Is Robert Novak a Member of Al Qaeda?

Via Josh Marshall comes the latest from Peter Hoekstra:

Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra also suggested some unauthorized leaks could have been deliberate attempts to help al Qaeda. “More frequently than what we would like, we find out that the intelligence community has been penetrated, not necessarily by al Qaeda, but by other nations or organizations,” he said. “I don’t have any evidence. But from my perspective, when you have information that is leaked that is clearly helpful to our enemy, you cannot discount that possibility,” he added.

Unbelivable ! Hoekstra did not mention the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame and her colleagues but I will. Given that these agents were looking into the possibility that Iran might be developing nuclear weapons, how could anyone but so stupid to suggest that this leak did not harm national security – unless they are frequent readers of this or this.

ThinkProgress has the latest on Mr. Novak.

Update: Robert Novak reveals little:

I was interrogated at the Swidler Berlin offices Oct. 7, 2003, by an FBI inspector and two agents. I had not identified my sources to my attorneys, and I told them I would not reveal them to the FBI. I did disclose how Valerie Wilson’s role was reported to me, but the FBI did not press me to disclose my sources.

So before Fitzgerald took over this investigation – the FBI was not asking who Novak’s primary source was?

However, on Jan. 12, two days before my meeting with Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor informed Hamilton that he would be bringing to the Swidler Berlin offices only two waivers. One was by my principal source in the Valerie Wilson column, a source whose name has not yet been revealed. The other was by presidential adviser Karl Rove, whom I interpret as confirming my primary source’s information. In other words, the special prosecutor knew the names of my sources.

And even today, Novak does not disclose the name of his primary source. The rest of his Human Events piece is just Novak posturing and spinning with lines like these:

That Fitzgerald did not indict any of these sources may indicate his conclusion that none of them violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act … Following my interview with the primary source, I sought out the second administration official and the CIA spokesman for confirmation. I learned Valerie Plame’s name from Joe Wilson’s entry in “Who’s Who in America.” I considered his wife’s role in initiating Wilson’s mission, later confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to be a previously undisclosed part of an important news story. I reported it on that basis.

Novak remains the loyal puppet for this Administration.