[elpadre]

a little off topic

It seems to me that spouses of people working in State Dept. or any other who is involved in foreign affairs or required to travel overseas on government business, should NEVER be allowed to work at CIA in a covert capacity. It puts one or the other into a position where they could be easily blackmailed, pressured or endangered. The risks, I believe are significant.

If there is no law, there should be one - it is a matter of national security.

[Doctor Raoul]

Frequently the CIA people are overseas using a cover of being a State Dept employee.

[pepperdog]

It is a policy that people with certain kinds of clearance aren’t allowed to travel, even to friendly countries without prior approval and that approval isn’t given lightly. I’m betting that after 911 it is much more stringent. I continue to be amazed that Wilson was allowed to go anywhere outside of the US since his wife supposedly had a very, very high degree of clearance. I feel sure that if the spouse is in a job that requires travel to foreign countries the person holding the critical clearance would be immediately reassigned to a job that didn’t require access to sensitive information. It has to be this way otherwise the investigative agencies would be overwhelmed with continual review requirements each time the spouse of a cleared person hit the road. I believe the basic premise of classified clearance was violated in the Plame case but since it was inside the beltway there will probably be nothing done. The rich and/or the politically well connected really are different aren't they?

[CutePuppy]

No law necessary.

Spouses of ambassadors and other people in prominent positions in State Department are automatically presumed to be working for CIA or at least regularly debriefed or reporting to other intelligence services - that's why even the idea of Valerie Plame's "undercover", "clandestine" or, as Fitzgerald tried to finesse, "classified" status (which in itself was meaningless and not even qualified for the statute he was "investigating") was so laughable - she would be automatically considered a spy by anyone she had a contact.

Yet this was the hook for this entire imbroglio and phony "investigation" which [almost] paralyzed White House and was, IMO, criminally and cynically used by Democrats and "progressive" media for political purposes, and almost succeeded in "Watergate II".