It looks like some things need to be cleared up
1.
Valerie Plame was indisputably on nonofficial cover. She had a fake identity, including employment at a fake "front" company used by the CIA. Regardless of how much her identity was an "open secret" at Washington, or how little her friends and family did to protect her secret, her status with the CIA was still officially covert. Exposing her was, undoubtedly, a crime. Someone (
perhaps, indeed probably Karl Rove) is guilty of a felony punishable by 10 years in prison.
If you aren't satisfied with, you know, MERE American law (and its not like Republicans are - FOX News congratulates Rove for committing a felony, and Cierdan thinks the law is analogous to Iran and the USSR), maybe you should think about this: even if she wasn't going on any James Bond missions soon, Plame's status was still covert for a reason. And Im not talking about JUST blowing the secrecy of previous ops shes been involved in. It goes deeper than that. If it turns out that sometime in the past she HAD gone overseas on any kind of covert mission (which I believe is also an open secret now, thank you Robert Novak) her cover is now blown, therefore so is that of every single secret foreign or American contact that she worked with. The jobs and lives of THESE people are now in danger, and so are the missions they were working on. Blowing the identity of an agent is such a serious crime precisely because it's about more than just one agent's identity. It's a foot in the door, a way to connect the dots. Why do you think that the CIA recommended that Plame NOT travel overseas anymore, now that her cover was blown?
2.
The Bush Administration, Rovert Novak, and Karl Rove have past histories which are not helpful to them in this case. Novak in particular. We should really be adding "Fully Owned Subsidiary Of The GOP" after his name. For Cierdan to take anything he says literally just shows that Cierdan is either horribly naive or diabolically partisan.
Robert Novak, FOSOTGOP, has been a previous recipient of sensitive, leaked information... leaked information that came from a certain Karl Rove, and led to Rove's firing by a certain President Bush (the other Bush, the one with a sense of integrity) during a scandal. Novak, FOSOTGOP, has blown sources before, and violated reporter confidentiality in order to write slam stories about the Clinton Administration. Novak FOSOTGOP's son is the marketing director for the publisher, Regnery, which put out the Swift Boat Veterans book as well as other conservative hack books, a company owned by the same one that publishes Novak FOSOTGOP's columns. What's more, according to Salon, "Novak is on the board of a foundation whose chief holdings are the stock of Regnery's parent company." Hell, Novak has appeared regularly on Crossfire... as a partisan Republican. He has zero credentials as an impartial reporter.
Rove, on the other hand, has a history of dirty tricks. He admits being the protege of Lee Atwater and an ideological descendant of Mark Hanna. One of his most famous capers was planting electronic bugs in his office, "discovering" them, then calling the cops, alleging that Democrats were "spying" on him. Rove was also the chief political axeman during the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, which saw plenty of dirty tricks surrounding the candidacies of McCain and Kerry, including Republican leaflets alleging that President Kerry would "ban the Bible" and allow gay marriage, and phone calls in South Carolina alleging that McCain was mentally unstable and had an illegitimate Black baby (actually he had adopted an orphaned girl from Bangladesh, but the call had the desired effect with the racist, sexually uptight Republican base). Rove is Bush's right-hand man. Nobody in the first administration had an office closer to the Oval Office and the President's Study.
Finally, the Bush Administration has a past history of burning intelligence sources. During one of their fake "terror alerts" (in this case, the one that was based off of public-domain, three-years-old material) they exposed the identity of the only Al Qaeda double agent we ever had, Muhammed Naeem Noor Khan, a computer hacker who was cooperating with his captors and sending emails to Qaeda operatives, attempting to expose cells working in Western countries.
While this operation was ongoing, the Bush administration revealed Khan's name, essentially blowing the whole deal. This was linked to a botched sting operation in England that according to the British police "had to be wrapped up fast" after Khan's name was leaked. The FUBAR'd sting operation actually ended in a high speed car chase in broad daylight, and one of the captured suspects had to be immediately released for lack of evidence. The Bush administration threw away a key intelligence source and screwed up an investigation in an allied country, all for political reasons (the terror alerts).
In short, anything that comes out of the mouth of Robert Novak FOSOTGOP, Karl Rove, or George Bush on the Plame issue is utter trash. And anyone who actually takes them at their word deserves to be duped by them.
Actually, Cierdan goes beyond even this threshold of dupetitude (to coin a word!). He actually takes comments from
ROVES LAWYER at face value!
I guess when Rove stands trial and says I plead Not Guilty, thatll be the end of the issue for Cierdan, eh?
3.
Joe Wilson is irrelevant except insofar as he was the motive behind the felony. Committing a serious crime to discredit a political opponent is not excusable, though the Wall Street Journal seems to think so [Karl Rove, Whistleblower? Give me a frickin break]. The talking points released by the Republican Party, and used on this site by Cierdan and rmsharpe, have no purpose except to muddy the waters, making this a political issue instead of a criminal/legal issue. The inaccuracy of Wilsons statements (and most of whats being written about Wilsons words is false spin anyway) is not an extenuating circumstance for outing a CIA agent, no matter how much Republicans wish it were.
Also, the talking points are internally inconsistent, as you can see by reading anything Cierdan writes (Ken Mehlman, the man behind the new spin, was always a distant second to Roves own genius). On the one hand, Cierdan/Mehlman says that Rove was merely seeking to help Cooper discredit Wilson. On the other, he says that Rove didn't mean to intentionally leak Plame's name. Moreover, every Republican says that the leak was NOT politically motivated... while admitting that it took place during a conversation between reporters and senior administration officials in which the administration was frantically seeking to discredit Wilson and shut down his allegations by any means possible. And then, after Plame was leaked, Rove didnt condemn the leak. He went so far as to say that now any allegations surrounding the Plame issue were fair game.
Im not going to address in depth the allegations regarding Wilson, because they are irrelevant to Roves guilt... except for one egregious lie. The Talkin Points say Wilson said Cheney sent him to Niger... a statement that can be found nowhere in Wilsons original article, it actually says that CIA officials decided to send him so that they could present a report to the Vice Presidents office. This is consistent with Cheneys own claim that he never met and had never heard of Wilson personally. Basically, the talking points are another set of spin and lies, a fallback cover-story when the first one (Roves a great guy, he works for me, anyone who doubts him is a Clinton-loving eeeeevil Democrat!) failed.
My question is why this has become a he said she said issue in the news media. It was undoubtedly a highly-placed senior administration official - in other words, a Republican - who leaked Plames identity. It was a partisan Republican, who had ties to President Bush and his re-election campaign, who blew Plames cover. The chief spinman for the Republicans and President Bushs closest adviser is the chief suspect of the investigation, and even Fitzgerald himself admits he is a subject of the investigation.
So why is anything Republicans say on this matter being taken at face value?
4.
Moreover, Rove is NOT alone in this, as the reporter involved has alleged that "two senior administration officials" were behind the link.
What are the odds that the same leak occurred "by accident" twice simultaneously, when the fact that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife as a boondoggle was the CHIEF Bush smear, and the fact that she was covertly working for the CIA was the CHIEF evidence for this claim? Was outing Plame an integral part of smearing Wilson? Or was it just an odd factoid that, er, popped out by accident?
5.
George W. Bush has no intention of sticking to his pledge to fire the leaker. This is what Bush said in SEPTEMBER of 2003:
I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action.
In DECEMBER of that year, 2003, A.G. John Ashcroft recused himself from the case and appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to the case as special prosecutor.
It is only in this month, JULY of 2005 nearly TWO YEARS later, that the case has finally progressed to the point of investigating the senior administration officials who everybody already knew were behind it all along (and so far only Rove is implicated, remember that there are others).
Bush made his pledge while the investigation was still safely in the hands of his compadre Ashcroft. After the case was turned over to Fitzgerald and seemed to have died, Bush repeated his pledge in mid2004.
To put it simply,
Bush has been overwhelmed by his own hubris. He never expected Fitzgerald to pursue the case seriously. He never expected Roves name to come up, much less for him to become a suspect. He expected the Plame incident to be papered over, shoved under the rug.
Otherwise, the administration would never have made the blatantly false statements about Rove that they have now been forced, in a spate of ironic Nixonism, to render inoperative.
6.
Now, the only explanation that fits all the facts is EITHER Rove lied to Bush about his involvement, OR Rove told Bush and Bush lied to the United States about it. Not a good situation for the Bush Administration, is it?
Welcome to CFC. The other question I have and maybe the Republicans could explain is why his wife suggesting him would discredit him. They claim it shows nepotism but how? He was not paid. It's not like an all expenses paid trip to Niger is a highly coveted perk. And he was one of the few people ANY responsible administration would have chosen for this mission His resume
Plagiarism happens EVERYWHERE. It happens in high school, college, business, govt, etc. Also whether it's plagiarized or not doesn't change the fact that it was otherwise TRUE.
Novak very often excoriates the Bush administration and other Republicans.
Put up some effort, please.
Thanks! I needed a laugh today. This one is just as funny as the one about WTC bombings being a gov't planned conspiracy I read earlier. I wonder if these are the same person that writes outrageous stuff from the left and right just to get everyone steamed or laughing. 
