Was Armitage the original leaker? Michael Isikoff/Newsweek

[kpete]

Newsweek
By Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff
Sources of Confusion
The Plame drama thickens, as Washington once again tries to guess who Bob Woodward's been talking to

So who is Novak's source—and Woodward's source—and why will his identity take the wind out of the brewing storm? One by one last week, a parade of current and former senior officials, including the CIA's George Tenet and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, denied being the source. A conspicuous exception was former deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage, whose office would only say, "We're not commenting." He was one of a handful of top officials who had access to the information. He is an old source and friend of Woodward's, and he fits Novak's description of his source as "not a partisan gunslinger." Woodward has indicated that he knows the identity of Novak's source, which further suggests his source and Novak's were one and the same.

If Armitage was the original leaker, that undercuts the argument that outing Plame was a plot by the hard-liners in the veep's office to "out" Plame. Armitage was, if anything, a foe of the neocons who did not want to go to war in Iraq. He had no motive to discredit Wilson. On "Larry King Live" last month, Woodward was dismissive of the special prosecutor's investigation, suggesting that the original leak was not the result of a "smear campaign" but rather a "kind of gossip, as chatter... I don't see an underlying crime here."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10117465/site/newsweek/

[pretzel4gore]

1. evans and isikoff are mediawhores for a drunken john

who's credit cards are maxed out....armitage is a stone blooded killer from regan era; he looks like a central casting version of a child molestor

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. No, it was W in the Oval Office

with the secret memmo.

What is this crap, a game of Clue?

[peacetalksforall]

3. Evans and Isikoff - doing their part for the right wing.

They are manipulatoars of the word and agenda of the right wing.

They partner with GE-NBC - they share a role in the right wing family.

My point is - I don't believe anything Newsweek says. I don't care if it is Armitage or not. More likely, they are using Armitage to deflect something.

I do enjoy imagining what it must be like for all of them to try to figure out what the other ones have said to Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury and what all of them will say in the GJ to come.

Do you think their lawyers are talking to each other?

Think Isikoff is ticked that he wasn't contacted? Or was he? How about Evans? It's a wide open game that they all got caught in.

[stray cat]

4. I hope it wasn't Armitage - he's one of the good guys.

[salin]

6. he can only be considered a "good guy" - in relativity to the neocons

in the admin. In the bigger grander scale... not too easy to call him a 'good guy'. Not a clear white hat on that man.

on edit - link - and reminder - armitage was part of the iran-contra fiasco.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Armitage

[UTUSN]

5. 3 P.o.S(s): WOODWARD, THOMAS, ISIKOFF

So why didn't OTHER p.o.s. ISIKOFF challenge WOODWARD on Larry KING Alive, sitting right across the table from him when WOODWARD denied having the "bombshell" ISIKOFF had said he was sitting on.

On yesterday's FauxWatch, the Faux ripoff of Reliable Sources, token Lib Neil GABLER said, "WOODWARD sat on a story for two years when it helped the White HOuse, then came forward with the story when it helped the White House. He's a LACKEY for the White House."

[NNN0LHI]

7. I just don't believe anything from these Bush licker's any more n/t

[Me.]

8. I Think Armitage Talked All Right

To FitzG. Isikoff is correct in that A. despised the neos but his logic is faulty from there and I'm not forgetting that Isikoff and Woodward do not indulge in love fest, Woodward once calling I. a junkyard dog, the same term he used for FitzG. I think Armitage gave some of the leads that led to Rove and Libby for beginners. He was well aware that the neos & WH were trying to set Powell up as the leaker and he wasn't going to let that happen either.