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To: Fedora
Yeah, my post was dripping with irony, and I extensively used "involved" and particularly "classified" because these were the code words the media kept using throughout Plamegate.

"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.

18 posted on 02/22/2007 10:08:19 PM PST by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: CutePuppy
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?

I was thinking it might be akin to it from the perspective of the European courts, if LAT was being leaked information from European sources who had access to classified or otherwise restricted information but did not want to risk potential legal repercussions from publishing it in their own country. But I don't know what laws operate on the Continent in that respect. Of course Britain has the Official Secrets Act which would cover their equivalent of classified information, but I don't know what rules apply in Italy or Germany. I don't know if there was any information involved that would be classified from an Italian/German perspective, but I would not be surprised if some laws regarding the privacy of court/parliamentary proceedings were violated. Again just a guess--hard to say much more without knowing how the information was obtained and what laws apply in Europe.

19 posted on 02/23/2007 1:26:41 PM PST by Fedora
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