Ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame loses court decision (can't reveal service dates)

[sabra]

Source: LATimes

NEW YORK -- In a setback for Valerie Plame, a federal judge ruled today that the former CIA agent cannot divulge the dates she worked for the agency in her forthcoming book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." The decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones was a victory for the CIA, which had argued that such information was classified and should not be made public.

Plame was at the heart of a controversial case in which administration officials were accused of leaking news about her covert status in 2003 to several reporters after her husband, former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly raised questions about the intelligence used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Simon & Schuster, which is publishing Plame's memoir, said it was "disappointed in the court's ruling, which we believe runs counter to the 1st Amendment, sets a dangerous precedent and creates an unreasonable standard by which the government can disappear public information and rewrite history," according to a statement by spokesman Adam Rothberg.

The ruling by Jones came as a result of a lawsuit that the publisher and author had filed in May seeking to bar the CIA from interfering with publication of her memoir.

Read more: http://www.calendarlive.com/books/la-et-plameweb4aug04,0,4782854.story?coll=cl-books-features

[trashcanistanista]

1. How did Robert Baer get away with it?

Anyone read "See No Evil"?

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Plame and Simon & Schuster should consider appealing this and,

if appeals fail, doing a Daniel Ellsburg and publishing anyway, imho.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Wow: nobody in jail for outing her status

but she would be locked up for stating the dates of her emplyment by some intelligence agency or other. The contradiction here is blindingly obvious.

[sabra]

4. but Bob Novak said she was just a desk jockey @ Langley

:sarcasm:

[Supersedeas]

5. Can anyone post a link to the Judge's Opinion

[Maccagirl]

6. I am getting very worried about justice for the Wilsons.

:cry:

[Bitwit1234]

7. Again and Again bush didn't pack the courts for nothing.

[Miss Chybil]

8. This country smells more like bananas everyday. nt

[Betsy Ross]

9. Can she publish dates she worked

for others? Or when she graduated from college? Dates of what she was doing up to the time she joined the CIA?

[NoodleyAppendage]

10. Why can't she say FU! and publish overseas?

It's pretty clear that we need the assistance of a truly free country (not US) to publish the facts as they are and not as our fascist republic would want them.

J

[Shipwack]

11. Maybe this is a good thing...

If she is unable to publish this data, doesn't that bolster her claim that she -was- covert, and this makes her civil suit that much stronger?

[wishlist]

12. Last I heard, her civil suit has already been dismissed

Judge recently decided that she could not sue Bush government officials over their actions.

[Skink]

13. She could do good for us if she goes mainstream.

The book, all the talk shows. A Democracy crusade as it were.

[LiberalHeart]

14. She can quote others....

Why doesn't she just quote articles written about her years of service -- have the words coming from someone else's mouth (or pen, or keyboard)? She doesn't have to vouch for what they said; just report it.

[Igel]

16. No, she can't.

My admittedly naive reading of the law in question says that if it's classified, it doesn't matter if somebody else already divulged the information and put it on the front page of the NYT and skywrote it over the Superbowl.

Now, if you were never authorized to have the classified information, the law doesn't apply to you. But if you *were* authorized and knew it was classified, you run afoul of regulations if you repeat it.

As for simply quoting others, note how well "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" went over.

[0007]

15. This is truly a bad sign.

[RushIsRot]

17. Leak it to Novak. It would be common knowledge in a heartbeat.

[Peace Patriot]

18. They out her. Then they get to gag her. Welcome to BushWorld!

nt