Bullshit Express

One of the most asinine arguments that has come from the right is how "even her neighbors knew she was CIA".

This is the kind of bullshit that gets play at The Corner or the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the kind of bullshit that gets spread to defend an action of treason.

But the important thing to remember is just how false the bullshit is and how basely it is utilized:

On Friday of July 4, 2003, the Wilsons and I walked down Reservoir Road to MacArthur Boulevard for the annual Palisades neighborhood parade. The parade is a very small town kind of affair, with people marching their dogs in red, white and blue costumes and the local fire engines driving by with the crew throwing candy to the kids. As we watched, someone remarked that Karl Rove was down the street watching the parade. Little did I know then the role Rove would play in the Wilsons' lives.

As we walked back from the parade, the war in Iraq came up in conversation. Joe said he wanted to show me something he had just written. When we returned home, he handed me the draft of an article he said was going to be published in Sunday's New York Times entitled, "What I Didn't Find in Africa." When I read it, I knew this was going to be news: the first real challenge to the administration's rationale for war.

That surprise was nothing compared with the shock I experienced 10 days later. On that sunny Monday morning, I was sitting outside at the table on my deck, having breakfast and reading The Washington Post. When I turned to the op-ed pages, I noticed a column by Novak entitled "Mission to Niger," addressing Joe's op-ed the previous week. I was stunned to read that "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction," citing two administration officials as sources.

Stricken reaction

As I finished reading the column, Joe ventured out onto his deck and offered a neighborly hello. I held up the paper and yelled over, "I had no idea about Valerie!" Joe looked stricken and gestured to me to keep my voice down. I immediately realized the "outing" of Valerie as a covert CIA operative had had a devastating effect on the Wilson family. In the weeks to follow, I came to understand just how harrowing the disclosure was. Obviously, the identification of Valerie meant an end to her decades-long career. It also meant the country had lost an essential part of the services provided by someone who was an expert on weapons of mass destruction.