So will anyone ever be prosecuted for outing Valerie Plame?

[Poiuyt]

Libby's been indicted, but only for obstruction. Isn't anyone going to be punished for leaking the name of a covert CIA agent to Robert Novack? Did Bush declassify her name so that someone could leak it? What's the story here?

[smokey nj]

1. No, in fact I'm convinced that these criminals will never be held

accountable for anything.

[liberal N proud]

2. I am afraid that I must agree with you

This nation will suffer long for their wrongs, but non of them will ever do any time for their crime.

[saltpoint]

3. Before despairing, why not we give Patrick Fitzgerald the time he needs

to finish his work?

I don't think that's too brazen a proposal.

[Avalux]

4. No. It was OKed by Bush.

He was in on it, and gave the leaker his blessing. Nothing will every come of it. What's Gonzalez's role in this whole thing anyway? I know Fitz was granted the power to operate independently, but that may mean nothing with this gang.

[acmavm]

5. No.

[Asgaya Dihi]

6. I doubt it

It seems the President holds the power to declassify things as he sees fit and they claim that they did so here. It sucks and they abuse it, they prosecute leaks that embarrass them and leak themselves when it hurts their opponents, but it might have been legal. I'm not sure there's anything we can do but to complain it's not fair and try to fix things when we have more power.

Maybe we'll get lucky and get more info after the 2006 elections when we get some real investigations going. The whole nation needs an attitude change, so far we've acted like if we can get away with it then it must be ok. Skirting the edges of laws and ethics doesn't seem to bother us much anymore.

[theboss]

7. Probably not

This would have been a heck of a difficult thing to prove.

[Jersey Devil]

8. Scooter gets to hold the bag - until the pardon

Then, that's all folks.

[DBoon]

9. No. They learned from Nixon

They have managed to isolate themselves from the act and cover their traces well enough that no sane prosecutor could find enough evidence to indict anyone

Kind of like the mob in a way

[warrens]

10. There seems to be a question about whether it is actually a crime

Technically. The spiller would have to know that Plame was undercover. If they didn't know that, or if it can't be proven they knew, it's hard to prosecute. And, as always, it's the coverup that gets you. What they did is despicable and reckless, but the way the law is written, hard to prosecute.

[rurallib]

11. I am guessing maybe Joe Wilson.

Rememeber the story of Wilson supposedly telling some flunky colonel in the Fox green room that Valerie was a spy? Somehow I think hurricane Alberto can spin that into a conviction with a little "persuasion"($) to the right jury. Hey, it's just politics.

[ladjf]

12. I don't think so. If the administration had worried about Fitzgerald

prosecuting someone, they would have already replaced him with someone who would cooperate.