And reply he did. Jokingly dubbed "the Prince of Darkness" by friend and foe alike, the fabled Washington columnist and insider unloaded on Harlow, charging that what he had told two Washington Post reporters was flat-out wrong.

"In the course of a front-page story in last Wednesday's Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei quoted ex-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow describing his testimony to the grand jury," Novak wrote.

"In response to my question about Valerie Plame Wilson's role in former Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger, Harlow told me she 'had not authorized the mission.' Harlow was quoted as later saying to me 'the story Novak had related to him was wrong.'

"This gave the impression I ignored an official's statement that I had the facts wrong but wrote it anyway for the sake of publishing the story. That would be inexcusable for any journalist and particularly a veteran of 48 years in Washington. The truth is otherwise, and that is why I feel compelled to write this column."

Novak went on to recall that in his July 14, 2003 column he had asked why the CIA had sent vehement Bush critic Joseph Wilson to probe an Italian intelligence report of Saddam Hussein's attempt to buy uranium yellow cake from Niger.

Wrote Novak, "All the subsequent furor was caused by three sentences in the sixth paragraph:

"'Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA (Harlow) says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.'"

Noting that there never was any question of him talking about Mrs. Wilson "authorizing," Joseph Wilson's African jaunt, he reports that he was told that she "suggested" the mission, which is what he had asked Harlow.

"His denial was contradicted in July 2004 by a unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee report. The report said Wilson's wife 'suggested his name for the trip.' It cited an internal CIA memo from her saying 'my husband has good relations' with officials in Niger and 'lots of French contacts,' adding they 'could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.' A State Department analyst told the committee that Mrs. Wilson 'had the idea' of sending Wilson to Africa."

Novak asked what Harlow had found wrong with his column and was answered "there was nothing incorrect. He told the Post reporters he had 'warned me that if I 'did write about it, her name should not be revealed.' That is meaningless. Once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as 'Valerie Plame' by reading her husband's entry in 'Who's Who in America.'"

Harlow, Novak reported, told the Post that he did not tell the columnist that "Mrs. Wilson" was undercover because that was classified. "What he did say was, as I reported in a previous column, 'she probably never again would be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties.' According to CIA sources, she was brought home from foreign assignments in 1997, when Agency officials feared she had been 'outed' by the traitor Aldrich Ames."

Novak wrote that he would never have written those sentences had Harlow or ex-CIA Director George Tenet or anybody else from the Agency told him that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger herself or anybody else.

"The recent first disclosure of secret grand jury testimony set off a news media feeding frenzy centered on this obscure case," Novak recalled, adding, "Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate committee reported much of what he said 'had no basis in fact.'

"The re-emerged Wilson is now accusing the senators of 'smearing' him. I eagerly await the end of this investigation when I may be able to correct other misinformation about me and the case," Novak concluded.

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