Sad times at Powerline.
During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was under cover.
Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
At the time of the publication of Robert Novak’s column on July 14,2003, Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment status was covert.
This was classified information.
Ms. Wilson served in senior management positions at the CIA, in which she oversaw the work of other CIA employees, and she attained the level of GS-14, step 6 under the federal pay scale.
Ms. Wilson worked on some of the most sensitive and highly secretive matters handled by the CIA.
Ms. Wilson served at various times overseas for the CIA.
Without discussing the specifics of Ms. W’ilson’s classified work, it is accurate to say that she worked on the prevention of the development and use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States.
In her various positions at the CIA, Ms. Wilson faced significant risks to her personal safety and her life.
She took on serious risks on behalf of her country.
Ms. Wilson’s work in many situations had consequences for the security of her colleagues, and maintaining her cover was critical to protecting the safety of both colleagues and others.
Gen. Michael Hayden was appointed by Bush to several top positions, including Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Will the usual suspects smear him as a delusional Bush-hater pushing an agenda? It seems pretty silly, but the only alternative is an abject, mass apology for sneeringly insisting that VPW couldn’t possibly be a covert agent. Since neither seems forthcoming* I guess they’ll talk about something else from now on.
(*) This is another one of those predictions that I make in the hope that somebody willl prove me wrong. Who wants to step up?
***Update***
We get some real brainiacs around here. Review the sentence preceding the statement that I posted:
General Hayden and the CIA have cleared these following comments for today’s hearing.
Which is to say that this statement comes not from Henry Waxman but from the CIA and its Bush-appointed director. I hope this clears up any confusion.