Outing Patriots

[RickSp]

I think it say legions about the morality, or lack thereof, of the senior officers in the Bush administration that they would "out" a CIA agent, particularly an NOC, as an act of political revenge against the agent's husband who had the temerity to tell the truth when the Bush administration was peddling lies.

Valerie Plame was not a typical CIA agent. She worked under "non-official cover", perhaps the most dangerous and demanding job in the CIA.

Valerie Plame was also exposed as a “NOC,” an agent working under non-official cover. That means she wasn’t attached to a U.S. Embassy or any other government agency when she worked overseas, which would have provided her protection if she was caught spying. In other words, she had no diplomatic immunity. Working overseas as an NOC, without official cover, was a dangerous assignment, says Marcinkowski. “With diplomatic immunity, the worst that can happen is you get kicked out of the country. You don't have that kind of a protection when you're a NOC. You're out there, what they would call naked.” “Out there” like Hugh Redmond, a NOC who was caught spying in Shanghai in 1951 and died after 19 years in a Chinese prison. To this day, the CIA denies he was an agent. “We give our most sensitive cases to those officers serving under non-official cover,” explains Melissa Mahle, who spent 14 years in the Middle East as a covert CIA operative maintaining a series of fictitious “legends,” or cover stories, created by her superiors. “I conducted espionage. I went overseas, I recruited agents,” says Mahle. She left the agency three years ago, and recently struck up a friendship with a woman whose career ran parallel to her own: Valerie Plame Wilson. “People have said, ‘Oh, well, Valerie wasn't serving in a sensitive position. So it's not really that serious.’ Well, I would say that's a very fallacious way of looking at this because a cover is for a clandestine officer can be different things at different times. We change cover. We modify cover based on how we need it,” says Mahle. “If you start to unravel one part of that, you can unravel the whole thing.” Mahle says Valerie was working on important national security issues, like keeping tabs on nuclear material and the world’s top nuclear scientists. “She is an expert on weapons of mass destruction. These are the kind of people that don't grow on trees.”

Recently conservatives have been claiming that the Plame investigation was instigated by the dreaded"liberals" to get back at President Bush. That is untrue. The investigation was demanded by the CIA which is rightfully disturbed that one of their agents was "outed."

The CIA has yet to conduct a formal damage assessment. The agency wanted to wait until the investigation by the special prosecutor was over. But agency representatives have come to Capitol Hill to brief the intelligence committees about steps they’ve taken to “mitigate the effects of the leak.” “I think any time the identity of a covert agent is released, there is some damage. And it's serious,” says Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Holt says some people Valerie Wilson came into contact with overseas, even those who didn’t know she was a covert operative, could be in danger. “Have you had assurances that the agency is handling the fallout from this leak?” Bradley asked. “They have taken the usual procedures to protect the damage from spreading,” Rep. Holt replied. “Is it possible that someone overseas, someone is going to jail because of this?” Bradley asked Holt. “Sure, it's possible.” “Is it possible that somebody lost their life?” Bradley asked. “It's possible. I don't know,” the congressman said. Rep. Holt pointed out there has not yet been a formal assessment. “If there were, and I had been briefed on it, I couldn't talk about it.” “This was a crime against the national security of the country,” says Joseph Wilson, Valerie Wilson’s husband. He’s a career diplomat who served in Iraq for the first President Bush, and on the National Security Council as an expert on Africa for President Clinton.

The Exposure Of Valerie Plame

Of course, conservatives on this board and elsewhere are continuing to attack Joe Wilson, making all sorts of bizarre charges implying that he brought everything on himself because he refused to shut up and stay quiet. Most of the charges made against him are either simply wrong or outright lies.

We are indeed at a sad point in this country's history when attempting to destroy a retired diplomat and his CIA agent wife for disloyalty to a lying President is considered an acceptable practice by right-wing loyalists.

[CoffeeSaint]

Hear hear! These crimes should not be ignored as political maneuvering; they are more than just distasteful mudslinging or yellow politics. By hindering our nation's ability to gather intelligence -- let alone the personal damage done to these two Americans -- the people who revealed this information should be charged with treason against their country. Aren't they the ones who claim we are at war with terrorists? The same people who decry our weak intelligence gathering as the source of the "misunderstandings" about WMD's and the war? So what should be the penalty for those who weaken our intelligence services in a time of war, with an enemy as elusive and dangerous as terrorists? Surely, if Hussein's crimes merited the atrocities leveled against Iraq, these men should suffer penalties no less severe. Let's see them in cages -- or at the very least, impeached and disgraced.

[Boetie]

I challenge all conservatives, registered members of the Republican Party, and all right wing screwballs to put a pressure on your gutless leader Bush Jr. The pressure is this:

Your gutless wonder claimed he wanted to get at the bottom of Plamegate just like the rest of us United States citizens. Well pressure spinless boy aka Bush Jr to announce publicly that he will not pardon Libby. This will make Libby realize he may face 30 years and start singing like a bird otherwise Libby is just going to keep his mouth shut with a smirk, knowing Bush Jr will pardon him.

Will any Bush Jr brown tonguers take the challenge?

[Zealot]

Quote by: Boetie I challenge all conservatives, registered members of the Republican Party, and all right wing screwballs to put a pressure on your gutless leader Bush Jr. The pressure is this: Your gutless wonder claimed he wanted to get at the bottom of Plamegate just like the rest of us United States citizens. Well pressure spinless boy aka Bush Jr to announce publicly that he will not pardon Libby. This will make Libby realize he may face 30 years and start singing like a bird otherwise Libby is just going to keep his mouth shut with a smirk, knowing Bush Jr will pardon him. Will any Bush Jr brown tonguers take the challenge?

Yep, "Ah did not have sex with that woman!!!!!!"

Zealot

[PatrickHenry]

Off topic, Zealot Browntongue...

[Zealot]

Quote by: PatrickHenry Off topic, Zealot Browntongue...

rather poor critque AGAIN.....we were talking about Presidents, right on!!!!????

Zealot

[PatrickHenry]

We were discussing the disclosure of an intelligence agent's identity. Ms. Wilson is the patriot in the title of the thread. "Outing" refers to the unwarranted disclosure by someone who knew, but chose to sandbag national security for another agenda.

We were not talking about the has-been President of five years ago. Under the microscope is the Shrub Administration...

[Chris the Chees]

Zealot, please do not make off topic remarks, simply to bait other users, do not respond to this post in the thread, if you have any queeries, questions or complaints contact myself via PM.

Thank you - CTC

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: Zealot rather poor critque AGAIN.....we were talking about Presidents, right on!!!!???? Zealot

We were talking about presidents? Oh, I know this one:

President Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan)
President Alfred Moisiu (Albania)
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria)
President José Eduardo dos Santos (Angola)
President Néstor Kirchner (Argentina)
President Robert Kocharian (Armenia)
President Heinz Fischer (Austria)
President Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan)
President Iajuddin Ahmed (Bangladesh)
President Aleksandr Lukashenko (Belarus)
President Mathieu Kérékou (Benin)
President Eduardo Rodríguez (Bolivia)
Tripartite presidency: Ivo Miro Jovic´ (President of the Presidency), Sulejman Tihic´, Borislav Paravac (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
President Festus Mogae (Botswana)
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil)
President Georgi Purvanov (Bulgaria)
President Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso)
President Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi)
President Paul Biya (Cameroon)
President Pedro Pires (Cape Verde)
President François Bozizé (Central African Republic)
President Idriss Déby (Chad)
President Ricardo Lagos (Chile)
President Hu Jintao (People's Republic of China)
President Álvaro Uribe (Colombia)
President Azali Assoumani (Comoros)
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Republic of the Congo)
President Joseph Kabila (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
President Abel Pacheco (Costa Rica)
President Laurent Gbagbo (Côte d'Ivoire)
President Stipe Mesic' (Croatia)
President of the Councils of State and of Ministers Fidel Castro (Cuba)
President Tassos Papadopoulos (Cyprus)
President Václav Klaus (Czech Republic)


And that's just A,B, and C (though I particularly enjoy Castro's title). Shall we go on? Are any of these fine people on the topic?

On the other hand: "brown tonguers?" Seriously? My high school students don't usually sink that low. If I start hearing you people call eacch other "gay," I'm going to start throwing things.

Valerie Plame, people. I'll even accept (because I know of no proof at the moment) that Bush didn't know about it; but Karl Rove and Scooter Libby -- and, most likely, Dick Cheney -- should not only be removed ffrom office, they should be jailed. WITHOUT a Presidential pardon in two years.

[bishop]

excellent post rick.. i never really made the effort to read up on her background. that was interesting stuff.

the fact that the cia initiated this investigation speaks volumes for its relationship with the administration.. it seems to support the assertions made in phase 1 of the investigation showing the clash between douglas feith and the professionals at the cia. and this supports the assertion that the administration was fixing intelligence around a set policy.

[Sonart]

Quote by: Zealot Yep, "Ah did not have sex with that woman!!!!!!"

Yessiree, Zee, why let those lib'rul scallywags get away with accusing all the President's men of lying under oath and covering up their jeapardizing of national security for the sake of vindictive political payback against a whistleblower who was exposing this administration's falsehoods that put our nation at vastly greater risk...

...all while ignoring the TRUE CRIME of a President who got blowjobs from a girl and then LIED ABOUT IT!

Honest to gawd, these dang lib'ruls are just shameless, aren't they.

.

[bishop]

i just reported his post rather than wasting my time responding to it - especially since it was completely off-topic.


doesn't seem like the apologists have been able to pull off a "swift boat veterans" campaign comparable to what they did with kerry. probably because they really can't stretch the truth as far with this story.