And whoever is playing games, good guy or bad, should be brought to justice. If Novak did endanger US Intelligence Agents with his report, even if he was just passing on what he was told, he should be prosecuted, as should whoever told him things. And if she is not an undercover agent, or if her role was already public knowledge, then those trying to smear the administration and/or Novak should be brought to justice as well (although there may not be any crime committed so it would have to be in civil court with financial penalties).
Yes, but there's still that lingering doubt. She may not want to appear in every published article for rest of her life as "ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame". Moreover, at the moment, it's basically a rumor; couldn't Wilson be prosecuted if he confirmed the rumor as fact?
And whoever is playing games, good guy or bad, should be brought to justice. If Novak did endanger US Intelligence Agents with his report, even if he was just passing on what he was told, he should be prosecuted, as should whoever told him things.
I agree, subject to the proviso that I'm not familiar enough with the law to know if Novak violated it or not.
And if she is not an undercover agent, or if her role was already public knowledge, then those trying to smear the administration and/or Novak should be brought to justice as well (although there may not be any crime committed so it would have to be in civil court with financial penalties).
If she's not with the CIA, Plame could conceivably file a civil suit (claiming slander, or something like that -- I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know the subtle details here). She'd be the one who was smeared in this scenario.
I don't expect we'll be seeing such a lawsuit.