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CIA Leak: Common Sense
A couple of years ago, we were told that the current administration was "outing" undercover CIA agents as part of a political smear campaign.
As a former marine, voter, and patriot, I was outraged. Anybody who jeopardized our national security in this manner should go to jail, perhaps even being convicted of treason.
Well, it's two years later. The special prosecutor has returned with results from his work. What does all this add up to?
- "Leaking secret stuff" happens all the time in Washington. Half the town is leaking information about the other half. This keeps the people in power from abusing National Security as political cover.
- Almost every time an agent has been outed (as bad as this is), there was nothing done
- It was only recently that there was even a law about outing agents, after undercover CIA agents were killed under Bush 41's watch
- Government employees sent on secret missions should keep their mouth shut. If you have a major beef with the administration, leak the information to a reporter like everyone else does
- If you send your husband off on a mission where he comes back and writes an op-ed in a national newspaper, you're entering the world of politics. Learn to play hardball and stop whining about it
- If you are an undercover agent, you have no business marrying a ambassador. The whole idea is to be undercover. "Wife of an ambassador is a ludicrous cover for a CIA agent
- CIA undercover agents who work in Washington DC for several years are not undercover anymore, even though they may feel like they are
- This makes the CIA look like a club of debutantes, not a serious spy agency. How many more "secret" agents are wandering around the halls at Langley, making policy decisions and hiding behind their status when the temperature goes up?
- It looks like Scooter Libby may have lied and tried to redirect the investigation
- Lying under oath is a very serious crime, but not at the level of the initial charges
- If he's guilty, he should be punished just like everyone else who has lied to grand juries and FBI agents
- The party who is out of power has a tendency to make up conspiracy charges about the party who is in power. Most of the time these charges turn out to be bogus.
- Making wild conspiracy charges keeps the loyal believers -- the political base -- mad and and ready to come out and vote at the next election. This game has been going on for a long time. Both parties are playing their true believers as suckers. I'm not playing any more.
Don't get me wrong: if Scooter, Rove, or anyone else had deliberately outed a currently undercover agent, they should be prosecuted mercilessly. But so far it doesn't look like that happened. Instead, it looks like we had a great bit of "X-Files" fun, chasing conspiracies all over the place. It was a wild goose chase. The next time I hear about one of these story lines, no matter who is in power, I'm going to be a lot more skeptical. I have also lowered my opinion of the CIA, which I think does great work but could use some major improvements.
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