Just to start – “Suppose someone from the FDA called Pfizer to tell them that one of their drugs was a serious health risk to anyone taking that drug. Shouldn’t Pfizer decide to either pull the drug ASAP or at least check with their own scientists as to the FDA concern?”

Well, you tell me – does anyone really think that Pfizer will pull a drug on the basis of one phone call? Won’t they expect a follow-up report, meetings, and the like? Boy, tough call.

pgl did offer a second choice – shouldn’t Pfizer check with its own people? Well, Novak had already heard (presumably from Armitage) that Ms. Plame was chairing meetings and the like, and Harlow did not say she was classified. So what’s to check?

And from Harlow’s own account, he argued with Novak about the accuracy of Novak’s stroy, rather than simply saying “No comment, don’t publish that”. Then, Harlow claims he checked Plame’s status and called Novak back, which strongly suggests he was flapping his gums about Plame before he even knew she was classified.

So, HArlow’s job was to be crystal clear that Novak did not publish. Was it his job to hope that Novak would not publish, or guess he wouldn’t, or keep his fingers crossed? No – if Harlow had any doubt about Novak’s intentions, he should have called back.

To partly revive pgl’s useless analogy, if an FDA scientist alerted Pfizer to a safety problem and the Pfizer guy was not responsive, should the FDA guy (a) hang up and await developments, or (b) get his boss involved?

Oh, re this from pgl:

Something tells me that Tom is being his usual half-truth self – but maybe you should fire off a rebuttal to his little attack here.

Sorry to drag others into pgl’s feud with me, but this is the third time now that pgl has accused me of dishonesty – he was 0 for two coming into this, and this does not represent third time lucky.

More from pgl:

but I’m hoping Christy can take down Tom’s attempt at rebuttal more directly (like going over the facts which Tom seems to conveniently forget)

Hey, you’re here pgl, why wait for Christy – remind us of the facts I forgot, unless you don’t know them (but are sure they are out there!).

Let me help – here is Harlow’s version as reported by Walter Pincus:

Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson’s wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

Harlow said that after Novak’s call, he checked Plame’s status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame’s name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.

Oh, well, that doesn’t help pgl much, does it. No worries – maybe Harlow was lying too.

SO tell me – did Harlow do what he had to do to halt Novak? His version and Novak’s are probably both CYA and self-serving – as an objective fact, did Harlow have Tenet call Novak, amd might that have helped if he had?

http://www.bradblog.com

Let’s turn this around. Prior to the NYTimes exposing the classified NSA eavesdropping program and the classified SWIFT bank examinations program, is there ANY evidence at all that Bush or Cheney or other high-level government officials intervened with Keller and the NYTimes in an attempt to halt publication?

Which is why Firedoglake was so vocal in its condemnation of the NYTimes for publishing classfied, highly secret information that damaged national security.

Ahhhh, they did condemn the NYTimes didn’t they? I mean no hypocrites here, right?

oppppps, NEVER MIND.

tee heee heee

Yes, and I’m SURE that neither you or any of your readers would want the investigation politicized!

tee hee hee

Really? Novak made much (both in 2003 and yesterday) of the fact that Harlow did *not* arrange for a high level intervention (e.g., Tenet) with either Novak himself or Novak’s editor.

So let’s frame it as questions:

(1) Is there any evidence at all that Harlow had Tenet or some other high-level CIA official intervene with Novak or his editor to attempt to halt publication? (Hint – No).

(2) Moght Novak, with his vast years in the business, have some past experience where exactly that sort of intervention occurs?

(3) Is such an expectation by Novak (that a high level intervention can be arranged if the CIA is serious) so unreasonable that it should be dismissed out of hand?

Novak said this last night:

NOVAK: At that time I had no idea that she was in any way a covered employee. He’d never said — if he had ever said to me somebody’s life was in danger if you do this, if you got George Tenet come on the phone with me, I would not have written that.

SIDEBAR: Re the idea that Novak is accusing the Newsday guys of shoddy journalism by misquoting him – he made that accusation roughly three years ago (fall 2003, IIRC). *MAYBE* the prosecutor has freed them to speak, but if they have a tape recording, I wouldn’t be holding my breath at this point waiting for it. ((IIRC, they did stand by their story, FWIW).

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/….._plame.php

There was NOTHING secret about SWIFT. EVER.

I knew about SWIFT when I worked in export-import sales throughout the 80’s/early 90’s; every financial transaction between international banks went through SWIFT because it was part of the banking system. Keller did NOT release anything that wasn’t widely known in financial industry related to international banking for decades, that transactions could be traced and documented (jeepers, that’s been standard accounting practice and more so after Sarbanes-Oxley!). Keller only voiced what nearly every American who worked in international business and finance would have expected, that the feds were monitoring and auditing financial movements, although now they were doing it between domestic entities and not only foreign entities. Cripes, even the Mafia wouldn’t ever move dirty money exposed to SWIFT. Hardly secret.

Novak, on the other hand, was an actual accessory to a crime and he had been warned TWICE in terms that anyone with his background should have understood would put him in legal jeopardy. He had NO privileges here since precedent clearly says journalists are obligated to report crime they witness to authorities and not merely report the story as normal work product; Novak was not communicating publicly known information, either, as Harlow has indicated.