Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

EDITORIAL: The legacy of Libby
Staff Editorial
Daily Texan (U. Texas)
02/13/2007

(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas — In the four years since the CIA leak scandal broke and with the recent trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the betrayal of an American intelligence officer by her own government has become surprisingly clear. And the fact that no one in the administration has been found liable for the leak is profoundly disturbing.

Libby's trial took a turn Monday as two of America's vanguard journalists testified, counter to the ideals of journalistic ethics, but armed with legal waivers absolving them of any culpability. The testimony by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus emphasized the unjust conclusion the CIA leak scandal seems to be coming to.

Woodward testified in Libby's trial Monday that he had learned the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame from deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, and was confident that Libby had not revealed Plame's identity. Pincus, a national security reporter, testified that former press secretary Ari Fleischer randomly told him Plame's identity in the course of investigating another story in July 2003. Unfortunately, neither Fleisher nor Armitage has been charged with any crime. In fact, Fleischer has been given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying that he had told Libby about Plame in front of other reporters.

The wave of testimony has made it clear who knew what, where, when and how the Bush administration betrayed Plame. In a July 2003 op-ed, conservative columnist Robert Novak identified the wife of a prominent Iraq war critic as a CIA agent operating under non-official status. Her outing didn't come as a result of shoddy work on Plame's part, but instead was betrayed by administration officials looking for revenge.

Following a trip to Africa to investigate administration claims that Iraq had obtained enriched uranium from Niger, Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a column for the New York Times saying such assertions were "unlikely." In the week after the article ran, two senior administration officials, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, told Novak about Plame's status. Since Novak's column ran, the CIA leak scandal has lead to the indictments of Libby, but little more. (Libby is accused of disclosing Plame's name to reporter Judith Miller, and didn't serve as a source for Novak's article.)

Revealing a CIA agent's identity would be tantamount to a death sentence. It's dangerous to the agent, their family, friends, co-workers and, more importantly, America's national security. Plame had worked overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport, and had she been caught in that capacity, Plame could have been imprisoned or executed. Such little disregard for our own agents by so many individuals is appalling, to say the least, but even worse is why.

Novak identified Plame in his article in an effort to allude that her husband had received the mission to investigate the Niger claims for the CIA because of his wife's employment with the agency. It was a hit on a war critic.

To date, no one has been charged with revealing the name of an undercover CIA agent, which is a serious felony. Libby is actually charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements to authorities. Special prosecutor in the Libby case, Patrick Fitzgerald, has said Rove won't face charges for his role. And, as mentioned before, Fleischer got his immunity.

Although Libby faces 30 years in jail, the actual injustice done to Valerie Plame probably won't be rectified in any meaningful way. And, perhaps even more frightening, it exposes the legacy this administration has left journalists: pawns to be used for political hit-jobs.

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