There seems to be a complete lack of discretion motivated purely by politics, and not by concern for abuses of power or the safety of the American people.

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson has told anyone and everyone that his wife’s identity as a CIA employee was revealed as revenge for criticizing President Bush’s claim that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from the African country of Niger. He, with great hubris, demanded investigations and wanted to watch White House officials do a  “perp walk.”

Why isn’t anyone investigating Joe Wilson?

Investigate Joe Wilson you say? Why, is he not the person who is aggrieved here? Was he not the object of a diabolical plot by Bush administration zealots? Was he not the victim of a vendetta? Is he not the sentinel of truth, justice, and the American way? Was he not the person who spoke truth to power by telling the world that Bush lied? Is he not a martyr for Mom, baseball, apple pie, and everything American?

Well not exactly.

Joe Wilson was sent on a covert mission as an operative of the CIA — not by the Vice President of the United States as he claimed — he was recommended by his wife. Rightly or wrongly, he was sent by the CIA to determine if there was a possibility that Iraq was engaging in activities that might cause a terrible catastrophe. Simply put, Joe Wilson was sent on a spying mission by his government that would help determine whether young Americans would be sent to war.

Not only did Joe Wilson lie about who sent him, he proclaimed to the world in a newspaper editorial what secret mission he was assigned. Then he even misrepresented what transpired.

Wilson described his mission as ‘discreet,” not secret. Imagine what kind of stamp that would be. One can just imagine this conversation at the CIA:

"Irv, how should I classify the Wilson file, Top Secret?"

"No Marvin classify it, Discreet."

Besides, Wilson’s now famous NY Times op-ed piece was certainly not “discreet” was it?

There are two unanswered questions about Wilson’s op-ed piece. Was he required to sign a confidentiality agreement about his mission? If not, why not?  It is a standard policy. What permission — if any — did he seek to write the New York Times piece?

There are also some serious questions about our federal officials. During the past several years, there have been several instances of elected officials and others informing the media about CIA operations. US Senators have told the media about covert CIA operations (Senator Leahy from Vermont was one) with impunity. Now we have a CIA operative writing about his “discreet” mission for the New York Times. Why are we supposed to be outraged about a disclosure about a “classified” (possibly a discreet?) CIA operative.

Why are these people immune from prosecution for their “indiscretions.”

My father, who was an undercover agent for the old Federal Bureau of Narcotics, never mentioned a word about his covert sensational cases.

During the mid-1950's he made a sensational case, which resulted in the largest seizure of heroin in US history at the time. He infiltrated the Lucky Luciano mob, posing as a heroin trafficker. He eventually became so trusted he worked directly for Luciano's capos.

The New York papers at the time reported the case and always referred to him as Agent X. Yet that was the only notoriety. He never talked about it. The family was told never to mention to anyone what he did for a living. As far as anyone knew, he was an insurance salesman.

What we recently learned — more than a decade after he passed away — was that he worked some other sensational cases. One involved a guy by the name of Mickey Cohen who was sort of the "mobster to the stars."

The point is my father never mentioned any of these cases to anyone. We never learned about any of this. He kept quiet.

Nowadays people like Joe Wilson — who was sent on a covert mission for the CIA involving a possible war — write about it for the newspapers. Presidential advisers talk to reporters about sensitive missions. Senators tell the media about covert operations.

Is it possible for someone in our government involved in secret national defense activities to keep their mouths shut?

I realize we need to know what the government is doing. However, there seems to be a complete lack of discretion motivated purely by politics and not by concern for abuses of power or the safety of the American people.

The idea is that a rank and file federal narcotics employee can do secret work and keep quiet. Meanwhile, more educated (my father was a high school dropout), more highly compensated, federal employees cannot seem to refrain from talking about their work (The Times’ piece was not Wilson’s first journalistic essay).

Why is it that an ordinary person can show more integrity and common sense then those to whom we have given tremendous responsibilities? More importantly, why are we not strictly enforcing the policies and procedures regarding covert operations?