Why the Valerie Plame Case Matters

Where “NOC” = non-officical cover.

“If Rove and Libby even mentioned the identity of Valerie Plame in the context of being a CIA employee -- NOC or not -- on an unsecured line to a person without a security clearance or need to know, while the nation was waging war, that is the end of the story. It really doesn't matter why or whether there was a plan or anything. The minimal story -- that they talked about Plame with a reporter -- is the end of the matter.”

-George Friedman

Every last patriot should take a moment to read the entire (and excellent) article by Friedman (CEO of a private intelligence company).

And I agree with every point except for one: the why matters to me. Libby and Rove (acting for Cheney and Bush) outed Valerie Plame as an act of revenge against her husband Joseph Wilson (who’s at it again, BTW). They didn’t like an editorial he wrote discrediting the case for war, and so they outed his wife. National Security, years of intelligence, long-standing policy, sworn oaths, the good of the nation, and the right thing to do can all take the hindmost. They’ve got a party agenda to advance.