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EX=PROSECUTOR: PLAME LEAK NOT ILLEGAL
NEWSMAX ^ | 2/22/05

Posted on 02/22/2005 10:14:45 AM PST by areafiftyone

The former prosecutor who helped draft the law that Democrats say was violated when someone in the Bush administration leaked a CIA worker's name to columnist Robert Novak now says that no laws were broken in the case.

Writing with First Amendment lawyer Bruce Sanford in the Washington Post recently, former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Victoria Toensing explained that she helped draft the law in question, the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Says Toensing, "The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct."

For Plame's outing to have been illegal, the one-time deputy AG says, "her status as undercover must be classified." Also, Plame "must have been assigned to duty outside the United States currently or in the past five years."

Since in neither case does Plame qualify, Toensing says: "There is a serious legal question as to whether she qualifies as 'covert.'"

The law also requires that the celebrated non-spy's outing take place by someone who knew the government had taken "affirmative measures to conceal [the agent's] relationship" to the U.S., a prospect Toensing says is unlikely.

Other signs that no laws were broken include the fact that after Plame was outted, the CIA's general counsel took no steps to prosecute Novak, as has been done to other reporters under similar circumstances.

Neither did then-CIA Director George Tenet or his deputy pick up the phone to tell Novak that the publication of her name would threaten national security and her safety, as is also routinely done when the CIA is serious about prohibiting publication.

In fact, the myth that laws were violated in the Plame case began to unravel in October 2003, in a column by New York Times scribe Nicholas Kristof, who explained that Valerie Plame had abandoned her covert role a full nine years before.

"The C.I.A. suspected that Aldrich Ames had given [Plame's] name [along with those of other spies] to the Russians before his espionage arrest in 1994. So her undercover security was undermined at that time, and she was brought back to Washington for safety reasons."

Kristof also noted that Plame had begun making the transition to CIA "management" even before she was outted, explaining that "she was moving away from 'noc' – which means non-official cover ... to a new cover as a State Department official, affording her diplomatic protection without having 'C.I.A.' stamped on her forehead."

Noted the Timesman: "All in all, I think the Democrats are engaging in hyperbole when they describe the White House as having put [Plame's] life in danger and destroyed her career; her days skulking along the back alleys of cities like Beirut and Algiers were already mostly over."

So why – with a special prosecutor now threatening to toss Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller in jail if they don't give up their sources in the Plame case – aren't their lawyers invoking the "no laws were broken" defense?

Explains the National Review's Rich Lowry: The Miller-Cooper defense hasn't made this argument because it would be too embarrassing to admit that the Bush administration's "crime of the century" wasn't really a crime at all, especially after a year and a half of media chest-beating to the contrary.

"It was just a Washington flap played for all it was worth by the same news organizations now about to watch their employees go to prison over it," says Lowry.

"That's the truth that the media will go to any length to avoid."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brucesanford; cia; cialeak; novak; plame; toensing
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This will put DUers panties in a wad!
1 posted on 02/22/2005 10:14:46 AM PST by areafiftyone
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To: areafiftyone

So Wilson won't go to jail for outing his wife?


2 posted on 02/22/2005 10:17:24 AM PST by SmithL (Proud Submariner)
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To: Alia

ping


3 posted on 02/22/2005 10:17:59 AM PST by JesseJane (Don't Fear the FReeper!)
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To: areafiftyone

No doubt! But just watch...the MSM, rather than reporting that the news was no news, will just let yet another one of their errors fade away without comment.


4 posted on 02/22/2005 10:19:05 AM PST by pharmamom (Ping me, Baby.)
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To: areafiftyone

Nice!


5 posted on 02/22/2005 10:20:29 AM PST by syriacus (Was Margaret Hassan kidnapped because she knew the Oil for Food program failed to aid Iraqis?)
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To: areafiftyone; Mo1; Howlin; Peach; BeforeISleep; kimmie7; 4integrity; BigSkyFreeper; RandallFlagg; ..
BLAWAWAWAWWAWWAWW!!!!!!!!!!!

What's that sound I hear in the distance?

Why I think that's Tom Harkin going mad!!
6 posted on 02/22/2005 10:22:13 AM PST by OXENinFLA
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To: areafiftyone

It hasn't hit their radar yet...had the website up so I could laugh at their "Karl Rove planted the tapes to distract from the Gannon/Guckert scandal" comments and just checked "Latest"...nothing there yet.


7 posted on 02/22/2005 10:24:32 AM PST by ravingnutter
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To: areafiftyone
"It was just a Washington flap played for all it was worth by the same news organizations now about to watch their employees go to prison over it," says Lowry.

Har-de-har-har!!!! Will there be a perp walk?? Will Eason Jordan cover this??

JOURNALISTS TARGETED BY SELVES,

COST TAXPAYERS MILLIONS,

INVOICE GOES TO EMPLOYER!

8 posted on 02/22/2005 10:24:47 AM PST by JesseJane (Don't Fear the FReeper!)
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To: cyncooper; backhoe; piasa; windchime; Shermy; Wolfstar

Ping!


9 posted on 02/22/2005 10:25:53 AM PST by Ben Hecks
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To: ravingnutter

The fact that it is in Newsmax means that it probably won't hit their radar and if it does they won't believe it.


10 posted on 02/22/2005 10:26:15 AM PST by areafiftyone (The Democrat's Mind: The Hamster's dead but the wheel's still spinning!)
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To: cyncooper

pingeroo!


11 posted on 02/22/2005 10:27:50 AM PST by MamaLucci (Libs, want answers on 911? Ask Clinton why he met with Monica more than with his CIA director.)
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To: ravingnutter
It's starting...

Plame Leak Not a Crime?

Looks like our Valerie Plame theory--that Ashcroft recused himself so that fewer people will scream whitewash when the Justice Department announces it can't prove a crime and no one gets indicted --is getting more play.

(The rest: http://talkleft.com/new_archives/004859.html)

12 posted on 02/22/2005 10:30:57 AM PST by JesseJane (Don't Fear the FReeper!)
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To: JesseJane

Thank you, JJ. Again, who wanted direction focused on Africa but not Syria and Iran; I'm still asking my question; and it may never find resolution. The story was a tempest from the get go. Oh dang.. that's right France is still determined to sell arms to China; of course Dick Cheney halted the process of major-serious arms sales there; but now there are talks concerning lesser "arms" sales. I wonder how the joint Russia-France Space Programs are rolling..


13 posted on 02/22/2005 10:33:43 AM PST by Alia
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To: areafiftyone

And don't forget, Gannon was connected to the Plame thingy, somehow, so this is just Rovian propaganda to keep the truth about BUSHCo.s criminal blah blah blah......


14 posted on 02/22/2005 10:34:35 AM PST by MisterRepublican (Liberalism kills.)
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To: SmithL

No... Wilson will probably get a cushy job doing college "speaking" assignments at $10-30,000 per "event".


15 posted on 02/22/2005 10:35:05 AM PST by Alia
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To: 1stMarylandRegiment; 1Mike; xJones; 3catsanadog; ~Vor~; ~Kim4VRWC's~; A CA Guy; ...

Surely this man is a Karl Rove puppet!!


16 posted on 02/22/2005 10:35:36 AM PST by Howlin (Free the Eason Jordan Tape!!!)
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To: prairiebreeze; onyx; Texasforever; CyberAnt; BigSkyFreeper; Tamsey; mrs tiggywinkle; EllaMinnow; ...
Since in neither case does Plame qualify, Toensing says: "There is a serious legal question as to whether she qualifies as 'covert.'"

True ...

But I believe ... leaking classified information from the CIA as Joe Wilson did by his op-ed piece in the NYT is against the law

17 posted on 02/22/2005 10:36:10 AM PST by Mo1 (Question to Liberals .. When did supporting and defending Freedom become a bad thing??)
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To: areafiftyone
The Plame game: Was this a crime?

Victoria Toensing and Bruce W. Sanford SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON Thursday, February 17, 2005

18 posted on 02/22/2005 10:36:31 AM PST by OXENinFLA
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To: MisterRepublican

lol! Yep. Some people think "connecting" dots is like pointing out stars in the sky and saying: Hey! These have connectness! lol


19 posted on 02/22/2005 10:36:39 AM PST by Alia
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To: Ben Hecks

Thanks!


20 posted on 02/22/2005 10:37:35 AM PST by windchime (Hillary: "I've always been a preying person")
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