Novak refutes Rove

This just in from Americablog. Shortly after Novak published the story that exposed Valerie Plame, he had this to say about his source.

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

As Americablog points out, somebody is lying or there are three treasonous leakers in the White House inner circle. Either way it's difficult to believe that three different people would simultaneously decide to out Plame. There had to be a mastermind and one doubts a single CIA agent or even Wilson was really the target of their spite.

The evidence, such as it is, strongly suggests this was part of a larger campaign to intimidate and discredit all critics of the White House's efforts to "fix the intelligence" around their push for war. Remember the Downing St. Minutes were originally authored almost a year earlier and skepticism about the WMD claims was growing at the time Plame was betrayed.