The cut-to-the-chase question in the new Robert Novak column on his reporting in the CIA leak matter: Does Novak reveal the name of his original source? And the answer is no.

Novak discusses the involvement of Karl Rove and of former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow in the story, but he does not identify the person who first told him about Joseph Wilson’s wife’s role in sending her husband on a CIA mission to Niger. Novak writes that all three sources — Rove, Harlow, and anonymous — signed waivers releasing Novak from pledges of confidentiality. But still, Novak does not reveal the first source’s name:

I have revealed Rove’s name because his attorney has divulged the substance of our conversation, though in a form different from my recollection. I have revealed Harlow’s name because he has publicly disclosed his version of our conversation, which also differs from my recollection. My primary source has not come forward to identify himself.

Not that it was a secret to CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Novak writes that by the time he first met with Fitzgerald in early 2004, Fitzgerald already knew the names of all of Novak’s sources — gleaned from sources other than Novak himself.