[churchillbuff]

So the outing of Plame was harmful to "national security"? """

Apparently a bipartisan panel of federal judges, having revealed secret evidence that neither you nor I nor Rush nor O'Donnell has seen, think it may have.

[leftcoaster]

The "outing" of Plame is not necessarily the national security issue that was discussed in the ruling, and which the judges ruled upon.

The NYT finally admitted a day or so ago that Fitz decided early on that there was no exposure of a covert spy.

What of the info about the Niger trip that Wilson leaked to the press, and then wrote about under his own byline? Was the other source(s) of Cooper and Miller (neither Libby nor Rove) the target?

[syriacus]

Maybe the judge is talking about a previous leak about Plame when she was still covert.

[muawiyah]

The judge is referring to the chain of events the "leak", whatever it might have been, precipitated. For instance, we have Joe Wilson "leaking" to the press the idea that the Yellowcake documents (of which the CIA had a hand written copy) were forgeries placed in the files of the uranium mining firm in Niger by French intelligence.

Who died? Did the Belgian guy who did the copying meet his demise?

There are several other "leaks" in this case to which Judge Tatel may have been referring.

Notice that ALL the Plame "leak" accusations are included in his decisions ~ the "leak" that causes him to lock up Miller is not!

[advance_copy]

So the outing of Plame was harmful to "national security"?

No, but consider these:

1. Filing a false report to the Justice Department claiming that Plame was covert when she wasn't.

2. Badly forged documents being used as so-called "intelligence flaws" to undermine real evidence that Saddam Hussein's Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

3. Steady leaks of classified information coming out of Langley in 2003 intended to turn public opinion against the war in Iraq.

Elements of the CIA acting as a rogue agency with their own political agenda, trying to influence elections; that IS a threat to national security. If you read Fitzgerald's filings, he always refers to Plame as a "purported" covert CIA operative.

And then there is this in Fitzgerald's filing to the Supreme Court in the case against Miller and Cooper:

In a memorandum opinion dated November 10, 2004, the district court relied on the grounds stated in the court’s July 20, 2004 opinion, and on the additional ground that the new subpoenas “stem[med] from legitimate needs due to an unanticipated shift in the grand jury’s investigation”...

The "new subpoenas" referenced were expanded from just being related to the leak of Plame's identity to include everything they discussed about Wilson's 2002 trip to Niger and everything they discussed about Wilson himself. Whether he signed a non-disclosure agreement or not, Wilson may have revealed classified information in his NY Times Op Ed. And that also is a threat to national security. Don't forget, Joe Wilson started working for John F. Kerry BEFORE he wrote his NYT Op Ed. I'd like to see Kerry and little Sandy Berger hauled in to testify at a trial of Joe Wilson.