If you think Valerie and her clique at the CIA are such a stellar group, please see if you can get her to answer my questions:
Why did the CIA provide intelligence to the previous administration about WMDs in Iraq and then this rogue group suddenly disown all that intelligence from the 1990s?
If Iraq was no threat, then why did my son deploy seven times into harms way from 1997-2001 to protect the no-fly zone?
If Saddam wasn't a threat, then why did we require our military going to the no-fly zones to take anthrax injections or face serious consequences? (we lost a lot of good people who weren't willing to get those experimental vaccines, remember Cohen getting one to "prove" they were safe?)
and finally,
With Saddam's Iraq in the center of the Middle East defying 17 UN resolutions to disarm, with us in a war on terror.....and the no-fly airports in Saudi and Turkey no longer available to us, Tell me Valerie, your intelligence suddenly thinks we should just let him ferment there because of your one stinking report? I don't think so!
"If you think Valerie and her clique at the CIA are such a stellar group, please see if you can get her to answer my questions"
I never said I think the CIA is a stellar group. I think the CIA & FBI are in serious need of an overhaul (as are many other gov't agencies).
Because of my husband's job and several friends who do this type of work on various levels I'm especially sensitive to classified information being bandied loosely about. That's my basic gripe.
My personal opinion is that Libby & Rove are very smart about politics but screwed up this time. In their zeal to trash Wilson they let slip information that was classified.
As holders of top secret security clearance, they had an obligation to be absolutely sure that what hey were saying about this situation was not going to compromise national security or a CIA employee's safety....and that it wasn't classified info. No matter her status at the CIA - her identity was classified.
They should just have attacked Wilson head on. There was no need to bring his wife into it. Whether she suggested him for the trip is a small point in the big picture and even if she did recommend him I don't see how that undermines his credibility much if at all.
Apparently, there was plenty to work with in Wilson's own words that would undermine his veracity. Dragging Plame into it was just overkill IMO.
Then by lying about it they just made it look even worse. It's not suprising that some observers (and CIA agents) feel that outing Plame was pure political intimidation.
And FWIW - I'm not happy that Mr. Cheney seemed to have no problems misleading the public about this (see his Meet The Press comments). I'm also not too thrilled that President Bush originally said he'd take the appropriate action if anyone in his White House leaked classified information. Now he says anyone indicted for doing so. Rove hasn't been indicted - yet - but it's obvious that he also leaked classified info to the press.