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<DIV><FONT size=4><STRONG><FONT size=5>Novak Says He Named 3 Sources in Leak
Case<BR></FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Howard Kurtz<BR>Washington Post Staff Writer<BR>Wednesday,
July 12, 2006; A04<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak acknowledged for the first time
yesterday that he identified three confidential administration sources during
testimony in the CIA leak investigation, saying he did so because they had
granted him legal waivers to testify and because Special Counsel Patrick J.
Fitzgerald already knew of their role.</P>
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000>In a column to be published today, Novak said he
told Fitzgerald in early 2004 that White House senior adviser Karl Rove and
then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow had confirmed for him, at his request,
information about CIA operative Valerie Plame. Novak said he also told
Fitzgerald about another senior administration official who originally provided
him with the information about Plame, and whose identity he says he cannot
reveal even now</FONT></STRONG>.</P>
<P>"I'm still constrained as a reporter," Novak said in an interview. "It was
not on the record, and he has never revealed himself as being the source, and
until he does I don't feel I should."</P>
<P>In the column, he wrote: "I have cooperated in the investigation while trying
to protect journalistic privileges under the First Amendment and shield sources
who have not revealed themselves. . . . Some journalists have badgered me to
disclose my role in the case. . . . I have promised to discuss my role in the
investigation when permitted by the prosecution, and I do so now."</P>
<P>Novak triggered one of the capital's most tangled investigations with a July
2003 column reporting that Plame had suggested sending her husband, former
ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, to Niger to investigate whether Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain nuclear material from that country -- an
unsupported claim that was included in President Bush's State of the Union
speech. Fitzgerald, who decided last month not to pursue charges against Rove,
is prosecuting I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former chief of staff for Vice
President Cheney, for allegedly lying to a grand jury. Judith Miller, then a New
York Times reporter, went to jail for 85 days last year for initially refusing
to name Libby as her source.</P>
<P>A mystery had swirled around Novak because he refused to say for 2 1/2 years
whether he had testified while other journalists in the case -- Miller, Time
magazine's Matthew Cooper, NBC's Tim Russert and, it was later disclosed, The
Washington Post's Bob Woodward -- appeared before Fitzgerald, sometimes under
duress.</P>
<P>Novak says in the forthcoming column that he initially refused to reveal his
sources in an October 2003 interview with three FBI officials. He says he
remained reluctant to testify before Fitzgerald, even with the waivers the three
officials had given the prosecutor, but that his lawyer told him he was sure to
lose a costly legal battle and be jailed for contempt of court. Novak says he
testified under subpoena before a grand jury a few weeks later, in February
2004, after reading a statement about his discomfort in discussing confidential
sources.</P>
<P>Novak said he is speaking out now because Fitzgerald notified his attorneys
that the investigation, as it relates to him, has been concluded. There is no
legal prohibition, however, against a witness discussing his own testimony, as
other journalists in the case quickly did.</P>
<P>Novak's role in revealing Plame's CIA employment, which was classified, was
the most controversial of his 49-year career as a Washington reporter. "What was
frustrating," he said, "was that there were a lot of crazy things being said,
that I had taken the Fifth Amendment or I had made a plea bargain. . . . It's
obviously caused me a lot of trouble. If I had it to do all over again, would I
have done it? It's a hard question to answer."</P>
<P>Critics say that Novak helped the administration retaliate against Wilson,
who had become a prominent critic of Bush's conduct in the run-up to the Iraq
war, by revealing that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Novak said yesterday he
does not feel that he was used.</P>
<P>"The primary source was not a political operative," he said, and he mentioned
Plame's role in the middle of a conversation about other subjects. "I don't
believe it was part of a plan to discredit anybody."</P>
<P>A spokesman for Rove, Mark Corallo, said Novak's account of phoning Rove
confirms what the White House strategist has said. "Karl never reached out to
any reporters," Corallo said. "They called him."</P>
<P>Novak said he and Rove had differing recollections of what happened when he
asked about Plame. Novak recalls Rove saying, "Oh, you know that, too?" Rove,
according to Corallo, has said he responded, "I've heard that, too."</P>
<P>Harlow, who declined to comment yesterday, has told The Post that he
challenged aspects of Novak's account three days before the column was published
and warned the columnist that if he did write about Wilson's Niger trip, Plame's
name should not be revealed. Novak said he has a different recollection of the
conversation.</P>
<P>"I certainly wouldn't have used her name if anyone had indicated she might be
in danger," Novak said.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>