EXCERPT - 'The Politics of Truth' By JOSEPH C. WILSON

[maddezmom]

hapter Seventeen

A Strange Encounter with Robert Novak

Late on Tuesday afternoon, July 8, six days before Robert Novak's article about Valerie and me, a friend showed up at my office with a strange and disturbing tale. He had been walking down Pennsylvania Avenue toward my office near the White House when he came upon Novak, who, my friend assumed, was en route to the George Washington University auditorium for the daily taping of CNN's Crossfire. He asked Novak if he could walk a block or two with him, as they were headed in the same direction; Novak acquiesced. Striking up a conversation, my friend, without revealing that he knew me, asked Novak about the uranium controversy. It was a minor problem, Novak replied, and opined that the administration should have dealt with it weeks before. My friend then asked Novak what he thought about me, and Novak answered: "Wilson's an asshole. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She's a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." At that point, my friend and Novak went their separate ways. My friend headed straight for my office a couple of blocks away.


Once he related this unsettling story to me, I asked him to immediately write down the details of the conversation and afterwards ushered him out of my office. Next, I contacted the head of the news division at CNN, Eason Jordan, Novak's titular boss, whom I had known for a number of years. It took several calls, but I finally tracked him down on his cell phone. I related to him the details of my friend's encounter with Novak and pointed out that whatever my wife might or might not be, it was the height of irresponsibility for Novak to share such information with an absolute stranger on a Washington street. I asked him to speak to Novak for me, but he demurred - he said he did not know him very well - and suggested that I speak to Novak myself. I arranged for him to have Novak call me and hung up.

Novak called the next morning, but I was out, and then so was he. We did not connect until the following day, July 10. He listened quietly as I repeated to him my friend's account of their conversation. I told him I couldn't imagine what had possessed him to blurt out to a complete stranger what he had thought he knew about my wife.

~snip~
(last paragraph on page4)
Although I received hundreds of phone calls from the national and international press in subsequent days, not once did I again hear a reporter cite White House sources in relation to that particular story. In the weeks ahead, the attacks from the White House reverted to more typical forms of character assassination.



more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/books/chapters/chapter-wilson.html

it's long, but worth the time

[roguevalley]

1. My god, my god, my god. The next suitcase bomb scare to accur here,

or god forbid, if it ever happens, Bob Novak should be arrested first.

[samsingh]

2. shrub's admin is a dictatorship

[fearnobush]

3. "NBC had systematically edited out every one of my qualifiers"

Forget Woodward's book. This crime only proves * cares nothing for National Security

"When the interview aired on the Monday evening news, NBC had systematically edited out every one of my qualifiers regarding Valerie's status."

[Disturbed]

4. It's obvious

The people that told Novak intentionaly were sending a msg. to anyone
that would go against Bushco. They didn't care about National Security of a CIA Agent.