Say Anything Blog

I'm sure you've all heard, people are accusing the White House, and some even the President himself, of leaking the identity of a CIA operative to the press. The information came to light in an article by Robert Novak of CNN. Novak cited two senior White House staffers when he revealed the agent's identity in a report.

The liberals are, of course, all over this. But are the allegations true?

Let's hear from Novak on the subject:

"'Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson's involvement in the mission for her husband -- he is a former Clinton administration official -- they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives'..."

So, the staffer cited referred to Mrs. Wilson as a "CIA employee." Well, that can mean a lot of things. When Novak called the CIA he was told that Wilson was an analyst, not an operative.

From that description, it would seem like somebody at the CIA dropped the ball. To me this looks like somebody trying to manufacture a scandal. Why was a CIA operatives husband sent on a fact finding mission involving that very same operative? Didn't somebody see this as maybe being a little risky?

Apparently not.