Valerie Plame Redux

Glenn Greenwald has written a piece in The Guardian in which he claims that the Obama administration is selectively leaking information which enhances the image of the current president in an election year, while simultaneously punishing people who leak information which it is in the public interest to be known. Glenn bases this claim on such flimsy evidence as the author of an article saying that his source consisted of “three dozen former and current administration officials” who spoke, of course “on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.”

I don’t know why Glenn Greenwald would think that the Obama administration is leaking information merely because the person who has that information says that he got it from the Obama administration.

Obama is, of course, outraged by the accusation; not from Greenwald, who he may never have heard of, but from Republicans and no few Democrats. He says that he is going to launch an investigation to find the leak.

"We have mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences," the president said. "In some cases, it's criminal. These are criminal acts when they release information like this. And we will conduct thorough investigations, as we have in the past."

Where have we heard this before? Oh yes, I remember now; someone leaked the identity of a CIA operative. The timing of that revelation was suspicious, as was the fact that it was very much to the benefit of then-President George W. Bush. Remember him?

You may recall that Bush was outraged by the leak and promised that an investigation would be done; an investigation of the Executive Branch by the Executive Branch. The outcome of that investigation was, you may recall, limited to one Scooter Libby, who was convicted of lying to investigators, and who served not one day in prison due to President Bush.

Isn’t it awesome how history repeats itself? Perhaps I should ask, isn’t it awesome how Obama copies Bush? Again we have leaks from the Executive Branch which benefit the executive, followed by Presidential outrage, followed by the Executive Branch investigating itself, followed by…

Well, you know what comes next, the guilty will not be punished.