The Outting of CIA Agent Is Unwinding

[Annie]

Lots of embedded links:

http://instapundit.com/archives/016518.php


excerpt:

JAMES TARANTO has a Plame/Wilson roundup in which he notes that yet another manufactured scandal appears to have evaporated. He also says that there was probably no law violation here, making this already weak scandal even weaker.

 

[NATO AIR]

interesting about wilson

i still disagree with "accidentally" exposing her identity, even in the name of proving wilson was a hack (which i think he is). if she was a field agent in 98, people she dealt with could be in danger now. hell, if she was a field agent in 78, people could be in danger now. but as screwed up as the CIA is right now, nothing surprises me.

 

[DKSuddeth]

how does one 'accidentally' divulge a name to a reporter?

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
how does one 'accidentally' divulge a name to a reporter?

Here's what I'm finding:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/

The Post explains that the report also undermines Wilson's Bush-bashing claims about Saddam's innocence vis-à-vis Niger. But we'd like to concentrate on the Plame matter, since we wrote about it extensively last year. Here's the Post:

The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.

Plame's role could be significant in an ongoing investigation into whether a crime was committed when her name and employment were disclosed to reporters last summer.

Administration officials told columnist Robert D. Novak then that Wilson, a partisan critic of Bush's foreign policy, was sent to Niger at the suggestion of Plame, who worked in the nonproliferation unit at CIA. The disclosure of Plame's identity, which was classified, led to an investigation into who leaked her name.

The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.

 

[DKSuddeth]

I see, another testament of word games, context, and perspective. I'm almost looking forward to the revolution so we can kill, once and for all, the idea that the letter of the law, not the spirit, is the one to follow.

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I see, another testament of word games, context, and perspective. I'm almost looking forward to the revolution so we can kill, once and for all, the idea that the letter of the law, not the spirit, is the one to follow.

Interesting DK. I tend to agree with you on that, but has to work across the board.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Originally posted by Kathianne
Interesting DK. I tend to agree with you on that, but has to work across the board.

Absolutely.