The true cost of "outing" Plame needs to be outlined in spec. terms NOW!

[henslee]

I'm talking... all the money down the tubes as far as what it cost to set her cover up.

And all the costs related to the potential current danger to her life, and the cost of any peripheral operations and personel now in danger or rendered obslolete, and how the cost in terms of morale now that CIA agents and friendly informants now know they can be compromised by their own leaders...

It all need to be explored and discussed NOW, in order for the real damage of the Rove leak to really hit home.

[skids]

1. Difficult, as some of that info is doubtless still classified.

There are likely a number of assets for whom the association to Plame was in a gray area, where their cover was only slightly jeopordized. Those cases will make it necessary for the CIA to restrict further information, to see if they can salvage the cover. They will only release information that relates to completely destroyed assets.

[henslee]

3. If Rove was a man, he would nip this thing in the bud now and

pre-empt everything, steal the opposition's thunder and resign. He does not even have to admit guilt. Just state that it is too diff. for the Admin with all the drama swirling about his current situation.

[libertypirate]

2. It should be titled

Why did Bush clip himself at the kneecaps by exposing a clandestine group devoted to the proliferation of WMD?

[Viking12]

4. Ex-CIA Agent Larry Johnson says....

The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States.

-snip-

The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.


The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically identified a CIA NOC. They have set a precendent that the next group of political hacks may feel free to violate.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340

[AndyTiedye]

5. The Costs Could Be Horribly Higher Than That

We now know that the Bush administration intended to invade Iraq even before
9/11, and was "fixing the facts around the policy", as it was described in
the Downing Street memo, and that there were no Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction, nor any facilities to build them.

We now know that, as part of the process of "fixing" the facts, Karl Rove
blew the cover of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent. He outed her
"Company" and all of it's "employees" with her. The "Company" a CIA
front. Their real mission was tracking down illicit nuclear weapons and
materials and keeping them out of the hands of terrorists.

Who is doing that job now?

The destruction of Valerie Plame's organization has left us more vulnerable
to a terrorist attack with nuclear weapons than ever before.

Whether or not Rove is convicted of a crime, he should be fired at once.
He has recklessly put us all at risk for the basest of political motives.
:nuke:

[welshTerrier2]

6. Plame = DSM

Congressional committees asked CIA analysts whether anyone in the administration pressured them to falsify reports ... the answer was "no" ... but the committee completely missed the whole point of the Plame affair ...

the BP stated the problem very clearly: "CIA agents and friendly informants now know they can be compromised by their own leaders" ...

the issue is not whether analysts, and operatives, were directly pressured ... when entire CIA operations are destroyed by agents of the administration, a war, or better yet a treasonous act, has been waged against the institutions of our own government ... this was the reason Plame was outed; it had nothing to do with "embarrassing" her husband ...

the intent was to totally stifle groups in the CIA that strongly opposed the fabrication of evidence leading up to the invasion of Iraq ... it's criminal intent was to destroy the critically needed autonomy of CIA analysts ... our government badly needs a system of checks and balances and the Plame affair was nothing less than a power grab by the WH ... those who didn't go along were destroyed ...

the American people still believe the myth that we invaded Iraq because bush "was GIVEN bad intelligence by the CIA" ... the truth is, he was given good intelligence by the CIA ... he destroyed those who spoke the truth so that he could "fix the facts around the policy" ... now where have we heard that phrase before ???

the Plame affair IS THE SAME AS the Downing Street minutes ... exactly the same ... it was all about the fabrication of evidence by the WH ... and now, it's all about a good old, Watergate style cover-up ... i hope the bastards who did this rot in jail for the rest of their lives ...

[BeFree]

7. Yep, what was the intent?

What did the exposure intend to do, and what were the consequences of that exposure?

The intent was to destroy a secret operation of the US's CIA.

It was successful: the operation is, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. The consequence of the exposure is that we are at greater risk from WMD.

[welshTerrier2]

8. The consequence of the exposure

Plame's group was, indeed, responsible for analysis of WMD ...

but i think the destruction of Plame's operation goes well beyond the specific function of her group ... this type of direct attack from the WH has destroyed the independence of the entire agency and perhaps even other agencies within the government ...

the chill and dark shadows this has cast over the CIA is the greater harm ... if these bastards are not held accountable, a real blow to our intelligence agencies will remain in place for many years ... it's critical, for the national interest (not just politics), that we get to the bottom of this ...

the phrase "worse than Watergate" is dead on the money ...