It appears as though Bush administration personnel may avoid criminal charges in the Plame affair. Apparently, being stupid may prove to be a sufficient excuse for publicly identifying an undercover CIA operative and thereby putting several lives in danger. Heres a clip from the Washington Post article:
The Justice Department investigation into the leak of a CIA agent’s identity could conclude that administration officials disclosed the woman’s name and occupation to the media but still committed no crime because they did not know she was an undercover operative, legal experts said this week.
Lets not forget the circumstances surrounding this either. This womans identity was made public after her husband, former US ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, pointed out that the White House knew that certain claims made against Iraq in the days leading up to the war were false. Its not like the Bush administration mistakenly identified Plame in the process of awarding her some kind of Employee of the Year certificate. They outed her to Robert Novak, thereby ending her career as a CIA field agent, because they were unhappy about statements made by her husband, statements which made clear that Bush exaggerated Saddam Husseins pursuit of nuclear materials.
