"...Considerable Doubt that a Crime has been Committed"

"There Is Ample Evidence On The Public Record To Cast Considerable Doubt That A Crime Has Been Committed."

A Ken Mehlman talking point in defense of Karl Rove? Hardly.

It's the primary argument of an amici curiae (friends of the Court) filing by 36 news organizations - including the NY Times, self appointed Rove chief scalphunter - to the US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. four months ago. According to Andrew McCarthy at NRO, the brief argued aggressively that Judith Miller of the NY Times and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine should not be held in contempt for failing to reveal their sources to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald because no crime had been committed.

The brief is available here. (Skip the first 27 pages which is basically a description of the amici.)

The brief argues the well-known facts that Valerie Plame/Wilson was hardly a covert agent, working consistently at CIA's Langley headquarters for years and had not been out of the US on assignment since 1997. What is particularly intersting though is the brief accuses the CIA of being slipshod at best and complicit at worst of 'outing' Plame/Wilson's to the Soviet Union and Cuba. Some NOC agent. Here's the ending sentence to the important part of the brief:

"While there is no suggestion that the Special Counsel is proceeding in bad faith, there should be abundant concern that the CIA may have initiated this investigation out of embarrassment over revelations of its own shortcomings."

Interesting how this story is completely buried in the current Get Rove environment.