Valerie Plame was in the CIA. What is the big deal about leaking her name?

Question

What did she do for the CIA?

Answer 1

she was supposed to be undercover and messing that up could have theoretically gotten her killed.

however, once Armitage came out and said he's the one who did it, the media lost interest. they couldn't figure out how to keep blaming Bush and Cheney for it, so they dropped it completely.

never mind that the NYT keeps publishing national security secrets on the front page so the terrorists can see everything. the editors of that rag need to go to jail post-haste.

Answer 2

in case you will cost somebody with against the regulation, you're able to desire to have some info. each and all the folk in touch coated for another. So the prosecutor had no info to artwork with. Libby basically slipped up an perjured himself. If everybody had advised all they knew, the tale may well be a sprint distinctive. This all sounds very comparable to the beginning up of Watergate. bear in mind (probable no longer, maximum of you're too youthful) the Nixon administration's depiction of the smash-in as a "2nd cost housebreaking"? Then while human beings began dealing with intense detention center time, the certainty began to emerge. As to the ridiculous stereotypes approximately liberals and the CIA, did anybody catch the certainty that Valerie Plame admitted below oath that she is a Democrat? particular conservative factors of the physique politic are going to proceed to waft into irrelevance until they might comprehend and admit hassle-free little truths such because of the fact the certainty that that could be a risk to be the two liberal and patriotic.

Answer 3

Depends on who you listen to and how much research you are willing to do.................
Questions--
1)Had you heard that Plame's cover has actually been blown for a decade — i.e., since about seven years before Novak ever wrote a syllable about her?
2)Have you heard that the CIA is actually the source responsible for exposing Plame's covert status?
Answers--
1) It appears Plame was first outed to the general public as a result of a consciously loaded and slyly hypothetical piece by the journalist David Corn. Corn's source appears to have been none other than Plame's own husband, former ambassador and current Democratic-party operative Joseph Wilson — that same pillar of national security rectitude whose notion of discretion, upon being dispatched by the CIA for a sensitive mission to Niger, was to write a highly public op-ed about his trip in the New York Times.
2)As the media alleged (in Footnote 7, page 8, of their brief), Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a spy in Moscow. Of course, the press and its attorneys were smart enough not to argue that such a disclosure would trigger the defense prescribed in Section 422 because it was evidently made by a foreign-intelligence operative, not by a U.S. agency as the statute literally requires.
3)The press informed that the CIA itself "inadvertently" compromised Plame by not taking appropriate measures to safeguard classified documents that the Agency routed to the Swiss embassy in Havana.

Answer 4

My opinion: To the best of my knowledge, V. Plame worked at the CIA as an analyst. She was not an undercover spy. She worked at the CIA as I worked in an office at our local university.

This entire flap is to try in some way to discredit Pres. Bush. The prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald, knew a long time ago that the source of Robert Nowak's article was Richard Armitage and not S. Libby, but he trudged on. Why?

Ask yourself, do you remember every word of every conversation that took place 3 years ago?

The left is trying to prove that Pres. Bush tried to discredit J. Wilson because he contradicted the president. The fact is that this couple was well known in Washington circles. I think the N.Y. Post came out with an article that said the person most responsible for "outing" his wife was J. Wilson himself.

Answer 5

Not everybody at the CIA is a covert agent. It's a big operation in a big building. Lots of the employees there do things like mopping the restrooms and changing the network printer toner. If Valerie were really a deep cover agent the last thing she would do is have her husband.. easily smoked out by Who's Who or Peoplefinders.. post a cage-rattling, inflamatory letter to the editor of a big city newspaper and draw attention to herself. Only dumb spies do stuff like that.

Answer 6

The leaking of Valerie Plame's name is not so much the issue, although it could have cost her her life. The big deal is that one of Vice President Cheney's aids leaked her name and then lied about it. I. Louis "Skooter" Libby is on trial for lying. He said he heard Valerie's name from Tim Russert of NBC News. Witnesses are claming that Plame's name was mentioned several days prior to the time Libby claims to have first heard it from Russert. Lying is very common in politics especially with the current Administration. This time someone got caught.

Answer 7

She was supposedly an undercover operative who also ran other "spooks". Exposing her, exposed not only her, but potentially her operations and contacts.

At minimum they were irresponsible and incompetent (notice a trend with these guys?). They could have checked around before leaking the name to a reporter (one their shils-- Bob Novak) At worst, they commited a crime. Exposing the name of CIA operative is a crime. And Bush specifically stated that he would "punish" whoever leaked the name. Nothing has been done.

Answer 8

She was an under cover operative. As far as the world was concerned she worked for a made up Company. No one knew she worked for the CIA until Bush, Cheney leaked the information thereby destroying her cover.

Answer 9

At the time her name was leaked..,she was no longer a covert agent..,she was no longer performing undercover duties.Her husband was the one that told Armitage who was the leaker..,not Scooter libby,not Karl Rove,and the thing that ticks me off..,is Fitzgerald knew this yet he is still proceding with investigation wasting tax payers money..,guess he wants to be like NiFong and make a name for himself..,he will...,end up just like Nifong if he doesnt cool his gun ho jets.

Answer 10

Let me ask you a question. If you worked for the CIA undercover and YOUR OWN government leaked your name how would you feel. Number one it is a federal offense. Number two imagine that her life or her contacts lives depended on her secrecy.

So the Bush administration leaks her name in order to discredit her husband because her husband is telling the truth about the fact that Iraq is NOT trying to buy yellowcake.

You don't see any issue with this. I guess we should just declare Bush emperor.

Answer 11

She was a covert field operative, and her status was covert, ie not public knowledge. A field ops job is to develop new contacts, and maintain the ones they have. Now that everyone knows she was a CIA operative, anyone she had contact with in a foreign country is taboo as well. The foreign governments KNOW she is a field op that is trying to recruit people to spy for us, which is a 2 fold problem. #1 her cover is blown, and she will never be able to exploit targets for information ever again, #2 the targets she had and developed in those coutries are now considered suspects themselves by their own government, simply because they are associated with her. What do you think happens to people that their governments think are working for the US CIA? my guess is a bullet in the back of the head and an unmarked grave. So thats the big deal, the US loses lots of valuable intelligence from sources on the ground, she can NEVER do that job again, in fact i doubt if she can even TRAVEL to any of those countries, and i bet there is a long trail of corpses in other countries that came out of all this. And no shes not dead

...and to follow up and address all you people taking the 'she was a desk jockey' route...it doesnt matter what she really did, beacuse this is what the head of the investigation, DoJ Special Council Patrick Fitzgerald, concluded, and i quote from a press conference on October 28, 2005: "In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community. Valerie Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life. The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well-known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security. Valerie Wilson's cover was blown in July 2003."

So thats what the official investigation turned up, and thats the basis for the legal action. So who cares what she did? as far as the investigation is concerned, her cover was blown in 2003...Plus the investigation is NOT over yet, Fitzgerald is still Special Counsel and its ongoing. Just because no one has directly been charged with leaking her name doesnt mean no one will. The transcipt of the quoted press conference is in the link below for those that care to read it.