Kevin D. Korenthal, 17 December 2005

The National Security challenges in a post 9/11 world have required our government to take drastic steps to protect the American people. Some of these measures are contained in the PATRIOT ACT which tears down walls between various intelligence assets to the end of allowing the Federal Government to communicate about threats that gather against this nation.

Certain programs within the PATRIOT ACT and even some outside that legislation walk a very fine line between the rights of private citizens to not be secretly investigated by the government and the ability of the government to monitor the activities of foreign terrorists and terrorist funders.

Elements in the government that are hostile to President Bush's handling of the War on Terror have taken it upon themselves to discuss with the open media, clandestine and top secret information relating to this war. For political and profit purposes, CIA and State Department officials have been allowed to remain anonymous from the public so they would go on record about facts and programs which our enemies gain an advantage in knowing about. In their effort to thwart what they say are violations of civil liberties, the media and these Benedict Arnold employees of the government have revealed secret details about how we fight the terrorist enemies we face.

Much has been made of a supposed leak to the media of the name of a CIA employee whose husband was allegedly sent to Niger Africa to look into claims by the Bush Administration that Saddam Hussein had sought the purchase of enriched Uranium for use in its nuclear program. Despite the illegality of doing so, the CIA analyst's husband, Joseph Wilson was given permission by the CIA to write and op/ed detailing the work he did for America's spy agency in checking out this claim. Wilson contended in the New York Times op/ed that he found that Saddam Hussein did not obtain Uranium from Niger. Regardless of the fact that The Bush Administration never said the transaction actually took place, the U.S. media seized on the idea that Wilson had proved that President Bush took us to war without merit.

In its attempt to set the record straight and to prove that Joseph Wilson had political motivation to lie about his findings, at least two Bush Administration officials discussed with reporters the fact that it was Wilson's wife, the CIA analyst that had suggested Wilson for the trip to Africa. This bit of knowledge was key, because Wilson, in order to make himself appear more credible, had claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had sent him to Niger when in fact Cheney had no knowledge of the trip. It is against the law to reveal the identity of an active CIA agent or any former agent who had been clandestine in the last 5 years. Regardless of the fact that Wilson's wife did not qualify under these terms, a Special Prosecutor was put in place to open a Grand Jury to look into possible illegal activities by the Bush Administration in revealing Plame's identity.

Now you can agree or disagree whether or not wrong was done here. But what is not up for debate was the need to have an investigation. It has been thus far revealed that Bush Administration officials did not reveal the identity of a covert agent but rather lied to the Special Prosecutor about what it did do.

Herein lies a double standard created by the media to protect its government sources from the same prosecutorial threats the White House faces for revealing top secret information to the very same media.

The President is under fire from a hostile media over allegations that The White House authorized the wire-tapping of conversations between U.S. citizens and known terrorist elements in other parts of the world. The President does not dispute that this sort of activity took place. However, the existence of this program was classified, top secret. Those elements in the U.S. government that revealed the existence of this highly monitored intelligence gathering program have violated the secrecy laws of this nation.

So why is there no call by the same media that has dogged Bush over the Valerie Plame affair to have an investigation into these leaks? Whether or not the wire-tapping activities are legal or not does not preclude the prosecution of those persons that revealed the existence of the program in the first place. The debate over whether or not The President has the right to authorize such programs is and will continue to be debated. But the issue of government officials revealing top secret information to the media has already been debated and it has been collectively determined that such activities are grounds for an investigation.

Being that this is the case, I and many of my colleagues in the alternate media respectfully request that a Special Prosecutor be authorized and a Grand Jury be seated to look into credible allegations that Federal Employees revealed top secret government information to the media in violation of a myriad of U.S. laws. Any persons named in an investigation of revealing top secret data to the media should be forced to step down from their positions while an investigation plays out.

You can not have one set of rules for one side and a wholly different set of rules for another. The leaking of classified information hurts America in its battle to prevent another September 11th. If the President's political enemies are allowed to break laws that are put in place to protect our intelligence gathering capabilities then one would surmise that such laws are meaningless. In that case, the Special Prosecution against The White House is itself irrelevant and should be shut down immediately.

Copyright © 2005 Kevin D. Korenthal