Robert Novak and the Perfect Stranger

There is more to Novak's story that meets the eye...


By his own admission, syndicated columnist Robert Novak broke the news that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA to a perfect stranger on July 8th, 2003, the same day he spoke to Richard Armitage and Karl Rove about Plame.

In an effort to fill in some gaps in the narrative of the three-year-old CIA leak case, Truthout has tracked down the person who may help provide some clues and help answer that question: the "stranger" who was told by Novak on July 8, 2003, that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA - six days before Novak's infamous column that unmasked Plame was published.
This is the first time the man who met Novak on the street has spoken out publicly about his interaction with Novak three years ago. He was interviewed by Truthout several times over the past two months and has requested anonymity for fear of retribution for disclosing his role in the leak investigation. Truthout has confirmed the man's identity with former Ambassador Wilson. He is a former magazine publisher, and currently works as a consultant, mainly with private businesses helping local governments improve their infrastructure - such as building pipelines to improve water flow in one municipality. The man no longer lives in Washington, DC.
He said it was around 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, July 8, 2003, when he spotted Novak walking toward Pennsylvania Avenue. The man, who was somewhat star-struck, approached the longtime political columnist and asked if he could walk with him.
The man was headed to a meeting. He worked in the private sector and was not involved in Washington politics. He quickly struck up a conversation about politics with Novak and asked the columnist for his opinion about the mea culpa White House officials had made a day earlier about the infamous "16 words" in President Bush's State of the Union address claiming Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger.
"They should have come out with that months ago because they knew it wasn't true," Novak told the man.
The man then asked Novak what his thoughts were about former ambassador Wilson. Novak stopped dead in his tracks, looked directly at the man he had just met and said pointedly, "Wilson is an asshole. Let me tell you what really happened. His wife works for the CIA as a weapons of mass destruction specialist and she sent him."
When Novak launched into his attack on Wilson and disclosed the ambassador's wife's employment with the CIA, the man was left somewhat speechless, he said. more...