Washington has always loved a little blood in the water. But if the capitol’s appetite for scandal is famously healthy, it’s ability to metabolize rumor into ruin lags. The Pentagon Papers, Iran Contra, even MonicaGate, all started with a leak or a lie or some bit of drudged up innuendo, and then dragged on as independent counsels and criminal investigations ran their course.
So it’s not that surprising that it took three-months for news about a White House leak about the wife of a former ambassador to make headlines. Except for the fact that the information was classified, the woman is an undercover CIA agent, and the ambassador happens to be an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s war in Iraq. From leak to scandal. Deconstructing a Washington Whodunit.
Guests:
Daniel Ellsberg, author, “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Scott Armstrong, former senior investigator, Senate Watergate Committee and founder, National Security Archive
Ted Gup, author, “The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA”