The Intimidation Factor

I admit that there is a kind of cosmic irony that I, a life-time liberal, am appalled at the leaking of a CIA agent's identy. After all, the CIA has a history of doing some incredibly nasty things in the world. Still, even I admit that for security purposes, it is important to know just what those who would do this country harm are up to. If we live in a world where one nation seeks to destroy another, then a CIA is a necessary evil. However, the agency and its members should be loyal to our nation and its Constitution, not the current resident of the White House.

That is why I think the real horror in the Valerie Plame matter is that her identity as a covert operative was compromised for purely political purposes: to discredit her husband after he exposed the administrations lies to justify the invasion of Iraq. Whether a specific federal statute has been violated or not, the deliberate leak of her identity and status for such purposes is heinous.

The Star Tribune editorialist (referring to a Washington Post article) agrees:

In fact, the CIA had worked hard to convince the White House that the Iraq-Niger allegations didn't hold water. So what you have here is the White House, which got caught erecting a fanciful case for war, aggressively trying to pin responsibility on the CIA and undermine the credibility of whistleblower Wilson.

The Niger-Wilson-Plame-Iraq scheme involved much more than the politics such tactics usually further. It involved decisions about spending American blood and money in an unnecessary war. Rove's patented tactics are ugly on the campaign trail; they have absolutely no place in the White House.

Harlow said "he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be used."

Harlow said he then checked that Plame was indeed working under cover and called Novak back to reiterate that she did not send her husband to Niger and that her name should not be used. Novak later wrote that the person he spoke to at the CIA said if her name were revealed, she probably would never get another overseas assignment and that there might be "difficulties" if she even traveled abroad. But, Novak said, he wasn't told that revealing her identity would endanger her or anyone else.

Novak has been around Washington for decades. Even a novice would know Harlow's message meant that outing Plame would be dangerous. Novak appears so eager to carry White House water that he ignored the CIA warnings.

Indicted or not, by the time this investigation has run its course, chances are good that no one in the White House, nor Novak, will find themselves covered in glory.

Complicating matters even further is the message that Porter Goss sent to the CIA employees shortly after assuming his post as Director:

[CIA employees are expected to] support the administration and its policies in our work. * * * As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies.

It is clear to me that the outing of Valerie Plame was an intimidation tactic directed as much to the CIA as it was to Joe Wilson, and that is scary.