Cross-posted at Clark Community Network.
According to comments from White House press secretary Tony Snow, no covert agent of the United States government should expect to be more covert than you or I.
Responding to a reporter at Tuesday’s press conference who asked whether the White House was apologetic for exposing CIA agent Valerie Plame, Snow offered these heart-felt words of sympathy to Plame and her husband Joe Wilson:
"I'll apologize...there it's done," he answered curtly.
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When challenged that he was responding to this issue in a flippant manner, according to Raw Story, Snow showed little remorse.
"In the Washington culture, things get leaked all the time," he stated.
So, let me get this straight. It’s no big deal that we’ve learned the identity of a covert CIA agent who was assigned to stop the proliferation of WMDs? In fact, if we are to believe Snow, this disclosure is not simply an unfortunate, exceedingly rare occurrence; it’s old hat for this White House.
So, that brings me to the point of this blog. I’d like to make a public request.
Dear Mr. Snow:
If we have nothing to worry about in regards to the leaking of the identities of our most valued operatives, I expect to receive my complete list of top secret agents by the end of the week. The tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of covert agents employed by the CIA, NSA, DoD, FBI and other agencies may be forwarded to my attention, Mr. Snow.
Now, I don’t want to be unreasonable. Considering the length of this list, I’m not requesting a hard copy or anything. This would require costly shipping and destruction of far too many trees for information of such little value. Also, making so many copies of these documents would consume far too many valuable intern manhours. A series of e-mails with zipped Microsoft Word files will work just fine.
Actually, instead of e-mailing the information directly to me, Mr. Snow, why don’t you just have someone in Dick Cheney’s office post the names to a website? That way, everyone in the world can get a good look at the kind of information that gets leaked all the time by this White House. And without having to funnel this information through liberal reporters like Robert Novak, Matt Cooper and Judith Miller, just imagine how much time they could save in getting this information out. Just post it all to www.looselips.gov.
Accompanying photos, home addresses and names of immediate family members would be a plus, too. I’m sure Cheney has all those just lying around somewhere. Probably in one of his man-sized safes.
Also, not to be a bother, but I’d really like to know more about other topics previously considered "top secret." Locations of "black sites," details on "enhanced interrogation techniques," names of corporations involved with extraordinary rendition and late-night, sex-romp videos of Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove – all would be welcome information. In fact, anything that previous administrations would have considered state secrets will be perfect for public consumption.
Thanks, Tony. I will appreciate your timely compliance with this request.
Sincerely,
Todd Brashear
Super Secret Code Name: Hogfan