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To: Cboldt; the Real fifi; frankjr

Fitgerald's repeated use of the word "classified" is and was a red herring.

The Identies Act requires that Plame have been "covert" (not "classified") in order for there to have been a crime. And for the Act to be violated, Libby or anyone else would have to have *known* she was "covert", and furthermore must have obtained that information from other classified sources.

This is a pretty high bar, but it's really because the Act is intended to protect foreign covert agents from the kind of outing that Phil Agee (a former CIA agent) had been doing in the 70's. Agee used his classified status to "out" literally hundreds of covert agents.

Also there are tens of thousands of people in the DC area with "classified" jobs and positions, but they are in no way "covert" or protected by the Act. It's not prudent to do so, but if a government employee states that they work at NSA or the FBI or the Pentagon and that their work is classified, no crime has been committed. If Joe Schmoe tells a reporter that his neighbor John Smith has a classified job at the State Department, Joe Schmoe has committed no crime whatsoever.


18 posted on 02/01/2006 10:41:11 AM PST by angkor
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To: angkor
Also there are tens of thousands of people in the DC area with "classified" jobs and positions

The "job" I got last night, and the "position" of the stripper, are both CLASSIFIED. My wife is NOT cleared to receive the information. :-)
29 posted on 02/01/2006 11:16:49 AM PST by atomicweeder
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