Novak and the Plame Name
The New York Times has an unilluminating article today on Robert Novak's disclosure yesterday that Valerie Plame's name could have been (but not that it was) obtained from Who's Who.
But, as Tom Maguire and Josh Marshall point out, (and TalkLeft discussed here)AP reporters Phelps and Royce wrote on July 21, 2003,
Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
Is Novak going to now say they are lying or mistaken - like he claimed yesterday about Bill Harlow? That might be futile since as I noted here, the Chicago Tribune on March 5, 2004, in reporting on the subpoenas issued by Fitgerald's grand jury, included this:
The third subpoena [by Fitzgerald] repeats an informal Justice Department document request to the White House last fall seeking records about staff contacts with Novak and two Newsday reporters, Knut Royce and Timothy Phelps, who reported July 22 that Plame was a covert agent and Novak had blown her cover.
Update: Arianna has an update of blogger coverage here.
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