Gary Hart: Here is the Crime in Outing a CIA Agent

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Largely as a result of Agee's perfidy and Welch's unnecessary death, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) of 1982 was enacted, making it a felony to knowingly divulge the identity of a covert CIA operative. It carries penalties of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each offense. There are those who dismiss the crime by saying, "Oh, Wilson only had a desk job." That is not a defense under this felony statute. It is for the CIA, not Karl Rove or Robert Novak, to determine who requires identity protection and who does not.
....
I served on the first Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee in the late 1970s and have continued to be a strong believer in and supporter of the CIA. I deplore those who want to diminish it, politicize it, or require it to produce bogus intelligence it would not otherwise produce simply to fit some preconceived political or ideological agenda. In almost every case where the CIA has malfunctioned, it did so under pressure from one political administration or another.

So, there's the crime. To casually and willfully endanger the life of an undercover CIA agent is a felony. You either believe in taking the laws of the United States seriously or you do not. Citizens - even highly placed ones - do not get to pick and choose which laws they will obey and which they will not. Miller and her publisher may think she's a hero, but I don't. It is well established that there is no First Amendment protection for a journalist or anyone else to withhold evidence of a crime.

There is one final irony to this story. On Christmas Eve in 1975, I got a call at my home from the director of the CIA, William Colby. He asked if I would intervene with the White House to obtain presidential approval to have Welch buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a hero fallen in service to his country. I quickly called President Ford's chief of staff on Colby's behalf and made the request. Within two hours, the president had agreed to sign the order permitting Welch to be buried at Arlington.

The chief of staff's name was Richard Cheney.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/here-is-the-crime-in-outi_b_9489.html

[malaise]

1. Are you aware that

Agee outed those agents here in Jamaica.

[bananas]

2. Update (correction)

There's an important update on that webpage:

"Update: I incorrectly stated above that Philip Agee included the name of Richard Welch in his book naming CIA operatives. That statement was inaccurate. Mr. Agee did not identify Richard Welch, but other sources did. Nevertheless, the Agee book and subsequent Agee actions did contribute substantially to the passage of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. I apologize to Mr. Agee for this incorrect assertion."

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Gary Hart would have been a great president. eom.

[TygrBright]

4. How can you SAY that!?!?

The man would probably have gotten BLOW JOBS from INTERNS in the White House! That would make him a terrible President. Even if he could eliminate the deficit, shrink the Federal bureaucracy, keep the US out of major pointless entanglements and come up with a thoughtful, realistic plan to address problems of world terrorism...

ANY MAN WHO WOULD GET BJs FROM SOMEONE OTHER THAN HIS WIFE WOULD BE A TERRIBLE PRESIDENT!

So there.

::sarcasm::

admonitorially,
Bright

[Warren Stupidity]

5. I know, but his bimbos were much foxier than the Clenis's.

Really, monica was such an embarassment. And Paula Jones was a horror show.

Anyhow, all goofing aside, Hart continues to be thoughtful intelligent, well spoken and interesting. Too bad he never had a chance.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. He had a chance in 1984

The idiots who ran the Democratic Party top-loaded the primaries to coronate ol' sleepy-eyed Walter Mondale, and it was still close. The superdelegates were the problem.

In '84, Hart might have had a chance against Reagan.

The scandal wasn't until the '88 election.