Novak contradicted himself on Senate committee's Niger conclusions

[hang a left]

Novak contradicted himself on Senate committee's Niger conclusions

Syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Robert D. Novak falsely stated in his August 1 column that the Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously contradicted former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's denial that his wife, former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, suggested him for a 2002 mission to Niger. In fact, the bipartisan committee did not reach an official conclusion about how the CIA made the decision to hire Wilson. Moreover, the only contradiction appears to be with Novak himself; in a July 2004 column, he reported that the Democratic committee members had rejected an official conclusion that Plame had suggested Wilson for the fact-finding mission.

In the August 1 column, Novak stated that the "unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee report ... said that Wilson's wife 'suggested him for the trip.'" But in a July 15, 2004, column, Novak clearly recognized that the committee did not reach an official conclusion about how the CIA made the decision to hire Wilson:

Like Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark, the most remarkable aspect of last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is what its Democratic members did not say. They did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. They neither agreed to a conclusion that former diplomat Joseph Wilson was suggested for a mission to Niger by his CIA employee wife nor defended his statements to the contrary.

While the committee report stated that "interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicated that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip," the full committee refrained from approving an official conclusion that she had suggested the mission. In a partisan addendum to the report, committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) wrote that Democrats had specifically opposed including the statement, "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee," in the full committee's report. News reports that appeared both before and after the intelligence committee's 2004 investigation undermined this claim.


snip>

http://mediamatters.org/items/200508010006