The White House Leak

Scott Hardie | October 2, 2003
The big news item at the moment is the scandal over the White House leaking a CIA agent's identity to the press, apparently for political retaliation. People are asking why reporter Robert Novak, who printed the agent's name in his column and ignited the controversy, is not yet being charged with the same criminal charges (treason) that face his source. But people are also asking whether something very wrong was done here, or if liberals are only making a big stink out of this as yet another attempt to catch Bush in some kind of scandal. (How about... both?) I'd like an answer to both questions.

Anna Gregoline | October 2, 2003
In some ways, I agree that the reporter should be brought up on charges. On the other, that is the wrong way to go about things. We don't want to persecute some of the only responsible media people out there. Also, if an official DID leak something, it's shocking, and the responsibilty of the press to bring this to light. I agree that the liberals are going off the deep end with trying to prove scandal and wrongdoing by Bush. The sad thing is, they have to, because the rest of the country is completely complacent about everything that they've done that they're up front about.

Scott Hardie | October 3, 2003
Agreed.

I finally found the reason why Novak isn't being charged. The law only covers people with "authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent" and who know that "the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States." That doesn't apply to Novak.