What "Plamegate" is really all about.

[MoonRiver]

Our national security is at stake here. If the outing of a CIA undercover agent is allowed to take place without even a slap on the wrist to those who exposed her identity, our ability to recruit top notch foreign and domestic agents, and thereby obtain counter-terrorism intelligence is going down the toilet. No rational person will ever sign on to work covertly with the CIA when their identity is in jeopardy of being exposed by Washington political cutthroats at any time. And at that point our "war on terror" will be severely compromised. If Fitzgerald does not in some way make Rove and his cohorts in treason accountable we are in big trouble. This is way more than scoring political points. How this case is handled could determine whether we face another 9/11 in the near future.

See:

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/07/con05237.html

[Kagemusha]

1. It's simpler than that. Is anything non-political or is all political.

If there are such things as non-political aspects to the nation of America, then outing a CIA agent for political purposes is a terrible crime. If, on the other hand, everything is political, and therefore nothing is sacred but the interests of the administration (and there are no separate *government* interests save those), then what employees of the White House did was not just not a crime, but advancing the true interests of America.

The more I try to hold onto the idea that there are still non-political national interests in America, the more disappointed I am with the continual proof in the other direction.

[MoonRiver]

4. The argument as to whether it is political or not begs the question.

The real threat resulting from those who outed Plame receiving no consequences has to do with our national security and safety. Bottom line: if agents working, or considering working, for the CIA can't trust the government not to expose them, they will choose other careers than intelligence or will quit. Then we won't get the intelligence we need to protect the country. Fitzgerald better damn well indict whoemver is guilty, if he cares about the protection of America.

[European Socialist]

2. good point,

But will Porter Goss go against Chimpy.

[BeFree]

3. Porter Goss is

Nothing. He is just another cockroach.

What might have really happened is that the WH was about to be exposed as having their fingers in the WMD pie by Plame's investigation and were about to be caught, so they cooked up a way to end Plame's whole organization by exposing her in a way that they thought they could weasel out of.

It's a theory, eh? Why else would they so brazenly break a law, if not to save their sorry asses from an even greater crime?