When is a "Leak" a Covert Action? Can we "Agee"?

Lee Ellis

In journalism, the definition of "leak" suggests that it is applied to government officials who purposely give reporters secret or confidential information in order to publicize something they do not like so that it can be defeated before being voted upon.

"Outing" a CIA agent is only a crime if the agent is under cover overseas or has been during the past five years. This law was created to prevent the assassinations of CIA agents on foreign shores as had been caused by Philip Agee in 1978 who listed CIA agents undercover in foreign cities, causing the murder of some.

With these two realities in mind, only a propagandist, who really and unreasonable hates President Bush, could tell such lies about Karl Rove!

1. Rove did not call a reporter to leak something. The reporter called Rove to verify a story about Joseph Wilson which was not true. Rove tried to explain that neither Bush nor Cheney authorized his trip to Niger; it was someone in the CIA who had. Rove then said, in an effort to keep the reporter from going with a false story, that apparently Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and it was she who had recommended him.
2. It was Novak who actually put the name, "Valerie Plame" into the newspaper and he had called the CIA to be sure that it was OK to reveal her name. Since she was NOT a covert agent, the CIA did not stop him. Joseph Wilson, himself, was recorded as saying that Novak did not "out" his wife wrongly as she was NOT a covert agent at the time. Actually, Plame has been in management at the CIA as a known CIA employee since the days she dated and married Wilson!

Based on these two facts, let's stop the false attacks on Rove and Bush. The only agent that has been truly "outed" is Fulton Armstrong--- not by Rove, but by Senator John Kerry, according to a story in Newsmax on 7/14/2005. Where are Boxer, Pelosi, Reid and Kennedy now? Why are they so quiet about this?

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com