Did the Administration damage CIA operations against Iran?

Sometimes a story that seems relatively inconsequential can turn out to have devastating consequences. The most famous instance of this phenomenon was the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand by a young Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip which is commonly held to have been triggered the First World War. The decision by White House aides to try to suppress Joe Wilson’s criticism of President Bush for his hyperbole over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will hopefully not have such catclysmic consequences. But it does threaten to have a much greater long-term effect than its architects ever imagined.