No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

How much damage has the Bush Administration done?

From Talking Points Memo
Leak of CIA officers leaves trail of damage
By Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - It's just a 12-letter name - Valerie Plame - but the leak by Bush administration officials of that CIA officer's identity may have damaged U.S. national security to a much greater extent than generally realized, current and former agency officials say.

Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush critic Joseph Wilson, was a member of a small elite-within-an-elite, a CIA employee operating under "nonofficial cover," in her case as an energy analyst, with little or no protection from the U.S. government if she got caught.

Training agents such as Plame, 40, costs millions of dollars and requires the time-consuming establishment of elaborate fictions, called "legends," including in this case the creation of a CIA front company that helped lend plausibility to her trips overseas.

Compounding the damage, the front company, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, whose name has been reported previously, apparently also was used by other CIA officers whose work now could be at risk, according to Vince Cannistraro, formerly the agency's chief of counterterrorism operations and analysis.

In other words, it costs at least as much to build up an NOC agent as it does to train an Air Force pilot, probably more. One difference - if the enemy learns who the NOC is, then they can go back and cancel out much of the effectiveness of any operation the NOC was involved in. Whoever leaked the name of Valerie Plame clearly damaged American interests and cost us a great deal in many ways.

So - let's consider Robert Novak, who ~published~ her name. Here is what Kristoff of the New York Times had to say:

We in journalism are also wrong, I think, to extend professional courtesy to Robert Novak, by looking beyond him to the leaker. True, he says he didn't think anyone would be endangered. Working abroad in ugly corners of the world, American journalists often learn the identities of American C.I.A. officers, but we never publish their names. I find Mr. Novak's decision to do so just as inexcusable as the decision of administration officials to leak it.

The US Constitution has this to say about Treason:

Section. 3.
Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

What Novak did was to "adhere to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." when he published Valerie Plames' name and CIA association. There may be no specific law which makes what he did a crime, but even without that law, he is a traitor to the United States of America.

At the very least, he should be shunned by all Americans.







posted by Richard at 7:08 PM