should not be above the law. If Wilson's wife was working to keep check on an enemy nation's nuclear program, then the outing of this agent was a VERY seroius crime. The fact that the crime may have been committed purely for political gain makes it even worse. Karl may have helped Iran get closer to developing nuclear weapons by uncovering any American or foreign agents and any other people or contacts they were working with, here or abroad.
How serious is what Karl, Cheney and Bush may have done, in their little game of getting even with Wilson? ***********************
Execution
The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951, and sentenced to death under section 2 of the Espionage Act, 50 U.S. Code 32 (now 18 U.S. Code 794), which prohibits transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government information "relating to the national defense", by judge Irving Kaufman on April 5. The conviction helped to fuel Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into "anti-American activities" by US citizens. While their devotion to the Communist cause was well documented, they denied the spying charges even as they faced the electric chair.
snip...
"I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb <...> has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.
Their case has been at the center of the controversy over communism in the United States ever since, with supporters steadfastly maintaining that their conviction was an egregious example of persecution typical of the "hysteria" of those times (see Red Scare, McCarthyism) and likening it to the witch hunts that marred Salem and medieval Europe (a comparison that provided the inspiration for Arthur Miller's critically acclaimed play, The Crucible).
At the time, some Americans believed both Rosenbergs were innocent or received too harsh a punishment, and a grass-roots campaign was started to try to stop the couple's execution. Other Americans felt that the couple got what they deserved. Pope Pius XII appealed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spare the couple, but he refused on February 11, 1953, and all other appeals were also unsuccessful.
The couple were executed in the electric chair on June 19, 1953. Reports of the execution state that Julius died after the first application of electricity, but Ethel did not succumb immediately, and was subjected to two more electrical charges before being pronounced dead. The chair was designed for a man, and Ethel Rosenberg was a petite woman; this discrepancy resulted, it is claimed, in the electrodes fitting poorly. Eyewitness testimony describes smoke rising from her head."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_and_Julius_Rosenberg
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