Wilson: I did object to Novak outing wife

Ambassador Joe Wilson said he objected to columnist Robert Novak naming his wife as a CIA operative even before Novak wrote a 2003 column that later launched a federal investigation.

{mosads}He added that Novak is lying or being disingenuous by saying that he, Wilson, did not forcefully object to the naming of his wife as a CIA operative.

“I hope he’s going to confession, because otherwise he’s going to hell,” Wilson said.

During a seminar about unnamed sources at a journalism conference Saturday, Novak said Wilson had not forcefully objected to the idea that his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, would be named.

“He was not terribly exercised about it,” Novak said Saturday.

Wilson said that is not true, stressing that he had begun seeking out Novak even before he knew there was a column. He said he had heard from a friend that Novak was telling people in random encounters that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA.

He said he left a message for Novak, who then called him back.

“I said, ‘What the f—k are you doing? You’re walking around Washington blurting stuff out about my wife to people you don’t even know,’ ” Wilson said.

It was only after that that Novak turned to the business of his column, Wilson said.

“He said, ‘Can you confirm or deny that your wife works for the agency?’ ” Wilson recalled. “I said, ‘I’m not going to answer any question about my wife.’ I told him, ‘It’s not about my wife, or even me. It’s about this administration.’ ”

Wilson said procedure for dealing with inquires about his wife’s CIA status was not to get into a discussion about it, because that could inadvertently disclose improper information. After the call, Wilson said, his wife immediately alerted the CIA. Wilson said a CIA spokesman twice told Novak that she should not be named.

Wilson said that the account of how he handled the Novak call is in the book that Wilson wrote about the episode, The Politics of Truth. Similarly, Novak said his account is in his book, The Prince of Darkness. Wilson said he has not read Novak’s book, but had never heard Novak claim that Wilson did not object to the naming of his wife.

Wilson had gone to Niger to assist the CIA in checking on a report that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein had sought to buy nuclear components. He later went public with claims that he found no such evidence, but the Bush administration continued to make the assertion.

Novak wrote a column that named Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative to indicate it was she, not the Bush administration, who pushed for him to make the trip.