Deaf Row.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

National Security: While Scooter Libby may get prison for "leaking" the name of CIA desk jockey Valerie Plame, The Washington Post may get a Pulitzer Prize for putting real CIA operatives overseas in real danger.

One man's leaker is another man's whistle-blower, we figure. That seems to explain how those who demanded that Karl Rove be "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs" -- as publicity-hound and serial liar Joe Wilson, Plame's husband, so eloquently put it -- can be silent about any criminal investigation into who leaked classified information to the Post about the existence of secret CIA prisons.

The deafening silence you hear is from liberals who claim Rove, Libby, et al. placed Plame, who was deep undercover on the Washington party circuit, in jeopardy by leaking her identity but who seem not to care that real CIA covert operatives overseas may have been put in harm's way by the story in the Post's Nov. 2 edition.

Once again we're in a battle for the future of civilization. But in contrast to World War II, where "loose lips sunk ships," giving enemies classified information in the war on terror is OK if loose lips sink America and George W. Bush.

In the Plame case, exposing those involved in a secret campaign to turn public opinion against the war by politically motivated prevaricators was said to threaten the nation's security. But exposing a secret operation to protect our nation and its people from mass- murdering fanatics, as the Post did, is showered with high praise.

Granted, the existence, purpose, location and actual goings-on at these secret prisons is the subject of much discussion and dispute. But we'd guess that whatever was involved was ...