Novak Lies: “The CIA Never Told Me It Would Cause Any Damage”

Appearing last night on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes”, Robert Novak denied that the CIA ever warned him that revealing Valerie Plame’s identity in his column would “cause any damage.” Therefore, he doesn’t believe he “did anything wrong.” Watch it:

(QuickTime Streaming)

Actually, he was warned. Washington Post, 7/27/05:

Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson’s wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

Harlow said that after Novak’s call, he checked Plame’s status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame’s name should not be used.

Now, Novak wants to pretend like the warnings never happened. (In a subsequent column, Novak didn’t dispute Harlow on the facts but argued his warnings weren’t important.) Even moving to Fox News doesn’t insulate you completely from the truth.

(HT: Newshounds)

Transcript:

NOVAK: I didn’t really say that. I said if I had it to do again, I probably wouldn’t do it. I don’t think I made any mistake at all. She was not – I don’t believe she was an undercover agent, I never have. The CIA never told me that it would cause any damage, because I don’t think it would. So that is not the regret. But it’s caused me a lot of difficulty. In this town, if you’re perceived as being in trouble, people run away from you. So just from the standpoint of self-protection near the end of your career, I probably would have just as soon not done it. But I don’t think I did anything wrong. And I thought it was an interesting part of the story in about the seventh paragraph of a story showing why they named this very strange Clinton appointment – the CIA did – to make a (sic) inquiry into a very important matter regarding the activities of the Iraqi government.