[Vision2020] Bush Administration Damages National Security Outing Undercover CIA Operative

[Ted Moffett]

All-

Scooter Libby was complicit in a coordinated effort in the Bush
administration that jeopardized the protections that undercover CIA
operatives require to protect national security, via the outing of Valerie
Plame's undercover CIA status.  These protections are in place to enable CIA
operatives to earn the trust, on foreign soil, of informants who might be
killed if it is discovered that they were cooperating with the CIA.  The
outing of a CIA undercover operative sends a message to all those
cooperating with the CIA in foreign nations that they cannot rely on the US
government to ensure that their cooperation will not be exposed.  This
results in a serious impairment of intelligence gathering efforts.  And this
behavior came from an administration that has made protecting national
security and pursuing the war on terror as a primary campaign issue!

This was a deliberate effort to intimidate Plame and Wilson, because of
Wilson's exposure of Bush administration fabrications regarding Iraq WMDs;
and to send a message to others who might challenge the Bush
administration's fabrications on Iraq WMDs.

To minimize the seriousness of what Libby did by reference to Sandy Berger's
document "theft," even if Berger committed grave violations of law meriting
jail time, is to not take account of the full implications of outing a CIA
undercover operative.  Perjury or obstruction of justice does not describe
the full implications of Libby's cooperation in outing Plame.

Ted Moffett



On 7/11/07, Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 7/11/07, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:
> > No, It does not satisfy me. It does not answer the question of why he
> took them. Stuffing secret documents in your pants is not normal behavior.
>
> Roger --
>
> These were classified anti-terrorism documents. Sandy Berger was
> preparing to testify in front of the 9/11 Commission, and no longer
> lives in Washington DC, where the National Archvies are. Rather than
> imputing some nefarious motive to him, as you seem ready to do, how
> about "he didn't want to fly all the way back to Washington DC every
> time he wanted to look at them?"
>
> This doesn't, of course, excuse what he did. But it does explain it
> better than a right-wing conspiracy theory that's at odds with what
> even the professional advocates of his punishment (i.e. the
> prosecution itself) believe.
>
> -- ACS
>
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