Hi Tico:
Whether you like it or not, Plame was an undercover operative and denying the obvious won't change that. From Bush down, that's an admitted fact. That's the reason behind all the fuss. The disclosure of a covert agent either still acting as such or not is not only a potential crime but it also damaging to the national security of America, something one would think you would find important. It also puts in jeopardy all the people related to the covert operations whether wittingly or not. And not least it lets other people and country know what we know, something even a casual person would understand. But apparently your eagerness to your man blinds you to all of that.
On the subject of Plame's job:
The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday.
After the name of the company (Brewster-Jennings & Associates) was broadcast yesterday, administration officials confirmed that it was a CIA front. They said the obscure and possibly defunct firm was listed as Plame's employer on her W-2 tax forms in 1999 when she was working undercover for the CIA. Plame's name was first published July 14 in a newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that quoted two senior administration officials. They were critical of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his handling of a CIA mission that undercut President Bush's claim that Iraq had sought uranium from the African nation of Niger for possible use in developing nuclear weapons.
The Justice Department began a formal criminal investigation of the leak Sept. 26.
The inadvertent disclosure of the name of a business affiliated with the CIA underscores the potential damage to the agency and its operatives caused by the leak of Plame's identity. Intelligence officials have said that once Plame's job as an undercover operative was revealed, other agency secrets could be unraveled and her sources might be compromised or endangered.
A former diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that every foreign intelligence service would run Plame's name through its databases within hours of its publication to determine if she had visited their country and to reconstruct her activities.
"That's why the agency is so sensitive about just publishing her name," the former diplomat said.
Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm
By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 4, 2003; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40012-2003Oct3?language=printer
You hope and dream of the most dire implications........sorry to dash your hopes on the rocks of reality but the WH is about ready to announce the nomination of the OConnor replacement and this will all disappear in the following paparrazzi fish bowl examination of the nominee.
