CIA on Brink of Victory Over Bush?

We have written repeatedly about the CIA’s war against the Bush administration, as, for example, here and here. It is impossible to understand the Valerie Plame affair without reference to this conflict. In the upcoming Weekly Standard, Stephen Hayes supplies the necessary conflict, as he focuses on the second leak in the Plame matter: the one from the CIA to NBC news, which revealed that the CIA had referred the Plame “leak” to the Justice Department:

Some additional relevant details: The CIA referral to the Justice Department was classified, an intelligence source tells The Weekly Standard. Anyone who disclosed the existence of the referral and described its contents broke the law. The agency, however, has thus far refused to send a referral to the Justice Department that could result in an investigation into the source and effects of that leak. Why? An intelligence source tells The Weekly Standard that there are limits–of time and manpower–to how many such referrals the CIA can make. Perhaps. But there’s another possible explanation: The second leak came from the CIA itself, and lawyers there are reluctant to call for an investigation for fear of what such an investigation might reveal.

One of the many outrageous aspects of the Plame controversy is that the CIA itself leaks like a sieve. Hardly a week goes by without stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times that recite CIA leaks of classified information, all of which are designed by Democrats in the Agency to damage the Bush administration. Why stop with Valerie Plame? I’d love to see all those CIA leakers criminally investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted.

Via Real Clear Politics.

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