Actually, "liar" is too kind a word to use in describing Joe Wilson. He is a traitor who peddled lies in an effort to subvert a sitting President at a time of war for a potential cabinet seat in a Kerry administration.
Exactly.
Aided and abetted by Patrick Fitzgerald, of course.
Note that Wilson no longer says his wife was "covert", which would make her "outing" illegal under the Intelligence Identites Protection Act. Now Plame was/is merely "classified", like the 20,000 other federal employess in DC Metro with any kind of security clearance. In other words, Wilson now half-admits that no crime was committed.
As a consequence, Wilson now asserts that some kind of "administrative" security violation was nonetheless committed by whomever said that Plame worked at CIA. In typical Wilson fashion, he doesn't explain how this "administrative" violation would come about. You can read the DCI/D classification regulations all day and not find an answer to that. In any case, for one cleared federal employee that say that another "works at CIA/NSA/NRO" is hardly an unusual event. It's more a breach of clearance etiquette than anything else, not a "national security violation," which is a fabrication in Wilson's mind.
WILSON: Well, it certainly makes the case that my wife was a classified officer and, therefore, the leak of her name is a violation of national security. Whether that can be prosecuted and other relevant acts, I have no idea. But at a minimum, it's a violation of national security. There are administrative procedures for that.
BLITZER: But Patrick Fitzgerald is not going after that. He's going after the -- he's simply investigating, at least based on what he's charged so far, that Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied.
WILSON: Well, Mr. Fitzgerald has made it very clear and made it very clear in his press conference two things. One, justice would be served so long as somebody was prosecuted for a crime. And second, he made it very clear that the fact that Mr. Libby had perjured himself and had obstructed justice in the view of the special prosecutor, that had stymied his effort, really, to get to the bottom of the organic crime that he was -- that he was looking in to. But irrespective of whether he prosecutes on the crime, it's important to understand that if you're a classified officer -- and Mr. Fitzgerald has said that repeatedly, that Valerie was -- then the leaking of her name is a violation of the national security.
BLITZER: But why wouldn't somebody be prosecuted for that?
WILSON: Well, again, there may well be administrative sanctions. I think it's very clear if you look at the tact that Mr. Fitzgerald is taking, he's narrowing his prosecution of Mr. Libby to what -- what is, I think, prosecutable under the circumstances.