Thursday, July 21, 2005
Mistah Rove, He Frogged
From the Washington Post via Atrios:
A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials. Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post. The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials. Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.The irony is that Rove is likely going to be nailed for violating an Executive Order amended by George W. Bush himself -- which means that Rove wrote the amended text and had Bush sign off on it. Oh, and we should all give a great big hug to Paula Corbin Jones -- or better yet, to her ex-husband and Svengali, Steve Jones, who is a longtime Republican operative high up in the Arkansas GOP -- for her role in helping to establish the clear legal precedent that Secret Service personnel, including those who provide personal security for the president and others, may be compelled to appear before grand juries and investigators and assist in recalling who was where when, who saw which and said what, and so forth. Ribbit, ribbit.
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