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Swopa is right. Someone appears to be planting just the kinds of stories you would expect to see were the administration to be anticipating indictments in the Plame affair very soon. Check out this Wash Times piece from today, highlighted by Swopa:
The identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was compromised twice before her name appeared in a news column that triggered a federal illegal-disclosure investigation, U.S. officials say.
Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana.
That's all very interesting; but not nearly as interesting as asking oneself, does this sound like the kind of flailing, tortured legal excuse the official who is being set to be exposed or indicted is preparing? e.g. it wasn't that damaging, even if it was a technical crime, to out the identity of an undercover officer who was already "outted" to the Russians and the Cubans? Doesn't it only make them look worse? It certainly would seem to reveal the key fact: the official who outted her identity to Novak was aware that Plame was an undercover CIA officer.