Get it straight Hamster ...

on July 14, 2003, Novak exposed the fact that Wilson??s wife, Valerie Plame, worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, an outing of a covert officer that has sparked a two-year investigation into whether Bush administration officials violated legal prohibitions against disclosing the identity of a CIA officer.

Novak has refused publicly to answer questions about his role in the case ?? including what he may have told a federal grand jury about his administration sources ?? but he penned the Aug. 1 column to challenge former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow for claiming that he warned Novak about the potential danger in naming Plame.

Assault on Wilson

Novak??s column also resumed the Right??s long-running assault on Wilson??s credibility. Near the end of the column, Novak wrote that ??Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate [intelligence] committee reported that much of what he [Wilson] said ??had no basis in fact.???

However, Novak??s sentence appears to be wrong on both its points. The Senate Intelligence Committee did not conclude that Wilson??s statements about the Iraqi intelligence ??had no basis in fact.? That was a phrase that Novak culled from ??additional views? of three Republican senators.

The full committee refused to accept that opinion written by Sen. Pat Roberts and backed by two other conservative Republicans ?? Christopher Bond and Orrin Hatch ?? yet Novak left the impression that the phrase was part of what he called ??a unanimous Senate intelligence committee report? released in July 2004.

The other part of Novak??s attack on Wilson ?? about his supposed repudiation by Sen. John Kerry??s Democratic campaign ?? can be traced back to a story by Talon News?? former White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert.

Guckert you remember him....Bush's gay lover...