Robert Novak is a True American Traitor

Robert Novak has joined an exclusive club in the American pantheon of who's who; he can now be counted among those who have deliberately injured our National Security by exposing American Intelligence assets. Novak joins Aldrich Ames, Jonathan Pollard, Robert Hanssen, the Rosenberg's, and other turncoats reaching all the way back to the original American traitor, Benedict Arnold.

Despicable as it is that Novak, a military veteran, would knowingly reveal the identity of an active CIA Intelligence Officer; worse still is the fact that he identified the White House as his source. With no little irony, Bush's July 30th Rose Garden statement on the classified portion of the 911 report makes this treachery Olympian in its hypocrisy, "..."It doesn't make sense to me to reveal (Intelligence) sources and methods (thereby aiding an enemy)...".

What makes a man disloyal to his country? For Ames and Hanssen it was money & arrogance; for Pollard and the Rosenberg's it was ideology; but Novak betrayed this nation for the most vile of reasons; partisan politics.

n/t

Surely, revealing that info, no matter where he got it, is illegal.

this was during the red scare. Their story takes a little digging into. And Benedict Arnold, at first thought he was doing the right thing since many of the other generals were thinking of throwing in the towel. Bennie became the token scapegoat. France saved our butts anyway.

Knowingly handing off atomic secrets to Soviet agents is an act of espionage- and since they were citizens that makes them traitors.

They did a story of the brother of Ethel who basically stated that his testimony regarding her was not correct--but that he didn't regret it-- the gist of the story the Julius was guilty but that Ethel was not

Not familiar w/ the details myself--but they were not hedging any bets about it.

For turning him into Asscroft?

It may be my lottery ticket.

:shrug:

Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison.

A White House smear

Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security—and break the law—in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?

It sure looks that way, if conservative journalist Bob Novak can be trusted.
...
The sources for Novak’s assertion about Wilson’s wife appear to be “two senior administration officials.” If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what’s known as “nonofficial cover” and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson’s wife is such a person—and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her—her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.” If she is not a CIA employee and Novak is reporting accurately, then the White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer. That would not likely do her much good.

This is not only a possible breach of national security; it is a potential violation of law. Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison. Journalists are protected from prosecution, unless they engage in a “pattern of activities” to name agents in order to impair US intelligence activities. So Novak need not worry.

Novak tells me that he was indeed tipped off by government officials about Wilson’s wife and had no reluctance about naming her. “I figured if they gave it to me,” he says. “They’d give it to others....I’m a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it’s accurate. I generally use it.” And Wilson says Novak told him that his sources were administration officials.
...
http://thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823
http://www.arbiteronline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/07/23/3f1f5fa79c206
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18072&mesg_id=18072&page=
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=5913&mesg_id=5913&page=

...
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."

Wilson and others said such a disclosure would be a violation of the law by the officials, not the columnist.

Novak reported that his "two senior administration officials" told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her husband, Wilson, to Niger.
...
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia0722,0,2346857.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=2326&mesg_id=2326&page=

A War on Wilson?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18113&mesg_id=18113&page=

White House striking back?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942095.asp?0cv=CA01

Schumer Urges FBI Probe Into Iraq Leaks
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030724/ap_on_go_ot/schumer_agent_1

Probes Expected in ID of CIA Officer
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia233384176jul23,0,5461415.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print

I'd say they're both guilty - he should have known better.