Villainous Company

...Joe Wilson's wife's role in instituting her husband's mission was revealed to me in the middle of a long interview with an official who I have previously said was not a political gunslinger. After the federal investigation was announced, he told me through a third party that the disclosure was inadvertent on his part.

b) Even after talking to his primary source and then confirming that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, Novak still did not know her name:

Following my interview with the primary source, I sought out the second administration official and the CIA spokesman for confirmation.

I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in Who's Who in America.

Sometimes we here at the HVES are in awe at the current state of American tradecraft. So ostensibly Rove knew enough to know that Valerie Wilson worked at the CIA, knew she was a covert agent, knew her cover name so he could maliciously "out" her to that portion of the public who don't subscribe to Who's Who or frequent the Georgetown dinner circuit? (Well, he must have if he violated the IIPA as alleged. But then if he wasn't in the know, or she wasn't covert, then he committed no crime. Which seems to be what our boy Fitz concluded early on, as he never quite got around to confirming her "covert" status.) For an evil mastermind who reportedly had La Plame firmly in the crosshairs, Herr Rove's efforts seem markedly lackadaisical.

c) Still, Karl Rove needs to pony up some answers. Not to us, but to his boss. If he was anything less than completely straightforward with George W. Bush, he needs to be fired, and fired immediately. Regular readers know I have been slow to criticize the President. Our Democrat brethren-in-Christ do a good enough job of that, thank-you-very-much. But if he has one abiding flaw, it is a superfluity of loyalty, and any character trait, even a good one becomes a demerit if taken to extremes.

If Rove has not been straight with his boss in a matter of this importance, then even if he did not do anything legally wrong, he has seriously embarrassed the administration and embroiled the White House in needless controversy.

I see no problem in aggressively combatting counterspin coming from the CIA, especially when it is underhanded and involves lawbreaking that cannot be effectively reined in due to First Amendment concerns. But for obvious reasons, no one in the administration or the press should be involved in leaking government secrets, whether this involves the identities of CIA assets or CIA programs. We have oversight programs to handle legitimate concerns about the use of intelligence. There is no excuse for leaks or for shielding leakers who refuse to avail themselves of the legitimate pipelines established for intelligence oversight.

I have serious problems with the behavior of both journalists like Matt Cooper and Judy Miller on the Left and Robert Novak on the Right. A leaker is a leaker.

Say this with me, once more with feeling: THERE IS NO FEDERAL SHIELD LAW.

And again: THE LEAKER IN THE PLAME CASE WAS NOT A WHISTLEBLOWER IN THE CLASSIC SENSE (I.E., A PERSON TRYING TO UNCOVER GOVERNMENT WRONGDOING), BUT AN ACCUSED CRIMINAL TRYING TO OUT A SUPPOSED COVERT AGENT. THEREFORE, EVEN HAD THERE BEEN A FEDERAL SHIELD LAW, IT WOULD NOT HAVE APPLIED.
Thank you. That is all.

Update: Let me clarify my earlier remarks. Sometimes my penchant for sarcasm gets away with me.

I don't think it has been definitively settled whether Ms. Plame was covert or not. It appears, however, doubtful that whether or not the CIA thought of her as covert, neither she or they were taking active steps to guard her covert status. I have discussed this in way too many prior posts and am not going to rehash that here.

Regardless, Novak has stated that his primary source was a "senior Bush administration official" who "inadvertently" disclosed the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. We still do not know two things, at least from Novak's column:

a) whether he knew, or told Novak, she was covert (merely telling someone that a third party works for the CIA is not, on its face, wrong because there is no intent to disclose secret information)

b) what Rove knew about Plame's employment at the agency (aside from confirming that she worked there), and what he told Novak (which is really of secondary importance if he merely confirmed information already in Novak's possession).