It's a scary world out there. ??With our war on terror, American intelligence has to work hard, research all their sources, maintain the credibility of their agents and do all they can to gather information to keep us safe. Their work is dangerous and difficult and must be respected. Acts of sabotage must be dealt with severely. Is that why the CIA wants a full investigation of... the Bush White House?
Don't worry, you read that correctly. Back in July, Joe Wilson, former ambassador to Iraq, blew the whistle on the administration's claims about Iraq having tried to obtain uranium from Niger. He told the press that not only were the claims false, but that he passed his information on to figures in the administration as part of a special assignment. While the media was poring over the \16 words"" scandal of the summer, the White House sought to discredit Wilson. Bob Novak, one of the most distinguished conservative journalists of the last 50 years, reported in his column that administration officials told him Wilson only got his job because his wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA agent.
Beside the usual smear campaign against administration opponents, which is par for the course, there's a big problem here: It is a federal offense to divulge the identity of a CIA agent. Whoever told Novak this information may have violated a law punishable by up to 10 years in prison. There are several reasons that this is punished so severely. First off, a revealed agent loses credibility and some ability to investigate his or her assigned subject. ??In Plame's case, the CIA just lost an agent who was working on gathering information about weapons proliferation. An agent's life might be in danger, along with any sources that the agent had cultivated. We don't know if any threats have been made against Plame or if any sources of hers have been harmed. There's a reason we don't know this: it's classified. If we found out, someone would be in a lot of trouble.
Even more disturbing is the apparent motivation for revealing Plame's identity. Her husband made the administration look bad, so somebody in the White House retaliated by revealing classified information to destroy her career and possibly endanger her life. This wasn't just about Joe Wilson, it was about sending a message to anyone else who might think about undercutting the president's agenda. Anyone who values national security, a non-partisan civil service and ethical government should be horrified at this. If Bill Clinton's White House had done something like this, there would have been an around-the-clock effort by Republicans to impeach him for it, and it probably would have stuck.
The CIA doesn't appreciate being manipulated and abused for political purposes like this, so they want the Justice Department to investigate the White House. ??However, there is some evidence that senior political advisor Karl Rove, a man who has some history with Novak, was involved. Past clients of Rove include John Ashcroft, whose Justice Department will be investigating this. Whoever did do this, there's just too much chance they'll get off while the White House makes some minor functionary into a jole. Wesley Clark, John Kerry and other Democratic presidential candidates have called for an independent investigator to be appointed, but it probably won't happen. The White House knows there's just too much of a chance that such an investigator will get it right.
And so here we are in the Twilight Zone. The CIA is out to get a Republican administration, who, in turn, will talk about national security but have an element willing to endanger our intelligence capacities in order to get back at political enemies. There needs to be a tough investigation of this business, and it should never happen again. Our security might depend on it.
opinion@dailycardinal.com.
