Don't think for a moment that the CIA will be punished for "not telling the president." They will almost certainly be rewarded for not telling him something he did not want to know.

We had a similar instance here with the "children overboard" affair before the last election. The Defence Department (allegedly) did not pass on information that contradicted the line that Prime Minister Howard was pushing as part of his election strategy. A few months later, the re-elected Prime Minister, his chief political headkicker Peter Reith (as Minister of Defence) and his chief public service headkicker Max Moore-Wilton (as head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) were the ones who decided that the head of the Department of Defence had earned his performance bonus for the year.

Rest assured that if he had told them the truth, he would have been crucified by the same happy trio.

This pattern of rewarding the public servants who provide political advantages, and penalising those who carry out their duties apolitically, is corrupting what was once an excellent group of senior public servants.