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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 14, 2005 / 12 Mar-Cheshvan, 5766

Plame's life in danger? Spare me!

By Tucker Carlson


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I've heard the same talking point for two years now, on talk show after talk show: The leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name was more than simply illegal, it was immoral and dangerous. As Senator Chuck Schumer floridly put it, divulging Plame's name "not only put an agent's life in danger, but many of that agent's sources and contacts." Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois told me virtually the same thing the other night in almost exactly the same words. (There's no such thing as an uncoordinated thought in politics.) It sounds compelling — her life was in danger! — but is it true?

The short answer: probably not. Though the CIA has never described exactly what Valerie Plame does for the agency, we do know a few things about her career there. First, she operated under remarkably thin cover. Plame posed as an employee of an energy company called Brewster Jennings and Associates. A simple Internet search turns up virtually no mention of Brewster Jennings & Associates. Dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that Brewster Jennings is a theoretical entity; it's obviously phony, a shell of some kind. This is something foreign intelligence services could and would have figured out in about 20 minutes.

Second, at the time she was outed by Bob Novak, Valerie Plame was working at the CIA's main offices in Langley, Virginia. Why would the agency ask someone who was pretending not to be a CIA employee to report to its (closely monitored) headquarters every day?

Third, there's the matter of her husband. If the CIA was intent on keeping Plame's identity secret, why would it send Joe WIlson on a mission to Niger, then allow him to write about it in the New York Times? It wouldn't. Of course.

And, finally, if the leak of Plame's name actually put her life or the lives of agency assets at risk, do you really think we wouldn't have heard about it by now? The White House and the CIA hate each other. If the CIA could show that the Bush Administration had damaged national security with this leak, it would, likely on the front page of the Washington Post. In fact, as NBC's Andrea Mitchell has reported, an internal CIA investigation found that Plame's outing caused no discernable damage to anyone.

None of this is a defense of Valerie Plame's outing. The leak may have been a crime. We'll see. But a threat to her life? Spare me.


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