Monday, July 04, 2005
Ruining Her Career May Ruin Many More
The outing of former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, pictured with husband Joe Wilson for Time magazine, may bring down the man known as Bush's brain.
In another major decision last week, the Supreme court refused to hear the case regarding the outing of former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.
For those not paying attention, Plame's identity as a covert agent was leaked in a piece by conservative columnist Robert Novak. Prosecutors are threatening two reporters with jail time if they do not reveal the source of the leak. Time magazine agreed to release its reporter's notes last week.
An MSNBC analyst is claiming that senior White House adviser Karl Rove is the leak. Rove's lawyer denies the allegations.
Meanwhile, President Bush is seeking personal legal counsel on the matter.
All of this is feeding speculation that Plame was outed intentionally. By ruining her career (allegedly), the Bush administration was getting revenge on Plame's husband, intelligence analyst Joe Wilson, who debunked some of Bush's so-called evidence for the Iraq war.
At the very least, Rove could be guilty of perjury if he did leak to the Time reporter and lie to the grand jury about it (hmmm...this is beginning to sound like Watergate...or even Monicagate). He could also be guilty of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.
Meanwhile, the world waits to hear anything on the subject from Novak.
Stay tuned.
