Under federal law, it is a felony to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative, and for obvious reasons. It puts human lives at risk and can do serious damage to national security by undercutting the agent's operation.

...

Given the gravity of the charges and the high positions held by those alleged to have been involved, the appointment of a special independent counsel is absolutely necessary. The allegations come perilously close to treason -- and not the sort of treason fashionably redefined by some as the mere expression of dissent.

...

If the version of events recounted in the Post is true, this was not a rogue mid-level employee acting in a moment of bad judgment. This was a project -- an organized, calculated effort by top people in the administration to exact petty political revenge no matter what the impact to national security.

People who would do that have no place in positions of grave responsibility. Their place is in prison.

POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka, Sept. 18 — In this tropical island nation where 19 million people share space with about 3,000 wild elephants, forests are dwindling and the huge beasts are entering villages to forage in garbage dumps for food. The sad state of Sri Lankan elephants is not unique. The elephant population in Asia has fallen from hundreds of thousands at the turn of the 20th century to only 16,000 in 11 countries today, according to the United Nations.

An adventurous adult male chipmunk is being flown from Marin to Utah in a private plane today to rejoin rodents he left behind after he took a road trip to Terra Linda.

The chipmunk, known by staff at WildCare in San Rafael as "chipmunk 1344 from Utah," apparently didn't know he was hitching a ride when he hopped into Dixie Goldsby's Honda Insight while she camped in southeastern Utah a little more than a week ago.

Goldsby didn't discover the stowaway until she returned home, and once she was able to catch him she wanted to do the best she could for the creature.

...

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination, called Bush's remarks "nothing short of outrageous."

"In 15 minutes, he attempted to make up for 15 months of misleading the American people and 15 weeks of mismanaging the reconstruction," he said.

In his speech, Bush called Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism and said foreign terrorists were to blame for recent violence there. But Dean said the security vacuum caused by the war itself is to blame for that situation.

"The president has created a much more dangerous situation in Iraq," Dean said. "The president has created Iraq to be the front line of terrorism."

So much to do, there's plenty on the farm
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Saturday night I like to raise a little harm
I'll sleep when I'm dead

I'm drinking heartbreak motor oil and Bombay gin
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Straight from the bottle, twisted again
I'll sleep when I'm dead

Well, I take this medicine as prescribed
I'll sleep when I'm dead
It don't matter if I get a little tired
I'll sleep when I'm dead

I've got a .38 special up on the shelf
I'll sleep when I'm dead
If I start acting stupid
I'll shoot myself
I'll sleep when I'm dead

So much to do, there's plenty on the farm
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Saturday night I like to raise a little harm
I'll sleep when I'm dead

But he said, "I don't think this president's tough on defense at all. . . . He had enough money to give $3 trillion away to Ken Lay and the boys . . . but didn't have enough to pay for homeland security for California and San Francisco."

.....

The president, Dean said, "has lost 3.2 million jobs in the private sector since he has been president. . . . This country cannot afford four (more) years of George Bush -- borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend. The credit card presidency. We can do better than that."

Bookman should back up claims.

In Jay Bookman's latest screed against the Bush administration, he makes the claim that President Bush insisted that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat and there would be mushroom clouds rising above our cities if we didn't act ("U.S. now must play hand it dealt itself," @issue, Aug. 28). The truth is the president consistently said that if we allowed Iraq or a terrorist partner to become an imminent threat, we might run the risk of mushroom clouds above our cities.

A brilliant author Bookman hates (don't let him know I'm talking about Ann Coulter) footnotes her claims so that you can easily look up the same information.

In his Thursday Web chat, Bookman insisted the record of Bush making the claims that Bookman attributes to him is so extensive that it can't be ignored. I challenge Bookman, civilly of course, to provide the source of even one of these transcripts.

RICK WALDORF
Norcross

The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. And if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam Hussein would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression. He would be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would be in a position to threaten America. And Saddam Hussein would be in a position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists.