"In opposition to draft legislation setting heavy criminal penalties for Americans who deliberately identify undercover U.S. intelligence agents: `[Such legislation] will chill public debate on important intelligence issues and is unconstitutional." --- Morton Halperin, UPI, 1981
I wonder how Halperin feels about the "outing" of Valerie Plame?
"I wonder how Halperin feels about the "outing" of Valerie Plame?"
I actually heard either Joe Wilson or Ray McGovern (I forget which but I believe it was one of them) try to bring Agee up as a way of attacking Bush. Their argument was to the effect that if Bush was upset about Agee exposing undercover agents, he should be equally upset about Plame's exposure. The point you raise could be seen as the converse of that argument: how can they can complain about Plame if they defend Agee? Of course it could also be argued that there are some significant differences between the Agee and Plame cases, among which would be that we don't know who outed Plame, whereas Agee brazenly did what he did.