"If you take these steps you will be sending a clear message that your first priority is the nation's security, rather than your aides' well-being"
WASHINGTON -- Sixteen former CIA and military intelligence officials yesterday urged President Bush to suspend the security clearance of his top political adviser, Karl Rove, following revelations that he played a role in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. "We are asking that you immediately suspend the clearances of all White House personnel who spoke to reporters about [Wilson's] affiliation with the CIA. They have mishandled classified information and no longer deserve the level of trust required to have access to this nation's secrets," the former officials, some of whom were covert operatives, wrote to Bush.Why would 16 former CIA and military intelligence officials ask Bush to suspend Karl Rove's security clearance if the CIA agent he exposed, Valerie Plame, wasn't a covert agent? They wouldn't. She was...
