A Brief History
On July 14, 2004, Robert Novak of the Washington Post exercised irresponsible journalistic ethics by publishing an article outing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.
Digging Deeper
Plame was the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a career diplomat that had been the US Ambassador to a few minor countries and had served other diplomatic roles. Plame, who was already a CIA agent when she married Wilson, was used to good advantage by the CIA with her husband providing diplomatic cover.
All that changed when Wilson angered the administration of George W. Bush by publicly opposing the expected invasion of Iraq, explaining that on a fact finding mission to Africa he had discovered the alleged attempt by Iraq to acquire uranium was false.
Information was leaked to Robert Novak of the Washington Post about Plame’s job as a CIA agent, and he dutifully published the information. Plame’s position as a CIA agent was compromised, and having been outed made her useless to the CIA, resulting in her resignation and the end of her 18 year career in the CIA. This vindictive act of political dirty tricks undermined the security of the United States, but apparently the perpetrators cared more about their own politics than the good of the country. Plame was clearly sacrificed to get at Wilson for having the gall to (honestly) undermine the false case for invading Iraq.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a high ranking Bush administration official was not charged with illegally revealing Plame’s position with the CIA or with also revealing secret intelligence estimate information to the New York Times. Libby was indicted, however, for various counts of lying and obstructing justice. He was convicted of 4 of those counts and received a 30 month prison sentence. President George W. Bush commuted the sentence, removing the jail time but leaving the fine and probation and allowing the conviction to stand. It was later revealed that Richard Armitage, a deputy secretary of state, was the actual source of the leak to Novak.
After the trial, baffled jurors wondered to the press why Karl Rove and vice-president Dick Cheney had not been on trial. Many observers wondered the same thing. Wilson and Plame found federal courts to be unsympathetic to their lawsuits and the Obama administration was also unsupportive.
Plame had a book published about the incident titled Fair Game in 2007, and in 2010 a movie by the same name was released.
Obviously, this fiasco generated more articles and books as well, including Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, by David Corn and Michael Isiskoff, 2006.
Question for students (and subscribers): So why were Libby, Armitage, Karl Rove, Novak, and Cheney not charged with revealing US classified information? Sometimes people go to jail for that, why not this time? Are politicians above the law? Tell us what you think about this case in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please read…
Rozen, Laura and Valerie Plame Wilson. Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="3003 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=3003">28 Comments
The moral of the story is… do not cross politicians! Unfortunate… yet more than likely true! — DAVID WARDLE
Politicians are ruthless
Poiticians are above the law, unfortunately. Probably also have the money to pay people off.
I guess don’t mess with politicians
Unfair that her career was ruined by a dirty politician. His punishment should have been more severe, and others involved should have been indited
I wonder if Armitage received some sort of financial compensation from Novak for leaking information.
It’s sad to think this is the state of politicians
Politicians being held accountable under the law?
About as rare as a unicorn sighting ’round these parts.
I have nothing to say really besides the fact that I hate all politicians.
Not very surprising those politicians are dirty crooks and that will never change.
It seems some political officials are above the law but worse it seems if you get the wrong person mad they’ll find a way to burn you with the system. Politics can often be a dirty profession and I’m thankful I’m not in it!
It’s a shame that some politicians will use there positions to hold themselves above the law.
It certainly seems that these politicians were above the law!
Politicians never get what they deserve. Corruption in government is too far reaching and has too much influence and prevents justice from ever being served.
Poltcians in my opinion no matter what are super corrupt people
I don’t like any politicians. They all seem corrupt to me.
It does not amaze me how corrupt our government system is. What amazes me is how they get caught so much. It makes all politicians look bad and untrustworthy. Who do you choose to run things if no one can be trusted
Yes I think politicians can be above the law. They just trick and corrupt people it’s disgusting. Were supposed to be a country led by the people but half of us don’t even know what real issues are going on.
I never trusted the government never did he is corrupt and they have secrets we need to know about. This article isnt even the half.
Amazed nobody stopped him from publishing, this could’ve been considered a threat to national security.
I hate how politicians can be above the law they put on their pants just like us and are the exact same people as us. They don’t deserve any special privileges they should be expected to follow the same laws their fellow man does.
I don’t understand why politicians are able to get away with so much. You would think they would be held to a higher standard.
Politicians get away with way too much crap!
Politicians are known to trick.
I know nothing about politics but it seems to me that politicians are sneaky and are able to get away with a lot.
The guy that gave Novak the information about Plame should have been indicted, she lost her job, I would be mad.
I’m not big on politics but I do know that they are able to lie and be sneaky.
These people got away with not only lying to start a war, but also revealing secrets that could put this woman in danger as well as the country.