Valerie Plame, What should be done? Options

[*mipadi*]

I don't know how many of you have followed the Valerie Plame incident, but I've followed it with great interest. Basically, it starts off with this guy named Joseph Wilson, an American ambassador, who was one of the first to debunk the White House's claim that Iraq had attempted to buy "yellow-cake" uranium from Nigeria. In retaliation for his criticism, someone, who was long unidentified, revealed that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover CIA officer working in Nigeria. Not only is revealing the name of an undercover operative a federal felony, but this could have easily resulted in her death, and ruined her career as a CIA officer.

For a long time, the person or people who revealed her identity (in a Time article) were unidentified. Of course, the person or people had to have been high-ranking officials to even know of Plame's existence. After a long set of appeals, Time has finally agreed to release the notes of the reporter, in order to help identify the people involved in this crime.

As it turns out, the writer of the article, Matthew Cooper, had numerous contacts with many White House officials, including--ta da--Karl Rove, President Bush's chief advisor.

If Karl Rove, and/or other ranking White House officials, revealed Plame's name, this is not only a felony, but a malicious, traitorous act by White House officials. What do you feel should be done about these crimes?

(More information can be found in this MSNBC/Newsweek article.)

[*mipadi*]

Certainly it's an issue of journalistic ethics as well. Is it ethical to ruin someone's career, and risk the lives of dozens of her contacts? All Matt Cooper can say is that, in the future, he will be more judicious with his email conversations.

But still, this does not excuse Rove's and Libby's role in revealing Valerie Plame's identity, and it does not excuse George Bush's handling of the incident. Two years ago, he promised the American people he would fire anyone involved in revealing her identity; yesterday he backtracked and said he'd only fire those who committed a crime. How can you trust a man who tells such blatant lies to the American public?