Interesting thing about Novak column.

I was just reading Novak's second column where he outs Brewster- Jennings. This may have been brought up before but the following thought is new to me. Here is the way his article starts off:

<snip>

On the same day in 1999 that retired diplomat Joseph Wilson was returned $1,000 of $2,000 he contributed to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore a month earlier because it exceeded the federal limit, his CIA-employee wife gave $1,000 to Gore using a fictitious identification for herself.

In making her April 22, 1999, contribution, Valerie E. Wilson identified herself as an "analyst" with "Brewster-Jennings & Associates." No such firm is listed anywhere, but the late Brewster Jennings was president of Socony-Vacuum oil company a half-century ago. Any CIA employee working under "non-official cover" always is listed with a real firm, but never an imaginary one.

<snip>

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20031004.shtml

My husband and I thought this was interesting on a couple of levels. First off, my husband was able to locate Brewster-Jennings as a 'real' company within a matter of seconds.

The second thing is what I came up with, and forgive me if this has been spoken before, how on earth would Novak know that it was Valerie Wilson contributing under a 'false'(her maiden) name unless someone told him this is what happened? How many Valerie's contributed to Gore's campaign and how did Novak know this was Wilson's wife? To me there is only one conclusion I can come up with - it was disclosed, to Novak, that this was her covert name and business. Or else Novak would have had to call Valerie to confirm and she would have, no doubt, gotten her agency involved and told Novak to back off. How on earth would he have come up with Valerie Plame donating to the Gore campaign unless he was told this straight out? There is no other way.

For me this is the smoking gun. This says all I need to know to positively state that the Bush administration went after these people.

was the target, and not Wilson or Plame.

you might be surprised at how often significant details like that get lost in the mix. It would certainly be nice if it could be proven that Novak purjured himself in front of the Grand Jury. :^)

I, for one, never heard of all this before and it sounds promising.

"his CIA-employee wife gave $1,000 to Gore using a fictitious identification for herself"

If she was Valerie Wilson in the memo, there is no way unless he was told that he could have connected her fictitious name with her as Joe Wilson's wife.

in making the contribution. He notes the contribution was made under the name Valerie E. Wilson. Where are you getting that he said she contributed under her maiden name?

to a political campaign...plus use her cover? Wouldn't that be announcing to the world? I have a hard time believing this happened as stated. Novak was fed this info. Total smear.

Valerie Plame and listed her employer as Brewster & Jennings. That would be the way to do it because to foreign countries Valerie Plame was an employee of Brewster & Jennings, not Valerie Wilson.

What was not know to other countries was that it was a CIA operation.

"April 22, 1999 – Valerie Wilson lists “Brewster-Jennings & Assoc.”—later revealed to be a CIA front company—as her employer when making a donation to the Gore campaign. ( Gore FEC filing ) http://www.factcheck.org/article337.html

If you click on the link to the FEC filing you will start to download a 66MB pdf file (which I didn't want to do). But I think it will show that she donated under her married name, which she was also using professionally from the time of her marriage.

I think the maiden name/married name thing is pertinent, and that's why I'm being a stickler on it. Why, when official documents list her name as Valerie Wilson--including that State Dept memo--and she has been using that name since 1998, why did Novak out her as Valerie Plame? Why not out her as Valerie Wilson?

standard procedure for CIA agents who are covert. Otherwise, it would lead to questions being asked.

Even if she used her undercover name - which was her maiden name, how would Novak know this Valerie Plame was a.k.a Wilson? It would not be announcing anything to the world since it would be keeping with her cover, but the question here is how did Novak know that Wilson donated using her cover name and business? How would he know that unless someone leaked that?