I agree with Phil in the above post. If you do a search - we both contacted the Silver Elite line and both got the same answer.

The bottom line is, according to NWA Silver Line, any flight, regardless of whom it was ticketed on and what fare basis you paid, so long as its eligible to earn miles from Northwest, will earn Elite Qualifying Miles, if it a a Northwest OPERATED flight.

This means that certain wholesaler fares and industry fares will not earn EQMs or regular miles, but any fare that is eligible to earn NW miles will earn NW EQMs so long as it's operated by Northwest Airlines.