When columnist Robert Novak died last August, nearly every obituary led with the fact that he identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in a 2003 column -- touching off a federal investigation that ultimately led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.
But that was not the first time Novak came under federal scrutiny for leaked classified information, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Previously secret FBI files the Post obtained under a open-records request after Novak’s death reveal the bureau tried to find the source of two columns written by Novak and his partner Rowland Evans in 1983 and 1987, and for classified information Novak disclosed in a 1983 taping of the TV show “The McLaughlin Group.”
“Although agents conducted interviews, reviewed appointment calendars, requested polygraph tests and even considered using an administrative subpoena to obtain phone records, they apparently were ultimately unable to confirm the identify of any of the sources,” Post staff writer Joe Stephens reported in the story, posted on the newspaper’s Web site.
Novak’s FBI file dates back to August 1983, the Post reported, “when FBI Director William H. Webster sent a memo labeled
‘SECRET’ to the bureau's Washington field office, alleging that a May 16, 1983, column by Novak and Evans included what the FBI termed a UDIC -- an Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information.”
The column disclosed information from a telegram from Secretary of State George Schultz to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens informing him that the U.S. had approved technology transfer licenses allowing the development of military aircraft -- and suggesting that the approval was made in exchange for Israel's agreement to remove troops from Lebanon.
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