Hello Kossacks. I've been gone for a long time, but decided to drop back in tonight.
There's some explosive material in Cooper's testimony.
First, the soon to be declassified information may explain the recent interest in the State Department document leaked around Washington tea parties.
Second, for those pondering whether Plame was 'soon to be declassified', that seems unlikely to be what Rove was referring to (though it actually happened in that very conversation in practical terms).
If it's true that Rove not only said "soon to be declassified", but also "I've already said too much", then he's in deep doo doo.
The Bush Administration may have problems too, as a whole, because they are obligated to pursue any suspected unauthorized release of classified information and take action in its regard. This does not seem to have been done, since if Rove wondered "if he had said too much", he was obligated to find out by the language of both his Classified Nondisclosure Agreement and the Espionage Act.
For supporting information, a very relevant source is the
very recent Lawrence Franklin indictment, where in the first few paragraphs one's obligation to protect classified and national defense information is made excruciating clear. Indeed, the whole process is made with such clarity, including the oaths one takes upon receiving this access that the burden is on you to know what information is classified, that if you don't know you should check with a qualified individual, and that failure may result in 'injury' to the United States, and prosecution under the relevant Espionage Act sections.
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/documents/franklinindictment_001.pdf
Indeed, it seems we have a pattern in the Bush Administration now of violating classified information laws. In some ways, the only difference between the Lawrence Franklin indictment and the Plame case may be that there was no foreign national directly involved. As can be seen in the Franklin indictment, it is spelled out pretty clearly that Franklin gave an oath knowing that the unauthorized release of classified and/or national defense information is likely to 'cause injury' to the United States.
I began to suspect, after reading this, that the very reason for these oaths, and the specific language of the classified nondisclosure agreements and memos in regards to receiving classified access, is to reserve the option of prosecution under the relevant statutes of the Espionage Act, since it has an 'injury' clause that would be hard to prove in a normal sense.
To prove a motive to injure would be hard, but to prove that the suspect likely knew that the information could be injurious to the United States, after the suspect has knowingly given an oath acknowledging that unauthorized disclosure would likely cause injury to the U.S., is not so hard. It almost ensures a plea bargain, if one is available.
In the Plame case, there is no direct communication to foreign nationals, but there likely is the same issue of the leaker having given similar oaths, and signing similar papers, as Franklin, in regards to 'injury' when information is given to unauthorize parties. If it's Rove, rest assured.
Last, if Rove or anyone in the administration suspected that too much was said, then immediate action should have been taken to fix the situation and hold the responsible party...well...responsible.
That does not seem to have occurred, and so we have the highest office being cavalier about national intelligence secrets, and the actual human beings risking their lives in that regard, while ostensibly fighting a secret war on terror.
Unbelievable.
Update [2005-7-17 22:54:3 by freelixir]:
Left something out. Though there is no direct role played by a foreign national, there is certainly a very prominent indirect role played by foreign nationals around the world, since one result of a strategy to release national security information to the press, in order to discredit a dissenter, is that everyone who can read in the world will hear about it, especially those who are likely worried about being spied upon, and especially those who may be illicitly dealing with WMD.