contrapositive

PLAME WATCH Armchair legal analysis of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation by reporters and pundits has focused almost exclusively on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. That's understandable: The deliberate outing of American spies is a particularly pernicious sort of crime. As former President George H.W. Bush tells it:

I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our [intelligence] sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.

But just because the IIPA is a serious law, that doesn't mean it's the only one Karl Rove and other disseminators of classified information should be worrying about.

Mark Kleiman explains.