Guest columnist
The cautionary tale of two public servants

By Floyd J. McKay
Special to The Times

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

I'm not privy to talks between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush, but I wonder if the names David Kelly and Valerie Plame didn't enter the conversation.

When we were in Britain in August, there was a huge furor over Blair's government "outing" a weapons expert who told the BBC that Blair's office "sexed up" weapons data in order to justify the war in Iraq.

The scientist, Dr. David Kelly, talked to a BBC reporter on condition that his name not be used. The story was a factor in British public opinion turning against Blair.

Blair's office soon discovered Kelly was the source and promptly leaked his name to pro-government reporters. Kelly was outed, despite a long tradition in the British government of allowing high-level officials to talk on background to the press without having their names disclosed.

Tragically for all involved, the outing was such a shock to Kelly that he committed suicide. An official investigation by an independent law judge followed, and no one — not Blair's people, not the BBC — looked very good. The last witness before the Hutton Commission stated flatly, and was not contradicted, that Blair himself chaired the meeting that decided to expose Kelly.

Shortly after this tragedy unfolded across the waters, the Bush administration engaged in similar conduct, actually a more serious violation of public policy. Yet Bush has been spared from serious criticism by the press or public.

The story is familiar by now. Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, was hired by the CIA to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from Ghana. Wilson's report debunked the claim. Despite Wilson's report, Bush used the claim as a reason to invade Iraq, only later admitting that the material should not have been used.

Wilson, who had served under President George H.W. Bush, was outraged, and wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times. Someone in the Bush administration, in apparent retaliation and to erode Wilson's credibility, leaked to columnist Robert Novak that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is an undercover CIA agent analyzing weapons of mass destruction. Even the name of her cover company was revealed.

This breach of confidentiality is breathtaking, and it is also illegal.

Consider the consequences. Plame's safety is at least theoretically in danger. Her CIA cover company is blown. And every foreign government now has in its database the names of citizens who had some dealings with the CIA cover company. Any of those people living in a hostile country is in mortal danger.

Anyone who has covered government or served in a major state or federal office will have little doubt that the leak was authorized at the highest level, if not the White House itself. Lower-level officials don't freelance leaks in sensitive areas.

This is hardball played to the extreme. The president has ordered his people to "fess up," but the investigation will be directed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, so little is to be expected. Unlike in Britain, the American investigation will be conducted in secret.

Also unlike the British, the American media and public don't seem to care. The media, of course, live off leaks. But public concern, or even interest, is lacking.

One reason, I think, is the way career civil servants are regarded in the two nations. The British civil service is highly regarded, difficult to enter and seldom a target of campaign rhetoric. British candidates run against the other party and its policies, not against the national government's career people.

By contrast, the most successful rhetoric for an American candidate, particularly a Republican, is to run against bureaucrats, the "Washington, D.C., establishment." Exception is given, of course, to the military. So the very dangerous outing of Valerie Plame raises little concern in the public. In Britain, a less-serious offense genuinely threatened Blair's hold on his party leadership.

The way Americans regard those who have committed their careers to public service is quite different than most European nations, for that matter. In the major democracies, such as France and Germany, civil servants are held in high respect (politicians are not) and a career in public service is attractive to bright young graduates.

The case of David Kelly sent a message to Downing Street to keep its hands off the career officials. The Valerie Plame case warned career officials to toe the White House line. Quite a difference.

Floyd J. McKay, a journalism professor at Western Washington University, is a regular contributor to Times editorial pages. E-mail him at floydmckay@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company