The "Crime"

clipped from townhall.com Wilson became an instant hero to critics of the Iraq war in the mainstream media. The impression was widespread that the Bush administration-- specifically Vice-President Dick Cheney-- had sent him to Niger and then rejected his report. This was news to officials of the Bush administration, who scrambled to find out who this man was and who sent him to Niger. Among those scrambling to find out was Scooter Libby. What Libby and others discovered was that Wilson had been sent by the CIA, on the recommendation of his wife, Valerie Plame. In reality, Robert Novak got his information from Richard Armitage, not Scooter Libby. Moreover, Novak was a critic of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, so he was very unlikely to be part of a plot to retaliate against Wilson. Neither Novak nor Armitage nor anybody else was prosecuted for revealing Valerie Plame's name, for it was no crime.