Echoes of the Plame case

(Note: I hope to finish my piece on the tabloids, the CIA and organized crime soon.)

Pursuant to my research into an odd (very odd) bit of Nixon-era skullduggery, I have been looking into the life and works of an author named Robin Moore, best known for his classic book about the Green Berets.

At age 80, Moore is still writing about military and national security issues. Two years ago, he came out with a book titled The Hunt for Bin Laden: Task Force Dagger On the ground with the Special Forces in Afghanistan. In this work, Moore complains about the CIA's activities in Afghanistan. (Oddly enough, I've heard rumors that Moore himself has had linkages to the American intelligence establishment.) An online review of the book includes a passage worthy of wider attention:

Moore’s treatment of the CIA is nothing short of scathing. He essentially calls them wimps, and harshly criticizes the conduct of "Dave", the CIA officer who worked with Mike Spann, the Agency operative who died in an uprising of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. Moore reveals details about the riot and Spann's death that were kept secret at the time. He also reveals that Spann's widow, Shannon, was herself a CIA officer, and that the two had met in 1999 while attending a Clandestine Service Officer’s training course. Whatever Moore's opinion of the Agency, that last revelation, if true, seems unnecessary and irresponsible.

Irresponsible indeed! One cannot read these words without thinking of the name "Valerie Plame."

Plame, of course, was "outed" as a CIA operative by columnist Robert Novak in an exactly similar fashion. The outing of Shannon Spann may be even more troubling since she appears to have functioned as a covert agent overseas.

Which brings us to the obvious question: Why do some writers find themselves able to swim freely through waters that most of us would find scalding hot?

Robin Moore, with his lifelong ties to this nation's special forces, will not see the inside of a jail or a courtroom -- and not just because the Justice Department does not wish to bring charges against an octogenarian with Parkinson's disease. If you or I (at any age) had revealed the identity of a serving undercover CIA officer, we might well have to explain our actions to a prosecutor.

Robert Novak, who has lived by way of the leak since the Watergate era, also seems to possess a "Get out of jail free" card. Yet he faces no charges in the Plame affair.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court recently ruled that the hapless Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matt Cooper of Time magazine face jail for refusing to disclose their sources on the Plame story. Neither Miller nor Cooper revealed Plame's identity in the first place; Novak did. Miller did not even write about the issue. She simply spoke to a source -- who may or may not have been credible -- while attempting to do research.

The obvious questions:

1. What did Robert Novak and Robin Moore do to merit immunity?

2. Few now deny that a "war" has existed between CIA and the neocon movement. Were the revelations by Moore and Novak intended as skirmishes in that war?