On Sunday, InstaPundit made this comment on the Plame affair:

Perhaps I'm too missing something here, but this seems like a rather tepid version of intimidation -- or, for that matter, revenge. I can't help but feel that there's either more to this, or less, than we're hearing. And I guess if it weren't for the palpable desperation on the part of people looking for a scandal with which to tar Bush -- reminiscent of numerous right-wing Clinton critics from about five or six years ago -- I might be more inclined to say "more" instead of "less."
I suppose I should just be happy to see such solicitude on the behalf of a reputed CIA agent from people who aren't usually so solicitous.
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This seems like a case of manufactured outrage to me. I rather doubt that most of the people who are so exercised here were condemning that hero of the antiwar left, Philip Agee, who really did put lives in danger.

Silly me. I should have known better. Today the LA Times actually drags Agee out of the bed he was shacking up with Castro in, to give him space on its pages to attack the Bush administration, to express his shock that the law has been violated.

Now that Agee is back in his brothel, perhaps the LA Times will track down Saddam and give him a column to denounce the Bush administration for cruelty to Iraqis.

Jim Hemley is a lefty? The hey?

Is there no depth to which they will not stoop. I injured my jaw when it dropped to the floor.

That's "HENley." There's a Blazing Saddles gag in there somewhere.

Next they'll have a piece by the late KGB
General Kim Philby (inspiration for Agee
and Robert Hanson) I know he died in 1988,
but the NY Times has run articles by Camby
and Sullivan, haven't they

For the love of...

I don't care what Agee thinks. He's a criminal. I don't think that the LA Times should have given him a forum.

But was there a poll of lefties that I missed about whether a criminal like Agee should get editorial space? No, there wasn't.

I daresay that virtually every person on the left would oppose outing CIA agents, by Agee or by the Administration. Reynolds' accusation was wildly unfair, and the poor judgement of the LA Times doesn't change that. Would you appreciate being held responsible for everything printed by the editors of the Washington Times?

Mr Barlow, are you kidding? For many on the left, the CIA is the very definition of evil and Agee is still a hero.

Is that right? Would you be kind enough to point me to a selection of Mr. Agee's fan club?

(We both know that you can find kooks who believe just about anything on the internet. So I would appreciate it if you would use a methodology that I couldn't use to prove the statement, "For many on the right, Bull Connor is still a hero.")

Here's one member of the Philip Agee fan club...

Trouble-tickets.org "an activist web project:

http://www.trouble-tickets.org/blogs/mark/2003-03-03.blog.html

An adoring radio interview by a leftwing station
http://www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/btl120800.html

Another leftist radio show has this criminal on the air:

http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/13/Spike.html

Major leftist website carries Agree-penned article:

http://www.counterpunch.org/agee08092003.html

Village Voice article with positive Agree citations:

http://www.connix.com/~harry/cia_bad.htm

Democrats.com citing Agree as a credible author:

http://www.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=CIA

Sorry Ted, but it isn't leftist "kooks" who celebrate Agee, but a rather larger group. Indeed, a search of the web, finds numerous references to Agee on "progressive" websites in which he is only called "an ex-CIA agent" or "whistleblower" and his "works" are treated with respect and admiration.

Agee IS a criminal as you say, but it simply isn't true that he's a hero to a few extremists. It goes much, much deeper than that. Unfortunately.

Wow. Where will this all end?

The next thing you know, someone will ask G. Gordon Liddy what he thinks about the current political scandal, and to compare it to Watergate.

Yeah, I was astonished yesterday to see the piece by Agee in the LA Times. I'd just assumed he was locked up somewhere. Wishful thinking, obviously.

I think that I must agree that what's called the 'left', generally flocks to and admires American traitors and espionage agents of foreign powers. The caveats - the treason has to be by a leftist and for a leftist regime, the more radical the better. Nor may they recant. My reading elsewhere of Henley and 'Hesiod' (previous posts) is that they are completely untrustworthy. They take a 'soviet' view of the USA and world events. The mention (by McLeod) of "CounterPunch", reminds me that it is mostly run by the extended British Cockburn Communist family, who's patriarch was certainly a Soviet 'agent of influence' there. (Oh dear, I said Communist!) G

my, my, you people get excited about your causes. perhaps a pint at the pub down the road could calm you. i suggest turning off the tv, throwing out the newspapers and ignoring the lies until it's time to vote.

Shit! And my TV is broken! How can I ever know the news?!

Michael, so I think you should go this place and read the news here;)))

Jim Henley is a libertarian, not a lefty. Can't you folk make distinctions?

I disagree with JH on the war, but I respect his views, which he couches in libertarian terms. On just about every other issue, ranging from the 2nd Amendment, free trade, Patriot Act, etc, Jim is firmly on the free market/libertarian side. He's certainly no "lefty".