When I first read it, I assumed they got their basic information from access to the court and parliamentary proceedings mentioned in the article ("Relying on the operatives' passport numbers, hotel records, credit card bills and aviation records, German prosecutors are seeking to properly identify the 13 Americans. . .Elsewhere in Europe, legal and parliamentary investigations have focused a harsh spotlight on the CIA's program. . .On Friday, an Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 26 suspected CIA operatives. . .None of the aliases used in Italy match those in the German case. . .Flight records show that. . .according to catering invoices obtained by the prosecutors. . ."). Supplementary information seems to have come from public-source data in the US (e.g., "Federal aviation records show. . ."). The Intelligence Identities Protection Act only applies if a source with authorized access to classified information was involved. It does not cover cases of the media learning such information from other sources, such as the European proceedings and federal aviation records mentioned. The only part of the article I see citing information that seems to be based on a source with authorized access to classified information is this one:
One former CIA operation officer who was involved in the Italian case at CIA headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is classified, said he and his colleagues were increasingly nervous about traveling in Europe for fear of getting swept up in the investigations.
However what's being disclosed here is not the identities of those involved, but the fact that those involved are nervous about travelling in Europe because of the investigations. I'm more concerned about the investigations by our European "allies" than I am about this article. I doubt this article revealed anything the European left doesn't already know thanks to these investigations.
"speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is classified" bit is interesting and may shed some light on origins of how information was gathered by LAT. The "government database" still seems like an open issue, i.e. could foreign agencies get access to this info legally or openly (via Internet, request, inter-agency exchange) or only some like media (FOIA, contacts). If latter, then the Italians would need someone like LAT to do the deed for them, while technically not being under IIPA. Isn't that somewhat akin in reverse to what Agee did, publishing his "book" in England, because he couldn't do it here?
No, I don't expect current DoJ to do anything about it, or CIA to send referral because this matter doesn't "involve" or speaking more directly, can't hurt Bush administration officials, which was alpha and omega of Plamegate. But I do think somebody, "diligent" enough, like Fitzgerald, could make a federal case out of it.
Re our European "allies", a magistrate judge in Italy or Germany is not much different than our federal court judge that decides he/she can run the war and make decisions regarding rights of enemy combatants "given" to them by US Constitution. In other words, our left are the same as their left. Yes, it's disheartening.