One more reason why you should be glad the pilot and not the river rat occupies the White House (from ABC This Week):

Sen. Kerry: … Here's my fundamental view of this, that you have somebody being fired from the CIA for allegedly telling the truth, and you have no one fired from the white house for revealing a CIA agent in order to support a lie. That underscores what's really wrong in Washington, DC Here.

On a wall in the main though least used entrances to the CIA (I don’t think that’s a signal or anything) there is an inscription “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” That’s from John (the apostle, not the senator) I think. Senator Kerry would have us believe that Ms. McCarthy (who was as “out” in her employment status as Ms. Plame) was pacing the halls of the Agency at night, distraught over her knowledge of secret CIA prisons, and looked up and found inspiration. Gag me.

The exchange continues:

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's one issue of hypocrisy but should a CIA officer be able to make decisions on his or her --

KERRY: ... Of course not. Of course, not. A CIA agent has the obligation to uphold the law and clearly leaking is against the law, and nobody should leak. I don't like leaking. But if you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that, at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you, you know, put on that person. Obviously they're not going to keep their job, but there are other larger issues here. . . .

The larger issue here is that by “leaking to tell the truth” she put the life of every officer involved in the program at risk (she might have checked with colleague Mrs. Spann to see how she felt about that). She also endangered every officer involved with a foreign service (liaison) and made it infinitely harder for US intelligence to recruit future agents. Why in the world would anyone trust a US intelligence officer today knowing that he could be sold out, not by the professional sitting across the table from him, but by some political hack safely cloistered away in DC?

About the Author

Michael Tanji

Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.