Richard Armitage Said to be Novak's Plame Source

A former colleague says Richard Armitage was Bob Novak's primary source for Valerie Plame's CIA/Joe Wilson connections. Armitage, who at the time was Undersecretary of State (Colin Powell's assistant), leaked the information in an attempt to discredit her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson. The entire story is somewhat complicated and lengthy so we won't delve into all of it again. There are many sources on the internet for information.

Novak received this information then got confirmation from Karl Rove. Before publishing the fact she worked for the CIA he failed to ascertain her status with the Agency. This resulted in her undercover work investigating weapons of mass destruction (including Iran's program) being completely negated and compromised. Why wouldn't any sane person think to discover what her status was prior to blowing her cover? If I found out someone worked for a spy agency I'd automatically think to check this first. After all the law, ethics, national security and human decency demand such accountability. Rather than simply publishing her identity before checking to see if doing so would compromise national security is, itself, a violation of national security.

Richard Arbitage, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby all compromised our national security by revealing her identity. Novak did so by not using common sense to insure he wasn't indentifying an undercover agent. All of this was done to advance a political agenda. Wilson has exposed Bush's reasons for invading Iraq as lies. Something had to be done to discredit him and this is what they chose. Shame. Presidents have been impeached for less. Much less.