The CIA, Washington Post and NY Times

A career CIA officer has been given the heave-ho because she leaked sensitive information to the WaPo about secret prisons utilized throughout Europe. The NY Times--already in their own little war with the Bush administration over intelligence issues--is already laying the groundwork of what angle they will take:

Several former intelligence officials — who were granted anonymity after requesting it for what they said were obvious reasons under the circumstances — were divided over the likely effect of the dismissal on morale. One veteran said the firing would not be well-received coming so soon after the disclosure of grand jury testimony by Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff that President Bush in 2003 approved the leak of portions of a secret national intelligence estimate on Iraqi weapons.

"It's a terrible situation when the president approves the leak of a highly classified N.I.E., and people at the agency see management as so disastrous that they feel compelled to talk to the press," said one former C.I.A. officer with extensive overseas experience.

Ah, but the president has the authority to declassify whatever he feels he needs to, an employee of the CIA does not. They can spin this all they want, but the employee chose to leak classified information that hurt us in our dealings with our allies and intentionally chose to hurt the president. It's evident the Clinton appointee didn't care too much for the current Chief Executive.

The Times is comparing oranges to kiwis and not apples to apples.

Update: The good Cap'n has this related news.

Update 2: The most comprehensive compilation of info about this case can be found at Flopping Aces.