Now the Presidents desperate attempt to stir up new controversy is turning to placing national intelligence in the hands of an unqualified syncopantic liar. The intelligence sector is not a thing to be played with for political purposes. There are real lives on the line, both our agents and the lives of those who have taken the risks to cooperate with them. The release of something that Barr may see as useful, could easily contain clues that foreign intelligence agencies can use to figure out who is who and where. The threat of intelligence falling into unqualified hands has to be any agents or cooperators worst nightmare, since it could result in the death or imprisonment of the agent, cooperator and his family for life. This has to paralyse the entire intelligence community and has to impact their ability to obtain cooperation. The Valerie Plame debacle was a terrible hit the community took, now it's potentially happening again, who will trust us again?
When Bush outed Valerie Plame, the entire apparatus she had built, to monitor nuclear materials around the globe, had to be shuttered, agents quickly withdrawn from the field and assets and cooperators, notified, warned and in some cases evacuated. Not everyone was able to escape, but we won't be told about those who did get caught. It was a terrible mess and the intelligence community worldwide was left wondering if they could continue to cooperate with the US. Now there's the threat of it happening again, no one can rest easy.
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