As I noted yesterday, from the US government's perspective, leaking classified information is wrong and a firing offense--even if the deed is not a crime. And as I noted, Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee was classified information. (Click here for the full explanation.) Thus, both Karl Rove and Scooter Libby--wittingly or not--shared with reporters classified information that outed a CIA officer and perhaps compromised anti-WMD operations (when they told journalists that Joseph Wilson's wife worked at the CIA). Crime or not, that ought to be a big deal--especially since they did so as part of a political campaign against a policy critic. In Thursday's Washington Post, Walter Pincus puts another nail in what ought to be a coffin. He confirms that the already-reported State Department memo that mentioned Valerie Wilson and that has caught the interest of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (because a copy was on Air Force One days before the Plame leak occurred) was stamped "(S)" for secret. Pincus writes, "Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information." The paragraph did not ID Valerie Wilson as an undercover officer. But if Rove or any other White House aide was shown a copy of this memo and then leaked the info, he or she violated very specific rules about the handling of classified information--rules that the government usually takes quite seriously. But does Bush?

Posted by David Corn at July 21, 2005 12:34 AM