Novak: "I'd be amazed" if Bush didn't know leak

[KevinTheOmnivore]

And a douche bag for liberty should know!


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/CIALe...ory?id=1408064

Bob Novak Says President Knows Leak Source

Bob Novak Says He's Confident the President Knows the Columnist's Source on Valerie Plame

By PETE YOST
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Columnist Bob Novak, who first published the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, says he is confident that President Bush knows who leaked Plame's name.

Novak said that "I'd be amazed" if the president didn't know the source's identity and that the public should "bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is."

Novak's remarks, reported in the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer, came during a question and answer session Tuesday after a speech sponsored by the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer urged Bush to identify Novak's source or to say that he does not know who it is.

In 2003, Novak exposed Plame's identity eight days after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of manipulating prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. In the column disclosing Plame's CIA status, Novak said the sources for his column were two administration officials.

The identity of Novak's sources has been one of the secrets in the CIA leak investigation.

Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, is one of Novak's sources, according to people close to the investigation, but his other source is not publicly known.

Novak apparently is cooperating with the criminal investigation of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, though the journalist has never said so.

The prosecutor has aggressively pursued contempt of court orders against reporters who have refused to cooperate and Novak is not among those who have become embroiled in court battles in the probe.

Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Bush to share the identity of Novak's sources if the president knows.

"You are in a position to clear this matter up quickly," Schumer said in a letter to the president on Wednesday.

"Unlike Mr. Novak, who can claim an interest in maintaining the confidentiality of his sources, there is no similar privilege arguably preventing you from sharing this information," Schumer wrote.

"You have repeatedly suggested that you would like to get to the bottom of this affair," Schumer reminded Bush. "At one point, in 2004, you suggested that anyone who was involved in leaking the name of the covert CIA operative would be fired."


On the Web:

http://www.newsobserver.com/722/story/377675.html


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

I doubt very seriously that Bush, even if found to have known about this, would do the right thing and resign his office. He would have to be impeached and marched out of office at gunpoint. People like Dubya don't give up power easily

[sspadowsky]

Cheney would just pardon him, anyway.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

[Miss Modular]

Shouldn't Robert Novak know the leak?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

He has journalistic integrity, Mod.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

Originally Posted by sspadowsky

Cheney would just pardon him, anyway.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

Cheney will NEVER hold that office....if Bush goes down, Cheney will go with him

[mburbank]

As soon as Chenney is thoroughly cornered, ie he has no legal choice but to answer questions in a public legal oriceding or plead the fifth, he'll resign due to 'health reasons'. Should he still have no way to avoid telling what he knows, he will die, as a man who has had multiple heart attacks can always do at any moment.