Let me see if I understand this right.
There is a federal law that prohibits anyone intentionally disclosing a covert agent’s name.
Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine, called Karl Rove, Bush’s top political strategist, on July 11, 2020 to ask questions about former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s opinion article for the New York Times which suggested that the Bush administration had manipulated data about Iraq’s weapons in order to justify the war.
Wilson’s wife was a covert CIA operative.
Cooper writes that in his talk with Karl Rove, he was told by Rove that ex-ambassador Wilson’s wife, whom he didn’t refer to by name, worked at the CIA. Cooper says he doesn’t remember whether he got Valerie Plame’s name by looking it up on Google or from another source.
Is it just me or does this seem to be a violation of the spirit of the non-disclosure law?
I mean really. The law can’t justifiably mean that you are only prevented from disclosing an agent’s name, can it? If that were true, think of all the things you could reveal about someone without disclosing that person’s name.
For example:
The man who lives in that house works for the CIA.
The woman with social security number XXX-XX-XXXX works for the CIA.
A vehicle with registration number 123456789 is owned by a man who works for the CIA.
A person currently working as an administration assistant for XYZ Co. works for the CIA.
The woman in this photograph works for the CIA.
The man I’m pointing at right now works for the CIA.
Or, as was done in this case, the woman married to former ambassador Wilson works for the CIA.
For this law to have any impact, it must mean that a person is prevented from disclosing the identity of a CIA operative. Telling a White House reporter that the wife of a former ambassador works for the CIA is in my mind criminal behavior.
Bush promised early on to fire anyone caught leaking information in this probe. Bush now says that you have to have broken the law before you’ll be fired.
Karl Rove is getting a free pass because of his close ties to Bush.
I hate politics.
