The Malevolent Ignorance of Robert Novak
By Larry Johnson on December 24, 2007 at 1:32 PM in Current Affairs
When Forrest Gump, aspiring shrimp boat captain, was asked, “Are you stupid or something?” He replied, “Stupid is as stupid does.” So what is Bob Novak’s excuse? Stupidity seems too simple an explanation. I wonder how many people will be required to pull Novak’s fat head out of his ass. It is obviously lodged in a deep, dark place.
His latest column, Subverting Bush at Langley, is one of the most ignorant, error-ridden diatribes I have read in quite sometime. How can he even be considered a credible journalist? Oh wait, never mind, he’s commenting at Fox News. Answered my own question.
Consider these nonsensical assertions from today’s piece:
. . . but the Republicans stand alone in protesting the CIA’s defiant undermining of President Bush. In its clean bill of health for Iran on nuclear weapons development, the agency acted as an independent policymaker rather than an adviser.
Now I can understand the average American living in Hooverville not knowing (or caring) about the difference between the CIA, the NIC, and the DNI. But Novak purports to be an informed commentator. He does not understand even basic points. For starters, the CIA did not write nor promulgate the National Intelligence Estimate, Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities. Check out the cover of the NIE. It bears the logo of the Director of National Intelligence. I defy anyone to spy the emblem of the CIA or the signature of the Director of the CIA in this document. The CIA now is but one member of the intelligence community and no longer has management responsibility for the National Intelligence Council and its work on National Estimates.
I guess Novak was too busy to read this paragraph from the intro:
The NIEs are typically requested by senior civilian and military policymakers, Congressional leaders and at times are initiated by the National Intelligence Council NIC). Before a NIE is drafted, the relevant NIO is responsible for producing a concept paper or terms of reference (TOR) and circulates it throughout the Intelligence Community for comment. The TOR defines the key estimative questions, determines drafting responsibilities, and sets the drafting and publication schedule. One or more IC analysts are usually assigned to produce the initial text. The NIC then meets to critique the draft before it is circulated to the broader IC. Representatives from the relevant IC agencies meet to hone and coordinate line-by-line the full text of the NIE. Working with their Agencies, reps also assign the level of confidence they have in each key judgment. IC reps discuss the quality of sources with collectors, and the National Clandestine Service vets the sources used to ensure the draft does not include any that have been recalled or otherwise seriously questioned.
Novak then launches this zinger:
It [the CIA] has withheld from nearly all members of Congress information on the Israeli bombing of Syria in September. The U.S. intelligence community is deciding on its own what information the public shall learn.
It is enough to make Billy Graham curse the name of God. Here are some relevant facts. The CIA does not control signal intelligence/intercepts. That falls under the bailiwick of the National Security Agency (NSA). If info about the Israeli bombing existed there is nothing the CIA can do to prevent Congress from getting access to that intelligence.
How about satellite photographs of the bombed site? That too no longer is under CIA control. The National Photographic Interpretation Center has been renamed and moved:
The National Photographic Interpretation Center, whose functions have since been absorbed into the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), was formerly a component of the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T). NPIC produced imagery interpretation reports, briefing boards, videotapes for national-level consumers, and provided support for the military. NPIC employed some 1,200 image interpreters and archivists.
So if pictures of the bombing existed it is not up to the CIA to produce them or turn them over (unless we have succeeded in stealing what the Israelis have). Stealing secrets from other countries is something the CIA’s National Clandestine Service is supposed to do.
But CIA is not the only game in town. What about the Defense Intelligence Agency aka DIA. What have they said about the bombing in Syria? Apparently nothing!!! I am told be friends still on the inside that there is no information to tell. A very strange situation, but this is not under the control of the CIA. Plus, the mystery about what Israel did in Syria is a blog post for another day.
Not content to simply pass on false, erroneous reports, Bob “the Traitor” Novak feels compelled to slander a retired intelligence officer. Once again he surfaces the charge that the CIA has nothing but contempt for President Bush (Jesus, please make it so). And he insists this contempt:
was demonstrated during his 2004 reelection campaign when a senior intelligence officer, Paul R. Pillar, made off-the-record speeches around the country criticizing the invasion of Iraq. On Sept. 24, 2004, three days before my column exposed Pillar’s activity, former representative Porter Goss arrived at Langley as Bush’s handpicked director of central intelligence.
Novak’s unwarranted animus towards Paul Pillar is exceeded only by his hatred of Valerie Plame. Like Valerie, Paul is a true professional. Oh, and by the way, Paul left the CIA a couple of years back. He’s not in a position to pull strings back at “headquarters.” To describe him as a political partisan would be akin to labeling Mahatma Ghandi as a gaudy dresser. Paul is low key, cerebral, and very professional. His only sin was to accuse the Bush Admininstration (per the Washington Post):
of “cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Damn it man! When are you going to learn that telling the truth will get you in to trouble? Pillar obviously never took the time to read Hans Christian Andersen‘, The Emperor’s New Clothes. He would have learned that the path to happiness and acceptance is to just tell the naked President that he’s wearing a splendid tux. Do that and all is forgiven.
Here’s the truth–not a shred of evidence has been produced by Bob Novak to support his groundless accusation that Pillar leaked information to the press about the NIE or any other matter. And oh, by the way, Pillar was working at the National Intelligence Council in 2004, not the CIA. Got it Bob?
It is clear that disgruntled congressional Republicans, such as Rep. Peter Hoekstra, are primary sources for Novak’s garbage reporting. I am not sure which is worse–an ignorant member of Congress or a hack journalist. It is troubling that someone of Hoekstra’s experience displays such a profound ignorance about the organization and duties of various parts of the intelligence community. Hoekstra apparently still does not realize that the CIA does not write National Intelligence Estimates. I guess his apparent inability to grasp something that simple accounts for his failure to conduct effective of oversight of the Intelligence Community when he chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
But even if Hoekstra is an idiot, Novak should know better. I realize that journalists are not inclined to police themselves of miscreants like Novak. Even if his demonstrated stupidity tends to reflect on others in the profession. Perhaps the problem lies with his “sources.” If Novak’s scribblings are based on Hoekstra, then he has some excuse for shoddy work. But it is still incumbent on Novak–a thickheaded scribe blinded by partisan rage–to get basic facts right. From his perch as a columnist he can blithely mislead many unwitting Americans, who tend to presume that Novak is a smart guy and knows what he is talking about. He’s neither.
So if you are still searching for a last minute Christmas gift consider this–give your nearest and dearest a tip. Tell them Bob Novak is a fraud masquerading as a journalist. In fact, when it comes to people who have damaged America’s national security, it is tough to find someone who has caused more harm than Bob Novak. Hope he gets coal in his stocking tonight.
Well said, Larry. The reality-based world has taken to calling him Bob No Facts, and (as you aptly demonstrate) for good reason.
you beat me to it. evans and novak, aka, “errors & no facts.”
ps. he is good in the sense of knowing what certain rethugs are thinking. as for adhering to journalism’s standards…not so much.
I can’t help but wonder, how did Novak skate away scott free from the outing of Plame? I mean he’s the one who printed it KNOWING who she was. EVEN if he thought she wasn’t covert, wouldn’t it be at least polite not to print the names of our spies for their own and their families safety? I’m no rocket scientist but damn, get a clue old man! Common sense….
Someone should print his Home Address , cell number, home phone and SS # and drivers license number in the washington post and see how he likes the shoe on the other foot. he should at least known ( as an adult) that that was way out of line. But then it all defaults back to my party right or wrong doesn’t it?
He is a disgrace as a Republican, American and mostly as a man.
Larry, you might hope he gets coal in his stocking. I hope he gets taken up by the Ghost of Christmas Future and never brought back.
Larry, I think you went way to far trying to give Novak the benefit of the doubt. This piece of shit has shown time and time again he is nothing but a lying shill for the neoconic agenda. I don’t think there is a lie “too big” for him to write in the service of his masters.
Novak. Opus Dei. An Italian journalist almost assassinated by Bernie Kerick’s Baghdad security.(h/tCentrocitta)
Centro’s conclusion on a prior NQ thread that the rendition was to cover up our using someone to recruit potential terrorists. Italy was getting ready to press charges and suddenly a journalist gets kidnapped in Baghdad.
Italian Secret Service man is killed.
Were we recruiting persons via a cell in Europe? Did any of those persons take train rides?
How easily we could peak the headlines for terror, justify unitary measures, by getting word out through someone who had the confidence to be valued as a recruiter…
as for Novak, he should be doing time, the coal should be burning him.
Novak writes:
“Intelligence agencies, from Nazi Germany to present-day Pakistan, for better or for ill, have tended to break away from their governments.”
From what I can tell, more than anything else, Schmitt and Shulsky’s 98 essay, “Leo Strauss and the World of Intelligence (By which we do not mean Nous)”, represents an attempt to break away from the government, in particular the Anglo-American tradition of US strategic intel as established by the methodology of Sherman Kent.
The most recent NIE, one hopes, represents the end of the Straussian approach.
Novak writes:
“It [CIA] has withheld from nearly all members of Congress information on the Israeli bombing of Syria in September.”
According to WaPo, it was Stephen J. Hadley who withheld info from the US intel community about the Israeli bombing of Syria.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202430.html?sub=AR
Key quote:
“The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena.”
Also Col. Lang had a thread re: Hadley at sst back in Sept.07:
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2007/09/hadley-blocked-.html
Well done, Mr. Smith.
Oh dear, Bob’s gotten into the Christmas Twinkies and Ding Dongs again, it’s not so much the sugar-high logic he uses but that he may gain the shelf life of a Twinkie.
Now that’s what I am ashamed of.
You know, this op-ed and a recent WaPo session with Novak are causing me to wonder if he’s not on a slide into senility. It’s one thing to be a right-wing shill, but this degree of detachment from reality may need another explanation.
Novak could be the very definition of a Senior Moment, but that would not disqualify his commentary in the eyes of True Believers, at least not until he gets so absent-minded he forgets which side he’s on.
Thanks Larry that cloven footed SOB is someone I’d like to see get the Heimlich by Larry “Wide Stance” Craig. As for “Docu Dump” Hoekstra, he’s a nutjob.
[…] See also Larry Johnson at No Quarter. […]
Larry, I think that your distaste for Novak caused you to skip over a few interesting tidbits from the column. Much worse than getting the organizational details wrong is Novak’s interesting take on intelligence vs. policy:
Excuse me, Mr.
MagooNovak, but “policy” is what you *do* with intelligence, unless, of course, you are in the habit of “fixing the intelligence around the policy.”Then there is this gem:
Since when does the CIA, DNI, NIC, or any other part of the alphabet soup decide what “the public” learns? I assume he really means “the government”, but I’m not sure it is good for my mental health to try to get too far inside his “brain”.
Larry,
you need to add the gop prez contender huckabee to the list of ignorant.
huckabee was on cnn saying the nie was a conflict of intel between dod and cia. duh, also huckabee and his ‘advisors’ also apparently like novak didn’t read the nie’s intro.
Was it not the “he who shall not be mentioned” VP, that suppressed for more than a year ‘what “the public” learns?’ I givem’ coal but they already own all of it.
On the ticker “Grange on CNN” “you can’t kill everybody” all due respect WTF?!
Iran wants to hold Ambassador level meetings regarding Iraq. Think Bush can be held over the Saudi barrel?
I seem to remember taking an oath to support and defend the Constitution. That, I believe, was for “better,” prinicipally because I owed my loyalty to my fellow citizens It was the various Nazi intelligence services that took that personal oaths of loyalty to Hitler. I consider those to be for “ill,” but apparently Novak and I disagree on this point.
I’m not quite sure who Novak is loyal to. He must’ve been terribly offended at being left out of the movie “Idiocracy.”
It was Hoekstra who inspired Novack’s fellow slack-jawed idiot Joe Klein to write that insane column about the FISA revisions Congress has been considering. Emptywheel observed after that one:
It’s beyond amazing that Hoekstra has so much influence over these simpletons. Oh, wait, he’s one of them!
Hoekstra reminds me somewhat of a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee that dropped in unexpectedly at the embassy in Beirut circa 1983. That esteemed congressman advised the Charge (the Ambassador was mercifully out of the country at the time) that the reason he was visiting Lebanon was “because it is the last remaining Christian country in the Middle East besides Israel.” Fortunately, the Charge had considerable poker as well as diplomatic skills and kept a straight face. I could not. I excused myself for an ostensible call of nature, went back to my office and laughed myself back into composure.
laughed myself back to composure.
priceless.
No-Facts’ ignorance, sloppy reporting, and status as a shill for the far right and a proponent of wingnut fantasies has been known for decades. He is, after all, someone who still contends that Pearl Harbor was FDR’s idea, that Social Security was Stalin’s creation, and Joe McCarthy was a great American. He also relied for years on the traitor Robert Hanssen as his inside source. Thank God for John Stewart for exposing this fraud, setting motion his losing the cash cows (Crossfire, The Capital Gang)he had at CNN.
To me, what is fascinating about the attacks by No-Facts and his fellow members of the Paranoid Right on the CIA as being an out-of-control operation that is a threat to America’s best interests is that this exactly the image of the CIA that for decades had been peddled by the Paranoid Right and mocked by No-Facts and his ilk.
i admit i skipped over r. novak’s quotes/writings in reading your article larry. otherwise if i read nofacts “knowledge”, i would be a dumber person today.
nevertheless, thank you for your continued analysis. i hope you have a merry christmas and a happy new year. happy holidays!
While an extraordinarily low-level Congressional droid in the 70’s I met Novak, twice. I was not impressed with him, except for an appreciation of the extent of his malevolent narcissism.
How great is he?
Just ask him; he’ll tell you. At length.
We can probably expect his career to resurge with Sam Zell’s acquisition of a bully pulpit; too bad it’ll also mean the death of another LA paper as a legitimate news outlet.
Looks like Sam had to put the money some where before the end of the year. This would not have anythingthing to do with FCC rulings recently?
.
http://www.contentbridges.com/2007/11/think-of-fcc-ch.html
Political patronage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Zell
December 20, 2007
http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/12/sam-zell.html
February 8th, 2007
People with extreme view, a demographic that includes all of our sitting administration and many “middle” Americans — including my brother in law — tend to isolate and insulate themselves from information that challenges their views, because there’s just too much of that for comfort.
Soon, they are only watching Faux, and only listening to Limbaugh. These sources make enough sense of their views that, if you don’t think much anyway, you begin to see the sense they make. Such views are at least comforting, because the seductive simplicity of us-or-them is a handy antidote to the real world’s increasingly toxic complexity.
After one makes such a faustian bargain, trading common sense for the security of Rightness, and someone like Hoekstra tells you something you basically already know, as that anyone not supporting the Fantasy Presidency is supporting Al Qaeda, you don’t even need to check such an obvious fact before putting it in a column.
Ask Michelle Malkin, Ms. Righteous Vitriol herself.
It’s hard to take Novak seriously, something about that cheshire cat smile & those larger than movie star teeth…
And the cat wags its’ tail when its angry, I recall.
Why does anyone still take the hacktakular Novak seriously? WaPo are you listening…just asking. Sigh.
Nevermind that Bush supports the NIE’s conclusions, even as he continues to lie about Iran’s WMD capabilities or lack of.
I mean, what’s it going to take? Novak is a hack, a liar, and a traitor. Yet he’s still treated as a serious pundit by all the serious people in DC!?
Thanks for the details, Larry.
WaPo should have NoFacts in the entertainment section, because real facts can get in the way of telling a good story. ‘Good’ as defined by the Rovian wingnuts, of course.
BTW, will we ever know the truth about the Israeli bombing in Syria?
Sy Hersh as an article coming out. Should help clarify some things.
GR3, maybe I will uncover the truth when I visit Syria in April - probably not, though.
I do not believe for one nanosecond the Israeli story that they bombed a nuclear facility, nor will I ever believe it absent some real, actual evidence, which I promise will not be forthcoming because it just doesn’t exist.
Shirin: maybe I will uncover the truth when I visit Syria in April
Are you going to try to visit the site? As of the October 24 satellite picture, two or three of the buildings around the former big one were still there. Even if they don’t contain truth, there might be some useful insight to be gained.
That isn’t on my agenda, but I will be there for a month, and I have left a lot of my schedule open, so i will see.