Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Valerie Plame

How secret was the identity of Valerie Plame, the blonde-bombshell top-secret superspy at the center of the kerfuffle of the century? So secret, she still doesn't know it herself! The Associated Press reports on Plame's star turn before a House committee Friday:

Plame also repeatedly described herself as a covert operative, a term that has multiple meanings. Plame said she worked undercover and traveled abroad on secret missions for the CIA.

But the word "covert" also has a legal definition requiring recent foreign service and active efforts to keep someone's identity secret. Critics of [Patrick] Fitzgerald's investigation said Plame did not meet that definition for several reasons and said that's why nobody was charged with the leak.

Also, none of the witnesses who testified at Libby's trial said it was clear that Plame's job was classified. However, Fitzgerald said flatly at the courthouse after the verdict that Plame's job was classified.

Rep. Tom Davis, the ranking Republican on the committee, said, "No process can be adopted to protect classified information that no one knows is classified. This looks to me more like a CIA problem than a White House problem."

Plame said she wasn't a lawyer and didn't know what her legal status was but said it shouldn't have mattered to the officials who learned her identity.

Plame also described the so-called leak as having been done "carelessly and recklessly," which is a far cry from her husband's insistence that it was a deliberate effort to harm her.

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