iraqis from Islam)

4). To: Checkers

I can just see that schmuck Wilson oh so cleverly making the hypothetical supposition that his wife is a secret agent to a writer for the Communist Nation. This surely wasn't part of the game plan. The original idea, I'm sure, was to work through "authoritative MSM" sources like the NY Times. But Wilson is so convinced that he is the consummate wily diplomat that he outsmarted himself--again. How this guy ever got a job as a diplomat in the first place is a sad commentary on the judgment of the folks who run the State Department. This whole episode fits right in with that famous picture of Joe and Val in Vanity Fair, with that big smirk on his face while he flashes his chic jewelry.

25 posted on 07/16/2005 10:10:10 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1444282/posts

[pacalo]

8. It's very hard to believe that minds can be that twisted.

"Pray for W and our freedom fighters" calls for a barf bag.

Please protect Damien & his satanical disciples so that they can continue their evil havoc under the guise of "freedom".

[sandnsea]

11. Thank you

This is where I get a headache. The name of the civilian company should be as familiar to people as Valerie Plame. That's what makes the whole thing a no-brainer. Everyone who knew her thought she owned a company, not that she worked at the CIA.

We really have got to have better spinners.

[eleny]

3. I thought Novak wrote that Plame was an "operative"

Sounds like the great right wing wurlitzer spin machine is going full tilt.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. And in a follow up column, Novak NAMED THE CIA COVER CO. OPERATION

IMO this is the more serious of the offenses. Novak, whose lazy journalism was limited to seeing if the company was active "this week", named a company that spent ten years getting inside Middle East finances and oil politics, particularly at Aramco.

[Cha]

14. Shit! I didn't know

that! Not much news about it ..that I've seen, anyway.

[xray s]

4. Any minute now they will blame...

...the CLENIS!!!!!!!!

[leesa]

6. That's ALWAYS implied...they don't need to actually say it, do they?

[joemurphy]

7. Corn's Response is here:

"What motivated May, who now is the press flack at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (a conservative outfit much in favor of the Iraq war), to write such hyperbolic and false tripe? Only he can answer that question. In the past, I have enjoyed debating politics and policy with him on various talk shows. I considered him an honest--though misguided--adversary. But now I will regard him as a hack who cares not a whit for facts and truth. And if this is the sort of defense--and defender--that Rove needs, then maybe Rove really is in trouble."

Read the whole response. It demolishes this.

<http://www.davidcorn.com/>

[pacalo]

10. Yep, when they have to stoop to a fantasy defense, they're in trouble.

I think it's more than Rove who's worried.

They're playing to their base - they wallow in this type of mud-slinging & they can't differentiate the truth from spin. But Fitzgerald can & his indictments will tell all.

[eleny]

15. That was a great finish, wasn't it?!

Looks like the wingnuts are lobbing any kind of poop at the walls to see what will stick in the minds of their supporters.

[Canuckistanian]

12. Duh... "Agency operative", what that mean?

My brain hurt. I just say it's da fault of libruls. (drool)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. On TV I heard a Bush apologist say that Novak always uses that word

He apparently uses it to describe everything and everyone: his dog, his wife, his priest, his Congressman ... all of them are "operatives".

[The Night Owl]

13. One word...

Desperation

[eleny]

17. Btw - Recommended

[0007]

18. Corn responds

a snip...

I do wish I could keep track of all the bad info being peddled by Karl's Keystone Kops. But then I'd probably end up needing a nice room in a sanitarium. Here's a very unscientific sampling of what I've come across. (I've already debunked the top-priority spin of GOPers who insist that Rove did not leak classified information and that he is in no legal jeopardy because he did not actually ID Valerie Wilson by name to Matt Cooper. See two items below.)

* Yesterday, I was on a Colorado radio show with Tucker Eskew, a former Bush White House official. Eskew kept saying the Rove affair was a summer sideshow orchestrated by Democrats. Funny, I thought it was a criminal investigation being mounted by a special prosecutor--Patrick Fitzgerald--who was suggested for his job as US attorney in Illinois by then Senator Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican (no relation). Patrick Fitzgerald has targeted both Ds and Rs in the Land of Lincoln. Yet Eskew kept saying this was a trivial matter only being kept alive by partisan Democrats. Tell that to Fitzgerald. And, hey, doesn't the White House say no one should "prejudge the investigation." It's a clash of talking points! Shouldn't Bush, the titular head of the GOP, tell all those Republican mouthpieces to stop all the prejudging?"

[hlthe2b]

19. Oh, for God's sake...... Who, next to blame, Santa Claus?

Liar, thy synonym is REPUBLICAN.

[kodi]

20. oh my God! that man is batshit crazy insane.

neither facts nor logic deter these right wing assholes from their appointed rounds to sow bad craziness amongst us.

what's next, the muppets are terrorists?

[NightOwwl]

21. This cannot be said often enough...

Karl Rove is one pansy-assed, pasty-faced, ugly motherfucker.

{{{Shudder}}}

[Contrary1]

22. So Judy is sitting in a cell...

because she refuses to name Joe Wilson? :rofl:

[Catherine Vincent]

23. hahaha, yeah right.

Stupid freepers!

[AX10]

24. Bull!

It was Novak!