Bob Novak, Tarnished Legacy [Updated]

There was a time when Bob Novak was a decent journalist. But he died today discredited and shamed. His tawdry deed was his role in exposing the identity of a covert CIA officer, Valerie Plame Wilson. I knew Bob Novak on a personal basis. I appeared several times on CrossFire, the old CNN program that Novak co-hosted with Bill Press. I spoke at a DEA conference on drugs and terrorism in December 2001 that was chaired by Novak.

The main panel of the symposium, chaired by media bigfoot Bob Novak, also included Ret. Gen. Jose Rosso Serrano of the Colombian National Police, Larry Johnson of Berg Associates, a consulting groups whose web site lists its twin tasks as providing business security and fighting organized crime; Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA) president Stephen Pasierb and Brian Dyak of the Entertainment Industries council. Pasierb and the PDFA took the occasion to announce that, according to their polls, the drug-terror link would serve as a valuable tool in deterring drug use among young people.

There was a time that I liked Novak but I came to despise him because he decided to play politics with the lives of intelligence officers and their assets. Novak knew better.

He was not some young cub reporter chasing a story. He had been in Washington long enough to understand how cover works. When Bill Harlow, chief of Public Affairs for CIA, pleaded with him not to publish Valerie’s name Novak decided to act stupidly and cowardly. He committed an act of treason in a time of war.

Novak could have rectified this problem. A simple, sincere apology would have been a step in the right direction. There is no justification whatsoever for exposing the identity of an undercover CIA officer. But Novak was too proud to do that.

So karma is a bitch. I look at it this way–Novak decided not to use his brain when he helped expose Valerie’s name and he died from brain cancer. I call it poetic justice. Just my opinion.

UPDATE–I’m traveling today and trying to post tidbits while in between airports. I heard Bill Sammon of Fox News push the nonsense that the only reason Valerie’s name was mentioned is because she sent her husband to Niger and the Bush Administration was just defending itself against false charges.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Fox is just as bad as MSNBC, CNN and all of the other opinionaters who are pretend journalists. Here are the facts, as established in court records:

1. Valerie did not send Joe. Valerie did not have the authority to send Joe. Valerie’s boss at CIA asked for Joe. Valerie simply relayed her boss’s request to Joe.

2. Sending a former Ambassador like Joe Wilson on missions like this is something the CIA, at least back then, routinely did. Joe was uniquely qualified for the mission. He had been the acting Ambassador in Iraq and had dealt with the uranium issue while in that position. He had been the NSC official in charge of Africa and he had served as a Foreign Service Officer in Niger. This was not nepotism. Nepotism is putting Dick Cheney’s daughter in a job at State Department. That is nepotism.

3. Joe was right. There was not Iraqi effort to buy uranium. Frigging Saddam was too busy working on his novel and trying to bluff all of his neighbors into thinking that he had chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Joe earned the ire of the White House because he dared to tell the truth and expose the lies.

4. Finally, not even George W. Bush would pardon Scooter “the Liar” Libby. A recent Newsweek story reported that Bush asked one of the White House lawyers, “Did Scooter lie?” “YES” replied the lawyer. Even Bush, albeit belatedly, finally acknowledge that the little weasel Libby, acting on behalf of Dick Cheney, lied about his role in the plot to destroy Joe Wilson by going after Valerie Plame.

Novak’s refusal to apologize is a stark reminder that the man is a lowlife and coward. Good riddance.