Interesting Huffpost by Mike McCurry today.

[Mojambo]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/mike-mccurry/a-little-sympathy-for-sco_4171.html

"Unless conversations go well beyond what has been reported, there has to be some other explanation for the zeal with which this investigation is being pursued. Something consequential must have happened because of this leak that we have not yet read about. That's about all I can imagine, because otherwise the whole thing -- leak, story, investigation -- seems a little disproportionate. Maybe a major intelligence operation got botched. Or someone took a real hit somewhere in the world as a result."

[Cha]

1. Yes, that was interesting

..and I've read something like it on DU.

We're all waiting to see what Fitzgerald does!

[atommom]

2. There may well be more to it ... I'm sure there is.

But even knowing the few details we do know, I don't think what we're seeing is "disproportionate zeal." :shrug:

[KeepItReal]

3. Unless Plame's counter-proliferation operation was not doing its job...

A major undercover intelligence operation *was* put out of business or exposed.

[Tom Kitten]

4. Any other botched intelligence operations in the news lately?

could it be ?

Along with the "unexpected shift in focus" talked about earlier?

[Straight Shooter]

5. I believe there is a corresponding reason for it, not yet disclosed.

I also believe that Fitzgerald understands that if you don't take care of a festering wound in the government, it can develop into septicemia, which is blood poisoning and thereby kill the whole system. He knows that "one stitch in time saves 9," so to speak. Maybe he just has a basic revulsion of treason. How much more effin' un-American can you be than to out a CIA agent who is working on protecting America?

[JDPriestly]

6. I disagree with McCurry.

Rove and his accomplices showed a sociopathic lack of judgment and a psychopathic surplus of viciousness in outing Plame. The same psychology that allowed Rove and his buddies to out Plame got us into Iraq, ran up the budget deficits on the backs of the poor and middle class, mercilessly attacked Social Security and the elderly people who rely on it for their livings, etc.

Betraying state secrets, especially those having to do with nuclear weapons is historically viewed as one of the most serious crimes in our country. Remember the Rosenbergs. People who have given away our atomic secrets have been given the death penalty in this country. Rove and whoever else put the finger on Plame may have given away secrets not just about who we recruit to keep tabs on who is stealing and spying on our technology, who is selling atomic capacity without authorization, but possibly also on HOW we guard our secrets and HOW we trace down espionage as well as HOW we track the illicit sales of atomic/nuclear secrets and material. The outing of Plame, in that sense, could be viewed as a really major crime. We don't have the facts, but this is not beyond the range of possibility. We have to wait and see.

One sign that the matter is very serious is the fact that the prosecutor was able to persuade the judge to jail Miller. The court decides to do that by balancing how compelling the government's interest is in getting the information from her against how compelling her right is to safeguard her source under the First Amendment. The court had to have found the government interest to be very compelling because a journalist's First Amendment right is about as close to sacred as you get under our Bill of Rights. So, at least thus far, the prosecutor must have some pretty powerful information.

This is not a Sandy Berger case of someone "borrowing" documents illegally from the National Archives. But look at how seriously the relatively small Berger matter was viewed. Berger paid his dues I believe. Unless the facts turn out to be quite different from what we are hearing in the press, the dues Rove, et al. will pay may be much higher than the dues Berger paid.

McCurry is wrong to downplay the Rove matter at this point. It may turn out later that there is less here than it now appears, but McCurry's statements are not helpful and do not encourage the careful investigation of this matter that is needed.