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

Plame's life in danger? Spare me!

By Tucker Carlson

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.