Bob Novak seens to want to set the record straight about the mini-brouhaha that has erupted about his column that supposedly leaked the name of a CIA operative.

"Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

"Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson's involvement in the mission for her husband -- he is a former Clinton administration official -- they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.

"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives."

There is a big difference between an analyst and a covert agent. I've seen several reports that refer to her as an agent thus implying that her life would be in danger because her name was revealed. This is obviously not the case.