Another perspective from Zell Miller:

Rule can head off dirty tricks at CIA

By ZELL MILLER
Published on: 11/02/05
It's like a spy thriller. Institutional rivalries and political loyalties
have fostered an intelligence officer's resentment against the government.
Suddenly, an opportunity appears for the agent to undercut the national
leadership. A vital question of intelligence forms the core justification
for controversial military actions by the current leaders. If this agent can
get in the middle of that question, distort that information and make it
public, the agent might foster regime change in the upcoming election.

But the rules on agents are clear. They can't purposely distort gathered
intelligence, go public with secret information or use their position or
information to manipulate domestic elections or matters without risking
their job or jail.

But their spouse can!

The agent realizes her spouse can go out on behalf of the spy agency, can
distort information, go public with classified information and use all this
spy-agency-sponsored material and credentials to try to pull down the
current government, and it is all perfectly legal.

Suppose the spouse adds just one more brilliant, well-aimed lie: claim your
foremost political opponent put the spouse up to the trip. As your spouse
uses your agency's name to mount attacks, your enemy may fall into your
trap. Will your enemy suffer your spouse's lies or take the bait and try to
clarify his non-role? If he tells the press he didn't hire your spouse, the
press will demand to know, "Then who did?"

Instead of you violating secrecy laws, it is your victim who is guilty
because he tried to set the record straight. Heads, you win; tails, he
loses.

It sounds unbelievable, a fiction, perhaps to be called "To Sting a King."
But it is no fiction. This is the story behind Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and
the Bush administration. And it appears that Plame and Wilson will get away
with the biggest sting operation ever.

No one seems to care that our intelligence agency has crippled our
president. Certainly not the media. They are determined to make Wilson a
hero. Recall the dozens of times the Washington Post and The New York Times
carried his lies on the front page, above the fold. The conclusive story
discrediting Wilson was buried 6 feet deep, back by the obituaries.

To the media, it doesn't matter that the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence says Wilson lied about what he did and with whom he met while
investigating Iraqi attempts to purchase "yellowcake" uranium.

To the media, it doesn't matter that the CIA says what Wilson did actually
find supported that Iraq was attempting to buy the uranium - a direct
contradiction to Wilson's public claims.

To the media, it doesn't matter that he claimed the vice president assigned
him to the uranium investigation when we all know now it was his wife.

Some absurdly claim that Plame had nothing to do with her husband's
political activities against President Bush. But let it be clear. Plame
could not have done what Wilson did and gotten away with it. Wilson could
not have done what he did without Plame giving him a way to do it.

Something has to be done. We can't let the CIA become the domestic dirty
tricks shop, with Republican and Democratic agents each trying to pull down
their opposing presidents.

We need a Plame rule. Any family member of a CIA agent tapped to help out
must live by the same rules regarding information disclosure and domestic
political manipulations as those imposed on the agent. If the family member
fails to live by those rules, the agent is terminated.

Clearly this will restrict the flexibility of the CIA. But who ever thought
that the flexibility given to CIA agents would be misused to destabilize a
U.S. president? No one - until Valerie Plame.

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The indictment of Libby is going to prove to be a God-send to the Bush
administration. Just today, Libby's attorney stated that his client will be
seeking a jury trial. I predict the CIA angle will be played up big in
court.

Current and former CIA agents working covertly to destabilize a US President
in time of war! This is going to get really, really good. grin