Ken Fortenberry wrote in
et:

Allen wrote:
"riverman" wrote:
Saw this today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060422/...urity_cia_dc_6

My question: how can the same country/people/nation award a
journalist the Pulitzer Prize for exposing a story, and at the same
time file charges against the CIA operative who exposed it? Aren't
we on the same side here? Either the journalist recieved a prize for
doing something wrong, or the operative is getting charged for doing
something right. There seem to be two rules at play here, and no one
seems to mind.

The Pulitzers are not decided by the country/people/nation. They are
decided by a committee. The people charging her are doing so because
she took an oath not to divulge classified information and then
allegedly did so. The oath is not optional. If you do not like the
oath and the lifelong commitment it entails you are in the wrong
business and should leave. If this woman is found guilty she will be
subject to penalties that she was made fully aware of when she signed
the oath. She went into it with her eyes open and now there's a clear
message for the rest of us that raised our right hands.

Sometimes, such as in this case, the honorable thing to do
is to violate your oath. The trouble with a lot of military
types is they get real confused about things like honor and
responsibility, preferring instead to wrap themselves in oaths
and flags and turn a blind eye to torture, war crimes and murder.

Mary O. McCarthy is a hero, she violated her oath and thank God
she did. She realized that she has a higher responsibility to
truth and humanity than to a CIA oath. We should have more like
her. She'll be charged with a crime, and rightly so, but if I
were on her jury she'd never be found guilty.


While I regard her as a hero, Ken, I wish one of these heros would take
away this "leak" ammunition and become a whistleblower under the legal
mechanisms that exist.

In my understanding, a CIA whistleblower can take legally take concerns
to the Senate Intelligence committee, at least as a first step. Then, if
a committee member wants to release info to the press....


--
Scott
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