A leak is a leak is a leak

Townhall ^ | 1/4/05 | Michelle Malkin

[pissant]

Alberto Gonzales, it's time to ear your paycheck.

[Ma3lst0rm]

They need to prosecute someone. This is a serious leak that endangers national security where as Plame was a non active employee of the CIA who had already been revealed several times prior to being "leaked". I still haven't figured how you can leak something that isn't secret such as in the case of Plame.

[Publius6961]

The law regarding disclosures of classified information does not grant an exception based on leakers' motives. See U.S. Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 37, Section 798.

This irony is totally delicious!

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others ...

Sound familiar?

[JLGALT]

I hope that this jerk's book sells less than a thousand copies and he gets convicted of treason!

[pissant]

Theis kind of leak needs to be met with executions, not jail time.

[pissant]

And yes, the lefties in this country are the communists of Animal Farm.

[pissant]

Michael Moore will buy 20,000 copies just to get it onto the bestsellers list.

[massgopguy]

NYT would have printed the plans for the Atomic Bomb in TASS and sheilded the Rosenbergs.

[libstripper]

"The existence of the [NSA surveillance] Program has been kept so secret that senior Bush administration officials have gone to great lengths to hide the origins of the intelligence it gathers. When the NSA finds potentially useful intelligence in the U.S.-based telecommunications switches, it is "laundered" before it is widely distributed to case officers at the CIA or special agents of the FBI, officials said. Reports are said not to identify that the intelligence came from intercepts of U.S.-based telecommunications."

Never mind that such practice, dating back to at least World War II, is routine when sources are classified.

All anyone needs to do is read The Ultra Secret, the history of how the Brits broke the Enigma machine and code, to know how true this is. If the Government were laundering the data NSA obtained in this entirely legal operation, that laundering itself proves that the Government viewed such data, and its source, as absolutely vital for conducting the WOT. Everyone involved in this leak should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[Thermalseeker]

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others ...

Sound familiar?

Yep, sure does, but the direct quote from 1984 is:

"All animals are equal, but the pigs are more equal"

Adding "pigs" actually fits this situation better, don't you think?

[Wristpin]

What we have here is a conspiracy of career civil servants releasing classified info for partisan purposes.

[bennowens]

I just love MM

[Alberta's Child]

Someone suggested here on FR that this case is very similar to the Plame case -- in that no crime was committed because there was nothing illegal about the "leak."

It is likely that there is no crime involved in the dissemination of information about an NSA program that has been written into U.S. law and has passed Supreme Court review on a number of occasions dating back at least as far as 1979.

[bmwcyle]

Since Clinton, Washington has been a place where it needs to be completely cleaned and rebuilt.

[bert]

.....Alberto Gonzales, it's time to ear your paycheck......

Indeed. It is also up to the President to press the issue as a law enforcement issue using the existing legal machinery rather than hiding behind a Special counsel.

[johnny7]

On the Clinton, domestic-spying program called Echelon

“In a February 2000 story on CBS' "60 Minutes," correspondent Steve Kroft introduced the piece on the Clinton-era spy program by saying: "If you've made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance that what you said or wrote was captured or screened by the country's largest intelligence agency."

One Echelon operator in Britain told "60 Minutes" that it had even monitored and tape-recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.”

[Paloma_55]

----All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others ...

Sound familiar?

Yep, sure does, but the direct quote from 1984 is:

"All animals are equal, but the pigs are more equal"

Adding "pigs" actually fits this situation better, don't you think? ----

1984 ???

[manwiththehands]

Has anyone considered the idea that the NYT is playing "rope-a-dope" with the President? They come out with stories and a book on a supposedly "secret" operation and the President admits to it.

Never mind the fact that the "anonymous" sources could have been lying in the first place. My point is this: The NYT and James Risen made baseless accusations based upon testimony from "anonymous" sources. Did President Bush "take the bait"?

Now the President (and his "honesty-to-a-fault") is in the uncomfortable situation of defending himself in his use of this controversial operation.

Just an observation ...

[AD from SpringBay]

I think somebody's forgetting - when Republicans do it, it's called a leak, but when Democrats do it, it's called whistleblowing. That's the nuanced mind at work - something we need more of in the complex world of today. Mr. Ketsup couldn't have said it better.

[Joe 6-pack]

"It is likely that there is no crime involved in the dissemination of information about an NSA program that has been written into U.S. law and has passed Supreme Court review on a number of occasions dating back at least as far as 1979.

By your reasoning, it is legal to "leak" any covert operation that is being conducted in accordance with the law. Perhaps it would be illegal to leak details of a program that had not passed legal muster?