Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Priorities
I don't have much more to say on this. I give you Larry Johnson in his own words (via the ever vigilant Stygius):
But hey, maybe I've got this thing backwards. Darby Rove's husband did have apropaganda presidential campaign to run. Priorities people. No time to get all weak-kneed about some CIA NOC risking her life overseas somewhere for the alleged good of the supposed American people. Besides, it is well documented that ever since George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the CIA has been overrun by a proto-Marxist, socialist, feminist, extreme environmentalist cult hell-bent on Bush's political destruction - Presidentail Medal of Freedom honoree George Tenet being the Svengali-like cult leader. Take it from the Medium Lobster - and get your perspective in check:
Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.Anyone in the mood for a lecture by Darby Rove's husband on the national security instincts and nefarious motives of liberals? Allow me to repeat: "[Valerie Plame] agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed."
A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.
The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.
The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically [sic] identified a CIA NOC. They have set a precendent [sic] that the next group of political hacks may feel free to violate. [emphasis added]
But hey, maybe I've got this thing backwards. Darby Rove's husband did have a
As the Wall Street Journal points out today, the true tragedy in the Plame affair has been the burning of Karl Rove. Indeed, if there is any integrity left in Time Magazine, it must fire Matt Cooper. By outing Karl Rove as the man who outed an undercover CIA agent, Matt Cooper has selfishly, recklessly, and amorally endangered a top administration official, exposing Rove and those he works with to threat from political opponents, news organizations and the Justice Department, to say nothing of the damage done to Rove's career as one of America's hard[est]-working partisan hacks. With his identity revealed, how will Rove effectively leak the leaks and spread the rumors necessary to serve his party? Such shameless and reckless abuse of partisan security cannot be tolerated. Matt Cooper must go.[Update: Once again, Hilzoy has to show off and make my efforts look all pedestrian like. Go read.]
