Noah states that the legal distinction between "undercover" and "covert" in regards to Ms. Plame's classification status, does not matter. What does matter:
- Of course, the legal definition of Plame's status is critical. Did Richard Armitage commit a crime by mentioning Plame's name to Novak? Did other members of the Executive -- notably Scooter Libby and Karl Rove -- commit a felony by mentioning her name to the press? I may be in the minority here, but I actually care if Armitage, Rove, or Libby broke a law here. If they did, they should go to jail. If they did not, we should move on from the issue.
- As a result of the leak of her name, Ms. Plame resigned from the CIA. She indicated that public knowledge that she worked at the CIA, even though no one has been very specific ass to exactly what it was that she did, was enough to keep her from being able to continue to work at the CIA. Is this really the case? Was it the reveal of her identity in and of itself that somehow prevented her work at the CIA or was it her association with the hack-job garbage report that her husband produced and the appearance of impropriety of him ostensibly being recommended by her?
- Was there any threat to national security? Anything like, oh, mentioning that we could tap Osama Bin Ladin's satellite phone, or dissemination of the fact that we don't hang up the phone when a foreign national who is overseas and has a tapped line happens to call someone in the U.S., or the publication of the names of actual foreign-based CIA operatives, or trying to unconstitutionally engage foreign powers in surreptitious diplomacy against the Administration's policies, or exposing covert actions inside of Iran to try to prevent Iran from using nuclear weapons.
The bottom line of what shocks me is that the press seems hell-bent on riding Novak, Rove, and Libby for the reveal of Plame's identity but no one is upset in the least when an AP writer decides on her own to publish the identities of two CIA field operatives who were engaged in interrogation activities while in Afghanistan because she's taken it upon herself to decide what is and is not proper interrogation techniques. (Note -- there's a reason there's no link to this article. Further publication of the identities of these individuals is in no one's best interests.)
What is most frustrating about this situation is that actual undercover agents engaged in actual covert activity are revealed with impunity and no one cares. Valerie Plame , who was probably not actively engaged in undercover activity in the recent past, has her name leaked and the left is up in arms. It is frustrating that the only concern that people seem to have is trying to "get" Karl Rove and other members of the Administration, not trying to safeguard our nation's security.
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