Reply #42: G.H.W. Bush, Richard Welch & Valerie Plame: karma and the law

[understandinglife]

The best summary I've found of the remarkable irony that accompanies the Plame case, and the creation of the law that makes it a felony to divulge the name of a covert CIA agent that G.H.W. Bush aggressively supported, is:

Danger of leaking names not lost on president's father

by John Kass

July 7, 2005

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"I don't care how long I live, I will never forgive Philip Agee and those like him who wantonly sacrificed the lives of intelligence officers who loyally served their country," said Bush, a former director of the CIA.

In the early 1970s, ex-CIA officer Philip Agee wrote a book and worked with newsletters to expose the identities of CIA officers overseas. Bush hated Agee because, he said, one of the hardest things he had to do as CIA director was meet with Tim Welch and tell him that his father had been murdered.

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While the 1st Amendment, political hypocrisy and irony grab our attention, let's not forget where this started. In 1982, in response to Agee and others, Vice President George H.W. Bush helped push through a law making it illegal to knowingly divulge the identity of covert CIA personnel.

President George W. Bush can still talk to his father about the deadly politics of leaks. Tim Welch can't.

Link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/premium/printedition/Thursday/chi-0507070178jul07,1,3815704.column?ctrack=1&cset=true

Mr Kass also notes that Mr Fitzgerald is doing in DC what he has done in Chicago, "climb the ladder by using the charges of perjury and lying to federal authorities as leverage to further loosen witnesses' tongues."

Mr Kass speculates that that ladder has already gained Mr Fitzgerald entry to the White House, and, interestingly, he mentions Cheney's name as well as Rove's.


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us