That damn liberal media!
People, this is TREASON, just like the outing of Valerie Plame was TREASON. When are we going to stop letting the Bush Administration get away with treason? Some people need to do some serious jail time over this. And over Plame.
Nah, just another example of sleazoid politics. If St. Ronald of Bakersfield can covertly fund a foreign war in direct contradiction to the stated will of Congress and sell our military hardware to a belligerant power (however nobly motivated), “treason” doesn’t have a lot of meaning anymore.
Except for “Hanoi John” Kerry. That’s different.
What definition of treason are you using?
What an excellent point.
No need to choose.
I don’t know. Whatcha got?
Is he likely to’ve had access to such things?
Well, he does have a history of obtaining classified ifo he doesn’t need to know.
It also depends on the extent of the leak: Was Chalabi only told that the Iranian code had been broken, or was he given details of the code breaking technique? Different levels of security clearance for each option, no?
Pure speculation on my part, but I keep thinking Ledeen’s daughter Simone has a part in this (remember she almost certainly had contact with Chalabi when she was sent to Baghdad via the Heritage Foundation).
I’m discounting Rubin somewhat because he was one of those taken into the inner circle - in attendance at that NSC meeting prior to dumping Chalabi. Don’t know much about Hannah, other than some of your previous cites. Is he a drinker? 
You mean he’s fallen off more than just a bicycle?
Who’s this Chalabi fellow you guys are all talking about?!? Oh…You mean, George Tenet’s buddy?
Oh, the one that involves knowingly betraying U.S. miltary secrets to people who may be agents of a foreign power will do just fine. Or knowingly betraying U.S. covert agents. You know, the things we know Bush Administration officials have done.
I don’t think that treason applies to ‘foreign powers.’ IIRC it only applies to those who are enemies.
The question becomes, “Is Iran an ‘enemy’ of the US?”
Well, how does one become a member of the “Axis of Evil” these days? Do you do it by being our best friend? Or by sending in 3 Fruit Loops box tops and $4.95 to cover shipping and handling to “G.W.'s Special Axis-of-Evil Collector’s Edition Designation Offer”?
I’m unclear as to the legal definition of enemy.
Here’s a more clearly applicable statute to use for indictment:
United States Code
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 37 - ESPIONAGE AND CENSORSHIP
Section 798. Disclosure of classified information
(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes,
transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person,
or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or
interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign
government to the detriment of the United States any classified
information -
(1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code,
cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any
foreign government; or
<snip>
(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the
United States or any foreign government; or
(4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence
from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the
same to have been obtained by such processes -
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten
years, or both.
(b) As used in subsection (a) of this section -
The term ‘‘classified information’’ means information which, at
the time of a violation of this section, is, for reasons of
national security, specifically designated by a United States
Government Agency for limited or restricted dissemination or
distribution;
The terms ‘‘code,’’ ‘‘cipher,’’ and ‘‘cryptographic system’’
include in their meanings, in addition to their usual meanings, any
method of secret writing and any mechanical or electrical device or
method used for the purpose of disguising or concealing the
contents, significance, or meanings of communications;
The term ‘‘foreign government’’ includes in its meaning any
person or persons acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of
any faction, party, department, agency, bureau, or military force
of or within a foreign country, or for or on behalf of any
government or any person or persons purporting to act as a
government within a foreign country, whether or not such government
is recognized by the United States;
The term ‘‘communication intelligence’’ means all procedures and
methods used in the interception of communications and the
obtaining of information from such communications by other than the
intended recipients;
The term ‘‘unauthorized person’’ means any person who, or agency
which, is not authorized to receive information of the categories
set forth in subsection (a) of this section, by the President, or
by the head of a department or agency of the United States
Government which is expressly designated by the President to engage
in communication intelligence activities for the United States.
© Nothing in this section shall prohibit the furnishing, upon
lawful demand, of information to any regularly constituted
committee of the Senate or House of Representatives of the United
States of America, or joint committee thereof.
(d)(1) Any person convicted of a violation of this section shall
forfeit to the United States irrespective of any provision of State
law -
(A) any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds
the person obtained, directly or indirectly, as the result of
such violation; and
(B) any of the person’s property used, or intended to be used,
in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission
of, such violation.
(2) The court, in imposing sentence on a defendant for a
conviction of a violation of this section, shall order that the
defendant forfeit to the United States all property described in
paragraph (1).
(3) Except as provided in paragraph (4), the provisions of
subsections (b), ©, and (e) through § of section 413 of the
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (21
U.S.C. 853(b), ©, and (e)-§), shall apply to -
(A) property subject to forfeiture under this subsection;
(B) any seizure or disposition of such property; and
© any administrative or judicial proceeding in relation to
such property,
if not inconsistent with this subsection.
(4) Notwithstanding section 524© of title 28, there shall be
deposited in the Crime Victims Fund established under section 1402
of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (42 U.S.C. 10601) all amounts
from the forfeiture of property under this subsection remaining
after the payment of expenses for forfeiture and sale authorized by
law.
(5) As used in this subsection, the term ‘‘State’’ means any
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession of the
United States.
Gee, thanks Simon. That was swell.
sarcasm’ll get you nowhere in life. Didn’t your folks ever tell you that?
I just offered this opposed to the charges of treason that EC’d like to see levied.
If it was Ledeen, he would have acted treasonously even if his actions didn’t constitute treason in that he says that Iran is one of the United States’ enemies.
Iraq: A Wide War*
by Michael A. Ledeen
New York Post
March 21, 2003*
Iran and Syria have already prepared a terrorist campaign against the allied forces in Iraq. Not for nothing did Iran’s hardline Hashemi Rafsanjani proclaim last week that the presence of American troops in Iraq would be worse than Saddam Hussein.
This was a clear declaration of war on us, and we should expect attacks from the full panoply of terrorist groups, from the dreaded Hezbollah to Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, Hamas and the rest. Thus the war in Iraq will very quickly become a regional conflict.
Sure, thanks. I didn’t watch Bozo much, as I fear and loathe clowns.
Okay. Putting aside my nonsense about Ledeen’s daughter and substituting Harold Rhode, Ledeen’s ideological son, protege, and apparently, gopher:
Motive and opportunity, no? I think you are correct in that Rubin and Hannah are still the prime suspects though. I’m not sure how it can be narrowed down further when all of the suspects appear to share a single brain/mindset (sigh). Rubin and Ledeen in particular would appear to have had the same security clearance as consults to Feith/OSP, no?
Anyway, I’m no longer taking this story at face value. The left-leaning blogs are on fire with rumours that this Chalabi scandal will shortly intersect with the Plame leak and “memos detailing suppression of evidence that there were no WMD in Iraq” scandals. :eek:
Are you absolutely ruling out a “CIA-sponsered-trifecta of payback”? If the blogs are correct, we can expect the fallout of the intersect in the “not so distant future”…
(not trying to imply that you’re an absolutist type 
)