Has anyone gauged the DAMAGE that NameLeakGate could do?

[MnFats]

Two things keep occurring to me in the wake of this malicious, petty vicious attempt to damage people and make retaliation routine despite wrecking intelligence operations:

1.) who in their right mind would want to provide information to a CIA agent in the field if they had to worry that their CIA contact would be outed, putting anyone associated with the outed agent in danger?

2.) who the hell wants to go to work for the CIA knowing that their identity might be tossed up to the media if they fail to follow the administration line -- or even if a relative criticizes the administration? (whether an 'analyst' or an 'operative' is irrelevant....a CIA employee in the field incurs danger and would make a prize hostage to many hostile groups.

If it didn't come from the Bush administration, where the hell did it come from? Do the Freepers have any inkling how ruinous and wrong this is?

Of all the things Bush has done to piss me off since stealing the election, this one ranks near the top. He (or his minions) are willing to engage in personal destruction in order to stifle dissent over a war becoming ever more clearly a FRAUD.

[Skittles]

1. Nobody in their RIGHT MIND

we are talking BUSH INCORPORATED here. I've said it over and over - they will stop at nothing - they will lie, steal, cheat, KILL to get their way. They are the lowest of the low.

[Brian Sweat]

2. You are correct.

Even I did not see the scope of this. I only saw it in terms of the damage that it had done to Plame's network, but it will also make it difficult to establish new networks to replace the one that was burned. Especially after a few assets are removed from the books permamently. If you know what I mean.

[Classical_Liberal]

3. It pokes holes in the republican are better on foriegn policy

meme, and the republicans are more patriotic than traitorous dems meme, that Coulter attempted to start. So this is very damaging. It shows many of the war hawks to opportunistic rather than patriots, and it shows that they are amatures and unknowledgable on foriegn policy issues.

[West Coast Democrat]

4. This is a story I posted in LBN

CIA scandal could divert Rove from re-election campaign


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031001/pl_afp/us_iraq_cia_rove_031001192025

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The controversy over accusations that the White House leaked the name of a CIA agent to get at a critic of the US war in Iraq could become a key distraction for President George W. Bush's main strategist Karl Rove.

Rove, the secretive mastermind of many Bush triumphs, has become the target of opposition Democrats in the row just as he puts the finishing touches to his campaign to secure Bush's re-election next year.

Even Joseph Wilson, the former ambassador whose wife was named in the leak as a Central Intelligence Agency operative, says he believes Rove and the White House had been "pushing" the story about his wife.

More....

[calimary]

7. One nice little residual of this is -

Rove can no longer work in the dark. He's in the hot seat whether anyone admits it or not. He'll be PERCEIVED as damaged goods if this keeps up. And perception is, indeed, everything. He's powerful and intimidating because people believe him to be so. And he's not afraid to exploit that. So this has taken him down a few pegs. Maybe not a lot. At least not yet. But he's been hurt. His "aura of invincibility" has been compromised.

[leftofthedial]

5. The Bush PNAC cabal have systematically politicized

the entire Executive Branch.

It's very Stalinesque.

[leftofthedial]

6. THe Bush/PNAC Cabal has systematically politicized

the entire Executive Branch.

Politicizing the economic council was troubling. Politicizing the CIA is horrifying for the reasons you list and more. There is the obvious danger to the individual operatives involved and to anyone our enemies might think were involved. The future danger for a political CIA to be unleashed on the USA is not compatible with the survival of democracy.

It's very Stalinesque.




NOTE: Sorry for the double post. When I hit post message, I got an error message, so I posted again.