One Good Leak Deserves Another

How the CIA got the ball rolling on the Plame investigation.

by Stephen F. Hayes - 10/31/2005 - The Weekly Standard

FOR FOUR YEARS, A slow-motion war between the CIA and the Bush administration has been unfolding over America's airwaves and on its front pages. A principal weapon in this war has been the deliberate leaking of information to the media.

When the history of this damaging episode is written, two leaks will stand out as having been most consequential. One of them is famous: the alleged leak to columnist Robert Novak that led to the compromising of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

But there was another big leak that no one seems to care about: the leak of the CIA's referral to the Justice Department concerning the Plame matter. That second disclosure, perhaps even more than the initial leak, set off the chain of events that resulted in the naming of a special prosecutor and finds us now anticipating indictments of senior White House officials.

There are going to be a great number of people who will not accept the premise of this article. The very idea that rogue elements in the CIA are trying to bring down a President and his administration seems almost bizarre. However the evidence seems pretty compelling.

Valerie Plame was a member of one department in the CIA that got the intelligence about the lead up to 9/11 and the war completely wrong. To assure they were not held accountable, they attempted to destroy the credibility of anyone who was in a position to call them on their preformance.

When they needed to stir up the controversy, they sent Joe Wilson to Africa to denounce the evidence that the British had obtained proving their intelligence before the war was wrong. Their efforts in this case are merely one action in a pattern of actions intended to damage our elected administration and avoid anyone looking at their failed efforts. When will the CIA be held accountable?