"But I believe ... leaking classified information from the CIA as Joe Wilson did by his op-ed piece in the NYT is against the law"
That has always been my belief. He was on an official trip for the CIA who had ownership of any information that he brought back - they alone had the authority to release it to the public.
I'm not sure if they had the sole authority to release it .. I think Congress can can also petition to have it declassified
But either way .. It was NOT Joe Wilson's place to do an op-ed piece on this information
"That has always been my belief. He was on an official trip for the CIA who had ownership of any information that he brought back - they alone had the authority to release it to the public."
I agree having worked in Special Access Programs. I have no doubt that the information Wilson was sent to "verify" was sourced from intelligence sources-meaning it was highly classified. I too believe the law was broken when he went to the Press with the information.
A couple of more questions on this:
Seeing that Wilson was no longer in the employ of the US Gov't, did he maintain a security clearance and have the requisite 5 year background check?
Was he "Read in" to the program he was working?
Did his wife break federal hiring rules by influencing his hiring?
Did he also look into the other 4 African nations which produce Uranium, or just Niger since the forged memos were coming down the pike?
Inquiring minds want to know.