[theknife]

the Dems had their own little dog-and-pony show today, trotting out ex-CIA types to edify just how serious the Rove security violations really are:

"What has suffered irreversible damage is the credibility of our case officers when they try to convince an overseas contact that their safety is of primary importance to us," Jim Marcinkowski, a former CIA case officer, said.

He also criticized Republican efforts to minimize the damage caused by the leak.

"Each time the political machine made up of prime-time patriots and partisan ninnies display their ignorance by deriding Valerie Plame as a mere paper pusher or belittling the varying degrees of cover used to protect our officers or continuing to play partisan politics with our national security, it's a disservice to this country," he added.

meanwhile, the investigation appears to have mushroomed into other areas such as perjury and obstruction of justice. apparently, some administration officials may not have been entirely candid in thier interviews with the FBI and/or the grand jury:

Bush aide misled FBI, say reports

Julian Borger in New York
Saturday July 23, 2005
The Guardian

The investigation into the White House leak of a CIA agent's identity is now focusing on whether two top administration officials provided misleading statements to the FBI, it was reported yesterday.
According to press accounts, Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice-president's chief of staff, both provided testimony that was later contradicted by other evidence.

but even more interesting is this:

Meanwhile, a parallel investigation is under way into who forged the Niger documents. They are known to have been passed to an Italian journalist by a former Italian defence intelligence officer, Rocco Martino, in October 2002, but their origins have remained a mystery. Mr Martino has insisted to the Italian press that he was "a tool used by someone for games much bigger than me", but has not specified who that might be.

A source familiar with the inquiry said investigators were examining whether former US intelligence agents may have been involved in possible collaboration with Iraqi exiles determined to prove that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear programme.

the Rove investigation is a pandora's box for the administration - it should be a short, slippery slope from Valerie Plame to the fake uranium story to all the other tales they told in order to sucker the country into invading Iraq.