Two of the attorneys who helped draft the 1982 act that protects covert agents’ identities do not think there is any crime here. The timing is off…according to Wilson’s own book.
From the above article:
…
In “The Politics of Truth,” former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in Washington, D.C., where they married and became parents of twins.
Six years later, in July 2003, the name of the CIA officer - Valerie Plame - was revealed by columnist Robert Novak.
The column’s date is important because the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a “covert agent” must have been on an overseas assignment “within the last five years.” The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say. Wilson’s book makes numerous references to the couple’s life in Washington over the six years up to July 2003.
…
I think this pretty much explains why Wilson has gone around screaming that his wife has been “outed” to anyone who will listen…but then claims he “can’t talk about that” whenever he’s asked directly if his wife was a covert operative at the time. Well, duh, Joe. If you’re claiming her cover was blown doesn’t that sort of imply she was under cover?
I think this also explains why Wilson has backtracked from “Rove should be in jail” to “Rove should lose his clearance” to, finally, “Rove should be fired for smearing people.” Wilson may be a publicity-starved egomaniac…but he’s not stupid.
Are you talking about the al Qaeda-trained Jose Padilla? The one who, according to the BBC, “made contact with Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda commander who is in American custody and apparently co-operating with the FBI.” The Jose Padilla who was further asked “to go to Lahore in Pakistan, where he learnt how to make a dirty bomb”? The Jose Padilla was was “arrested after flying into Chicago’s O’Hare airport from Pakistan, for what the US authorities say was a reconnaissance mission.”?
He’s an enemy combatant who would like nothing more than to kill innocent Americans. Remember when FDR was rounding up actual innocent US citizens based on nothing more than their ethnicity and tossing them into prison camps? They were harmless. Jose Padilla is not.
Stephe, dear, the point about Mr. Padilla only concerns your selective shock regarding jailing American citizens without trial. One suspects that you were simply making a rudimentary ad hominem attack. Mr. Padilla may very well be guilty of all of these things. But you and I only know what we have been told. For a certain kind of American, that is sufficient. Not for this American. I am a Tom Paine patriot, and most definitely not a John Ashcroft/Karl Rove patriot.
How do we know that Mr.Padilla didn’t scam Al Queda out of 10 large that he intended to squander on wine, women, and song? Would that be illegal? Dunno, personally, I would be inclined to find in downright laudable. You exhibit a terrifying willingness to accept at face value the word of people how have lied to you many, many times.
Besides, you knew perfectly well that Evil wasn’t actually suggesting Rove be slammed up without trial, now didn’t you?
Furthermore, without a trial…a trial that might very well adjudge Rove unindicatable due to one or another of the technicalities you have so urgently thrust into our discussion…without a trial, we might not have access to some of the jucier details, the who’s, the whats, and oh! yes! the whys!
Radical lefty that I am, I suspect that those facts will not reflect favorably upon these men you are so eager to protect. Surely you are as eager as I to have all of these facts brought into the light of day? Since you have faith, do you not, that all of these facts will only show that GeeDubya and Co. are naught but the very finest, the most blameless and upstanding of men?
Stephe96, please provide evidence for your “overseas in the last five years” assertion. Here are the key provisions of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. I see no sign of the requirement you mention, nor have I heard reference to it from any source other than you.
While you’re at it, why don’t you respond to some of the people who’ve put up factual rebuttals of your arguments instead of merely putting out more nonsense?
Could we put a kibosh on this condescending crap? Is this the new ‘clever’ way to get around GD rules about flaming, while still being able to treat your fellow SDMB members like shit?
Because he used the documents in a manner consistent with the reason they were provided to him? Because he did not leak their contents to a third party for political vengeance?
Upon reflection, you have a point. I should be mindful to focus my sarcasm on the sheer bogosity of the arguments and refrain from any suggestion, however indirect, that they arise from defects of character or intelligence. I shall endeavor to do so.
Stephe, you have my apology.
Of course, I might not be so quick to an admission such as this were I not held accountable by a poster whose own conduct as regards sarcasm is so entirely blameless and above reproach.
First of all, I’m very sorry for referring to this place as a *dick-waving corral, *which possibly contributed in attracting a stern eye from the mods. I was under the impression that flaming and poopy talk in general was only forbidden when aimed at someone directly; apparently I need to brush up on my SDMB rules. I sincerely apologize.
Secondly, Hentor, I am also guilty for skimming the thread too quickly (a major Achilles heel of mine) and thus missing your post about the Rove-Cooper e-mail. I surely would have quoted you or otherwise acknowledged that you had already made this point earlier if my perusal of the thread hadn’t been so sloppy.
Upon re-reading, my second post in this thread does indeed come across as “hurt” if not flat-out “whiny.” You have only my word, any Dopers who are interested, that woe-is-me was not remotely the overriding emotion prompting me to marvel at how the prevailing atmosphere in this thread had degenerated.
Again, my apologies to all. Mods, classy debaters, and snippy arguers alike.
In a related development, The President advised that no one who lies to the American people should be permitted to retain public office unless a Presidential Finding of “King’s X” has been invoked…
Presumably ‘found to have committed a crime’ means convicted, so we can look forward to a long period when the president’s chief of staff is also on trial. That should give Bush’s lagging agenda a well deserved shot in the arm.
I think he has set new standards that all future presidential candidates are going to have to meet. “As president, I can promise you that we will have absolutely no felons working in the administration!”
(Don’t forget to note that his prior promises were to fire anyone involved in the leak of the information. Criminality was not a criterion back then. Just so you know that the goalposts were moved about 35 yards.)
(Heavily excerpted from a liberal blog, The Carpetbagger Report, which the reader is encouraged to peruse, though Tighty Righty Dopers must be advised to approach “shields up”)