Justice Could Decide Leak Was Not a Crime

Washington Post ^ | 1/2/2004 | Mike Allen

[HarleyD]

The Justice Department investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity could conclude that administration officials disclosed the woman's name and occupation to the media but still committed no crime because they did not know she was an undercover operative, legal experts said this week.

"It could be embarrassing but not illegal," said Victoria Toensing, who was chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when Congress passed the law protecting the identities of undercover agents.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Someone correct me if I am mistaken - but I thought she was assumed to have been outed by Aldrich Ames - and was removed from undercover status because of that. You cannot unring a bell - if she was compromised by Ames and moved into a non-covert role, no one could have committed a crime by identifying her. End of story.

[Mr. Bird]

Don't forget: the law allows the disclosure with the Director's approval. If Tenet approved it, it's perfectly legal. And if Tenet thought she had railroaded the Niger mission by recommending Wilson, he very well could have approved of outing her.

[Dan Evans]

Wasn't it some guy from the CIA who told Bob Novak about this? So Washington Post calls him an "administration official". Makes it sound closer to the White House. If this was the Clinton administration he would be called a "CIA official".

[meenie]

The spectre of original intent rears its ugly head. There must be something to avoid here.

[petitfour]

This is an interesting take on the legality of what occurred. However, how can someone be undercover and a known CIA employee? I'm sure some seasoned spook could tell us, but that ain't likely. :)

Politics is a dirty business, and the diplomat failed miserably. (Wilson, that is.) I still wanna know who pawned the story off to Novak and who the other reporters were who did not publish the story.

[GOPyouth]

Yeah, the story goes that Novak got wind of it, called the CIA, and a CIA official confirmed the identity and job title of the lady, yet asked Novak not to use the information.

So yes, the CIA also gave out the name.