We are now officially in crazyland. Alice’s rabbit hole is open and we are in freefall. There is no other explanation for the illogical, bizarre decision issued today by Judge Barbara Jones of the Southern District of New York, whose opinion divorced facts from the law. Her decision upholds the Bush Administration’s plea for a summary judgment denying Valerie the right to write in her forthcoming book that she worked at the CIA in a sensitive undercover position from 1985 until outed by the same Bush Administration in July of 2003.
Here are the facts of the case as laid out in a motion filed by Valerie’s lawyers requesting summary judgment:
Valerie Wilson’s Request for Summary Judgment
Valerie was undercover from the day we entered on duty in September of 1985. The CIA wants to insist that she can say nothing about working for the CIA prior to February 2002 because she was in such a sensitive position that to disclose such information would harm national security. Except the CIA itself sent Valerie an unclassified letter detailing her years of CIA service thru regular, unclassified U.S. Postal Service snail mail. Congressman Jay Inslee published that letter in the Congressional Record. And this crazy judge wants you to believe that it was never publicly released or published. Read the crazy decision for yourself (pay particular attention to page 28):
Decision of Judge Barbara Jones.
At least the Judge is on record acknowledging, as did Patrick Fitzgerald, CIA Director Hayden, and Judge Reggie Walton, that Valerie Plame Wilson was undercover and worked in a very sensitive, highly secret position. I know this will not silence the twits like Victoria Toensing, but facts are facts.
So what next?
The lawyers for Simon and Schuster and Valerie are studying the decision. I am hoping they appeal because the facts are very clear and Judge Jones has decided that the law and the first amendment mean nothing.
And lest there be any doubt, Valerie is not seeking permission to publish classified information. She is simply seeking to tell the story of her life using facts already in the public domain. Why does the Bush Administration want to keep her silent? Because when the America people learn that Valerie was directly involved in efforts to keep this nation safe from terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, including the exposure of Pakistan’s A.Q. Kahn as a nuclear proliferator, they will really be pissed at Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Libby. You do not make your intelligence officers into political footballs.