By Dana Priest

A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.

The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma." ...

The subject of that reporting has been blacked out by the CIA, and the word "Iraq" does not appear in the heavily redacted version of the legal complaint, but the remaining language and context make clear that the officer's work related to prewar intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

In the lawsuit, the officer asserts that CIA managers retaliated against him for refusing their demands by beginning a counterintelligence investigation of allegations that he had sex with a female asset and by initiating an inspector general's investigation into allegations that he stole money meant to be used to pay human assets.

Reminds us of the Valerie Plame case:

Richard Cohen, Bearded Git Roger Ailes

Every time I see another column whining about the absence of a reporter's privilege, I become more convinced that jail time for certain journalists should be not only a possibility, but mandatory. The latest idiot to weigh in on the topic is that tired-ass Broder-with-a-beard, Richard Cohen. Cohen's column is both illogical and ill-informed. He writes:

Outing an undercover agent is against the law. It could be dangerous for the agent.

It turns out, though, that it has been much more dangerous to the press. Plame, at last report, was doing splendidly, posing for pictures in Vanity Fair and otherwise not running for her very life.

Well, since she hasn't been killed yet, and she's only lost her career, let's just forget the whole thing. Let's do away with that silly crime of "attempted murder" while we're at it. When has that ever hurt anyone?