Det Free Press headline: "CIA Leak Undercuts U.S. Spies"

[Bozita]

We can't let this story die.

This is page 1a, above the fold, right side, HEADLINE

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/leak13_20031013.htm

CIA leak undercuts U.S. spies

BY WARREN P. STROBEL
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

October 13, 2003


WASHINGTON -- It's just a 12-letter name -- Valerie Plame -- but the leak by Bush administration officials of that CIA officer's identity may have damaged U.S. national security to a much greater extent than generally realized, current and former agency officials are saying.

Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush critic Joseph Wilson, was a member of a small elite-within-an-elite, a CIA employee operating under nonofficial cover, in her case as an energy analyst, with little or no protection from the U.S. government if she got caught.

Training agents such as Plame, 40, costs millions of dollars and requires the time-consuming establishment of elaborate fictions, called legends, including in this case the creation of a CIA front company that helped lend plausibility to her trips overseas.

Compounding the damage, the front company, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, whose name has been reported previously, apparently also was used by other CIA officers whose work now could be at risk, according to Vince Cannistraro, formerly the agency's chief of counterterrorism operations and analysis.

more...

[displacedtexan]

1. "CIA Leak" is shameful headline

the cia didn't leak her name. i'm pretty sick and tired of even the good guys repeating this crap headline.

how about the "novak leak?"

[Shadder]

3. But it originally had to be a CIA leak

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend any of these idiots. No matter who gave the info to Novak and the others, that person had to obtain the information from someone within the CIA that knew what her position was.

Lets assume that it was Libby that passed the information along to the media. Where did he get the information from? How many others outside of the CIA -- or within for that matter-- would have had this information to begin with?

[never cry wolf]

4. Libby and Cheney both

spent alot of time at CIA headquarters, which really is a no-no and unprecedented. But, since Plame's specialty was WMDs she very well may have been in on meetings with them.

[leetrisck]

5. An article I read said that she

did work on the paperwork that Cheney and his people used when he was meeting with the CIA - Cheney cannot be trusted - neither can bush - but very few people should have had this info. Believe they may try to hang this on Tenet and I'm not sure I buy that, but Tenet is an old buddy of the bush family.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. White House leak.

Bush Administration leak.
Tell it like it is.

[are_we_united_yet]

12. It wasn't even a Bush Admin Leak

It was a blatant malicious disclosure!

[iam]

8. Leak?

It wasn't a leak. It was an act of treason commited by the bush* admin to punish a patriotic American for exposing bush's* lies on Iraq. Just calling it a leak is a disservice to liberty..

[Another Bill C.]

2. Why hasn't Novak been indicted yet?

I saw Novak (or Nofacts) on TV yesterday and pretending to be a legitimate journalist. The man's a criminal by his own admission. As far as I can tell, the law makes no exceptions for the Press.

[booksenkatz]

7. Would like to see this story kept alive, but

I'd prefer to see it kept alive in a paper that is quasi-respectable. I cancelled my subscription to the FREEP after a few years because they are supposed to be the local left-leaning paper, but they kiss Bush ass daily and reverently. As opposed to the Detroit News, which kisses Bush ass hourly. (I don't like my news to lean either way, frankly; I just want to know what's happening with no editorializing. I know, I know, I want a lot.)

These days I buy a copy of the FREEP down at the store when I run out of paper to line my cockatiels' cage. Last week the FREEP called me up, begging me to resubscribe, they wouldn't take no for an answer, I had to hang up on them.

Criminy. If the FREEP is the only paper keeping this story alive, then we're doomed!

[alfredo]

10. Didn't the Detroit new buy the Free Press?

I went to a concert many years ago at Goose Lake near jackson. I was given a ride there by some guy (photographer) from the Detroit news. The main reporter was their religious writer. He probably thought he had been sent to hell.

[booksenkatz]

11. I don't know about ownership, but

they are "run" as two separate papers in this area, one for the "left" and one for the "right." They combine on weekends.

Both suck.

They should just combine every day and get the sham over with.

[realFedUp]

9. If outed agent had been a man....

I wonder if this would be treated more seriously...