Sorry, but I just have to keep talking about the article John posted below. He was rightly aghast that Sen. Roberts of Kansas is laughing off national security and treating the covert status of agents as a joke. But what really astonished me was the context of his comments: as threader acanadianreader pointed out, Roberts is mocking Valerie Plame's status as a covert agent who risked execution if caught overseas (no diplomatic immunity) and made contacts around the world whose lives have also been endangered by her outing.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will conduct hearings on American spy agencies' use of cover to protect the identities of intelligence officers, the committee chairman said on Sunday....It hardly needs to be penetrated by foreign intelligence when Rove leaks the info to the press.
Larry C. Johnson, a former C.I.A. analyst who organized the letter, said in an interview that "there are lives on the line" in the leak of an operative's identity, because foreigners known to have met with the operative may come under suspicion.
But another former C.I.A. officer, Reuel Marc Gerecht, called Ms. Wilson's cover "very, very soft" and said cover "is the Achilles' heel of the agency." He said cover is too often easily penetrated by foreign intelligence agencies.
Message? Joe Wilson's mission was a joke because his wife sent him. And Valerie Plame wasn't "really" a covert agent, just a glorified desk jockey.
I assume Roberts also thinks classifications like Secret and Not for Foreign are a joke as well. This administration is declaring open war on the CIA. Why doesn't the head go on talk shows and denounce this dangerous attack on national security and the men and women who risk their lives defending it?
