IglooDude said:
And, just like the Clinton impeachment, too. Funny, last time it was about what the definition of 'is' is, and now, it appears to be about what the definition of 'covert operative' is. Except, of course, that the Republican partisan hacks are on the defense and the Democrat partisan hacks are exploring every legal avenue to prosecution, whereas previously it was the other way around.
Errhmmm, I did not support the Clinton impeachment on the grounds of his perjury, etc. So there goes your argument.
The definition of the term "covert agent" IS EXPLICITLY LAID OUT IN THE LAW!!! If you're going to say that the definition doesn't matter, you're saying that that part of the law might as well not exist! You can't at the same time DEFEND the upholding of a law and then say that parts of that law are rubbish and shouldn't be heeded -- that's a self-contradiction. Here's the definition part of the law:
TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 15 > SUBCHAPTER IV > § 426 Prev | Next
§ 426. Definitions
Release date: 2005-03-17
For the purposes of this subchapter:
(1) The term classified information means information or material designated and clearly marked or clearly represented, pursuant to the provisions of a statute or Executive order (or a regulation or order issued pursuant to a statute or Executive order), as requiring a specific degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national security.
(2) The term authorized, when used with respect to access to classified information, means having authority, right, or permission pursuant to the provisions of a statute, Executive order, directive of the head of any department or agency engaged in foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities, order of any United States court, or provisions of any Rule of the House of Representatives or resolution of the Senate which assigns responsibility within the respective House of Congress for the oversight of intelligence activities.
(3) The term disclose means to communicate, provide, impart, transmit, transfer, convey, publish, or otherwise make available.
(4) The term covert agent means
(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency
(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or
(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and
(i) who resides and acts outside the United States as an agent of, or informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency, or
(ii) who is at the time of the disclosure acting as an agent of, or informant to, the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; or
(C) an individual, other than a United States citizen, whose past or present intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information and who is a present or former agent of, or a present or former informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency.
(5) The term intelligence agency means the Central Intelligence Agency, a foreign intelligence component of the Department of Defense, or the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(6) The term informant means any individual who furnishes information to an intelligence agency in the course of a confidential relationship protecting the identity of such individual from public disclosure.
(7) The terms officer and employee have the meanings given such terms by section 2104 and 2105, respectively, of title 5.
(8) The term Armed Forces means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
(9) The term United States, when used in a geographic sense, means all areas under the territorial sovereignty of the United States and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
(10) The term pattern of activities requires a series of acts with a common purpose or objective
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sec_50_00000426----000-.html
And finally the law specifically says that EVEN IF the person IS a "covert agent" that it is NOT a crime UNLESS certain other conditions are ALSO met.
Only if I give the information on super-duper double secret background. Anyway, I was never banned.
The LAW says that it is only a crime if the United States is PRESENTLY taking "affirmative measures" to conceal her relationship with US intelligence services.
Hehe. 
