"Noted"

From the October 13, 2003 edition of the Note [no permanent link until 10/14], ABC‘s daily “inside baseball” politics report described by many as scrupulously nonpartisan, and by me as the David Broder of the new century, on the Plame Affair:

The White House seems to be seeking to suggest (and Newsweek seems to be buying) that if officials simply called reporters to call attention to the Novak column and what it said about Wilson’s wife the Agents Identities Act does not apply. This seems wrong.

The Act was specifically drafted to cover a situation where a person conveys information other than a name which has the effect of identifying someone as a covert agent. That is what the statutes says “discloses any information identifying such covert agent” rather than “identifies a covert agent.”

A reporter reading the Novak column would have no way to know if the fact reported was correct. However, after the phone call he or she would know it was correct and hence would have the identity of a covert agent.

Nor can the administration claim that because the name appeared in the paper once it was no longer classified and that the government was no longer keeping it a secret. This Administration (and past ones) has often argued that something is still secret even if it was published once without collaboration. The government in fact still asks people not to use the name and still take the position that the fact of whether or not she was or is a covert agent is still classified.

Just ask the CIA.

The White House spin has evolved from “who cares?” to “it never happened” to “she wasn’t covert anyway” and now to “we’ll never find out who” to “they didn’t mean to!” over the past 11 or 12 weeks. With the Note—and by extension, the Washington press corps—setting those last two aside, by making it clear that the CIA takes Rove’s post-Novak calls as seriously as the mysterious Novak call, it should soon be “you can’t prove it anyway,” swiftly on to “we deeply regret any harm” to “spending more time with the family.” At which point, if Bush has any kind of brain, he will cut the culprits loose any let them go to jail, rather than sacrificing his Presidency to pardon them. I wouldn’t take that bet either way.

Filed under: politics