Cover-Up Worse Than the Initial Crime? Only If You Ignore the Initial Crime

"Once again, we see that the cover-up was worse than the crime." What more obvious example demonstrates how the Washington press corps lives in a factual and moral vacuum?
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"Once again, we see that the cover-up was worse than the crime." What more obvious example demonstrates how the Washington press corps lives in a factual and moral vacuum.

The initial "crime," however parsed by statute, exposed more than Valerie Wilson as an undercover operative. It revealed her "employer," a consulting firm named Brewster-Jennings, & Associates, a CIA front developed over the years and used by a number of different covert agents, whose intelligence has been compromised.

Here's what Larry Johnson, Plame's former colleague at the CIA, said in his testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee on July 22, 2005:

"I can tell by virtue of how that company was set up. She was traveling overseas as a consultant in order to meet individuals who would have access, could be either agents of access, could be possible recruits to become spies for the United States in the area of about chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. ...

"This much I know for certain: After every incident like this there is a damage assessment done within the Central Intelligence Agency... Normally, those are filed with the House Intelligence and Senate Intelligence Committees. I will guarantee you that if the damage assessment said that there was no damage, that would have been leaked and we would have known there was nothing here to follow."

What reporter from mainstream media ever followed up and asked a member of the House or Senate Intelligence Committees if he'd seen a damage assessment on the Plame leak? What reporter sought an assessment from one of the many recent retirees from the CIA? If the Plame leak were no big deal, the information should not be hard to get.

Of course we do not know the extent of the damage because the Washington press corps showed no interest in finding out.

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