Let’s just be clear on one thing: Scooter was popped not for outing a CIA agent, but for being an idiot and lying to the Grand Jury and obstructing it (same charges as Slick!) In Patrick Fitzgerald’s own words (transcript via Michelle Malkin) during yesterdays press conference:
Q: Did Libby know whether Valerie Wilson’s identity was covert?
A (Fitzgerald): …We have not made any allegation that Libby knowingly/intentionally outed a covert agent.
And well he shouldn’t. It was NOT a crime, per the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. The Demorats can avoid the letter of the law as much as they want, but it is very simple to understand. It has been posted numerous times, but, let’s try again. Go read it, it’s not long. I’ll wait.
All done? Great. Don’t forget this part.
(4) The term "covert agent" means—
(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency—
(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or
She did not work outside the USA in the 5 years prior to being "outed." She was a worker bee at the CIA.
Is this damaging to the CIA? Only the people at the CIA can tell you that. Not the talking heads on TV, not the radio folks on Air Deadbeat or Rush/Hannity, etc, not the bloggers from either side of the aisle, not even the politicians. I’ll take my guess, though. I say little to negligible. I should hope that the folks who work at the CIA are not dumb. They understand that this may have been some political infighting, or just someone being stupid and running his/her mouth. If the White House wanted to get back at Wilson, there were certainly other ways to do it, rather then turning her into a celeb who appears in Vanity Fair.
Oh, and BTW, all those folks saying that IIPA of 1982 doesn’t just cover government workers: Section 601 [50 USC 421] (c) covers civilians, including the media.
Here’s something I still can’t figure out.
Why didn’t Fitz first find out if the IIPA was broken, which wasn’t, and then just announce no crime was committed and close his investigation down?
Instead he kept digging until he could charge someone with something.
I’m wondering if there wasn’t a tipping point where he realized that he’d been investigating for so long that he had to come up with something to justify all the millions spent.
You can’t really be that stupid, can you? Oh, wait.., your a conservatard. Sure you can!