White House Outs CIA Agent

I've circled around to this being a big deal again. If the CIA thinks its a crime to burn her cover, so do I.

I've been poking around the news sites and found some tantilizing new tidbits of info.

One, apparently Rove was kicked off of the Bush Sr. campaign for using a similiar smear tactic on a rival. So he has a precedent for doing something like this.

Two, the operative in question was managing an overseas intelligence network that monitored attempted black market WMD sales to terrorist networks. That entire operation is now comprimised.

I would suggest everyone read the above paragraph twice, as its fairly imporant.

Whomever leaked this info has put the entire country at risk. This is the worst kind of treason. The responsible party should face a firing squad, not a prison sentence.
 
We don't yet know who leaked it to Novak, but we do know for a fact that Novak broadcast it to the world. He should not escape the consequences of his actions.
 
Anyone here over the age of 25 has seen first hand the kind of minipulation that is being attempted here. Had they been over 35 they would have recognised the poison strains of the imperial presidency under Nixon and the dirty tricks campaign. Why is that whatever end of the spectrum that is in power always try to disimulate the facts and claim that the head executive was "out of the loop" or " protectided by executive privilege" or some such disclaimer that is niether believeable nor true?

Goddamnit have they learned anything since Nixon? Have We?

Someone broke the law. The fact that they served at the pleasure of the President has no bearing. Some bastard outed an operative of the CIA in what looks to be a political payback for utterences to the media by the operative's husbands op-ed piece.

It is against the law.
It is anathema to any professed allegence to this country.
It was not the Journalist who is responciple, it is the source.
Her position (the wife ) has no bearing ( unless you have to define what "is" is )
She held a field operative position and ran agents and operations for years.
She was later an analyst, that her position has any bearing .... see above...all operatives under her pervue ( Humint ) were compromised.

I could go on but its like the old adage : Those who brag about sexual conquests, usually enjoy them the least. The corallery here "Those who shout the loudest about protecting freedom are usually the first to suceed them to the group they identify themselves with.

G.W.Bush "“leaks of classified information are bad things,”
Christ I wish I had this man's clairity of vision to reduce such a complex issue to a nugget o' wisdom.
 
EvilYeti said:
.....the operative in question was managing an overseas intelligence network that monitored attempted black market WMD sales to terrorist networks. That entire operation is now comprimised.
And your re-telling the tale? What is that?

Ah, I know: "This is the worst kind of treason. The responsible party should face a firing squad, not a prison sentence." ER, who say dat?
 
hammegk said:

And your re-telling the tale? What is that

I read it last night, watch for it to hit the news shortly.

Ah, I know: "This is the worst kind of treason. The responsible party should face a firing squad, not a prison sentence." ER, who say dat?

I did, its my opinion. And the federal governments as well, treason can result in the death penalty.
 
hammegk said:

And your re-telling the tale? What is that?

Ah, I know: "This is the worst kind of treason. The responsible party should face a firing squad, not a prison sentence." ER, who say dat?

Have you done your duty as a good citizen, or are you aiding and abetting this, Hammy?
 
hammegk said:
LOL. Now the question is, "Is EvilYeti really that dumb; or that smart?"

He is probably just that fed up with your government. This is another crime (and not a trivial one) committed by administration members that (probably) no-one will be held accountable for. I´d be fed up too.
 
Leak investigation likely to expand
State, Defense departments could be probed, officials say

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — The investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s name is likely to expand to other Bush administration agencies, including the State and Defense departments, U.S. officials said Thursday.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/973047.asp?vts=100220031557

I think the tactic of sliming Wilson for being a "partisan Democrat" is going to backfire. What difference would that make? Would that make outing a CIA agent alright?
By the way he was a contributor to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
 
subgenius said:
I'm going to forgive his mistake, he was rather upset.

Maybe he misheard '13 years' as '30 years'? I'm hard of hearing, and make this mistake a lot.
 
Chaos said:


He is probably just that fed up with your government. This is another crime (and not a trivial one) committed by administration members that (probably) no-one will be held accountable for. I´d be fed up too.

Yeah, something about treason, especially during times of war, just pisses me off.

No worry tho, there will plenty of room on the wall for hammegk too!
 
TillEulenspiegel said:
I could go on but its like the old adage : Those who brag about sexual conquests, usually enjoy them the least. The corollery here "Those who shout the loudest about protecting freedom are usually the first to succeed them to the group they identify themselves with.
My favorite quote on this topic is:
The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Investigators want access to all electronic records, phone logs, documents, diaries or other items related to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, his trip to Niger in 2002 in a search for Iraqi nuclear intelligence, his wife's relationship with the C.I.A., or any contact with the syndicated columnist Robert Novak and two other reporters who wrote about the Wilson case. The Justice Department notified the White House about the demand in a letter on Thursday night, which the White House publicized on Friday.

The keen interest in Mr. Wilson's trip to Africa in February 2002, taken at the request of the C.I.A., which dispatched him to try to verify accusations linking Saddam Hussein to a quest for nuclear weapons, has surprised current and former law enforcement officials. The wide scope of the records request suggested that the Justice Department wanted to establish not only whether any administration officials had disclosed classified information, but also whether White House records could link the motivation for that leak to information related to Mr. Wilson's African mission.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/politics/04LEAK.html?th

The White House has given itself until Tuesday to respond. We're going to have a better weekend than a lot of WH staffers.
Maybe the documents request was broadened, because where do you look for documents of an event you say didn't happen?
 
I think the fact that he is a partisan colors the interpretation of his comments. His partisanship has ne bearing on his wife's outing, but it does help us understand why he was so determined to implicate Karl Rove with exactly zero evidence.
 
Crackmonkey,

Are you SURE he had exactly zero evidence?

His wife works for the CIA you know.

Perhaps she has evidence they aren't sharing with the American people?

Evidence that British operatives believe? huh huh?

Get it?



Oh never mind.

I think it's likely that the word got back to Wilson that it was Rove, but those whisperers dried up once justice got involved. That tends to happen when a firing squad is commissioned.
 
crackmonkey said:
I think the fact that he is a partisan colors the interpretation of his comments. His partisanship has ne bearing on his wife's outing, but it does help us understand why he was so determined to implicate Karl Rove with exactly zero evidence.
Could say anyone is partisan, does that make it untrue?
He wasn't so partisan when the CIA sent him to Niger. He wasn't so partisan when George H.W. Bush called him a hero.
He has backed off his claim about Rove. I suspect that he, like all of us don't care who it was as long as they get what's coming to them.
Was Novak lying, or do you suspect that two senior administration officials named his wife?
 
He admitted he had zero evidence about Rove being involved. I have no idea whatsoever about any of this. I have nothing to base any suspicion upon. Rove is as likely as anyone else to be behind this apparent crime, but then again it may be an invention of Novak. Neither angle makes much sense to me; if White House personnel were behind this, trying to get the press to print her name, it is ludicrous to think that it wouldn't get out that they were doing so. What's the bigger story - an ambassador's wife whoworks for the CIA, or that the White House is trying to out a spy? Even if the WHite House personnel were trying to cast doubt on the ambassador's story, didn't they realize that their underhanded tactics would undermine their side an order of magnitude more than the Niger story ever could? If this was a White House leak, it reeks to me of naivete... I can't imagine anyone who has any experience dealing with the press would be behind this. Then again, stranger things have happened...
Novak may have invented this, but I see no motive for him doing so.
I just don't know. It is ugly, though, and the culprits need to be found and punished. Even if it turns out that this isn't technically a crime, the people behind this need to be run out of town on a rail. Even if it's Rove, or Rumsfeld, or Cheney. Or Bush.
 
Bush calls leak a criminal act:

" WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said he hoped that the FBI -led criminal probe into who leaked a CIA agent's identity would help plug other unauthorized disclosures to reporters.

"This is a serious charge, by the way. We're talking about a criminal action. But also hopefully we'll help send a clear signal we expect other leaks to stop as well," he said. "
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...l_afp/us_cia_iraq_bush_031006181645&printer=1

Good for him.
 

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