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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (213696)	12/21/2004 11:25:14 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 1576975

Then there is no problem. Novak is a journalist, and journalists have some rights to protect their sources. If Novak must be compelled to name his, then Woodward must name Deep Throat. Either treat similar situations similarly or be accurately labeled a partisan. Thanks for clarifying that the Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame exposure is a non issue. Since He and she did not protect her identity, the CIA confirmed her as an employee, etc. she was an analyst and not a covert agent, there is no evidence that anyone "outing" her could have violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act which is being used as the excuse for initiating an "investigation". This is no Phillip Agee clone case. The law requires a prosecutor to show that a person has disclosed information that identifies a "covert agent" (not an "operative") while actually knowing that the agent has been undercover within the last five years in a foreign country and that the disclosed information would expose the agent. For a person who had no classified access to the outed agent's identity, the law provides the additional hurdle of proving a pattern of exposing agents with the belief that such actions would harm the government's spying capabilities. As a practical matter, this high degree of proof of willfulness or intentionality would be almost impossible to find in any circumstances other than in a Philip Agee clone (and maybe not even him). To interpret the statute more broadly would flout the longstanding American jurisprudential tradition of narrowly construing criminal laws, especially those that encroach upon free-speech values. (from opinionjournal.com)