Prior to the July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson?s employment status was classified. Prior to that date, her affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community. Disclosure of classified information about an individual?s employment by the CIA has the potential to damage the national security in ways that range from preventing that individual?s future use in a covert capacity to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who deal with them.
Corrections from those peddling this crap?
Short time reader, first time poster (though I catch you over at Kos often):
Being knowledgeable about national securuty, as Libby and Cheney AND ALL THE OTHER PRICKS IN THE WHITE HOUSE WERE/ARE, they all would know that if someone works in an area, such as CPD, where they MAY be an operative, there is a VERY strong obligation to find out if the person is an operative or not, before blabbing about that person and where they work.
Every time Libyy outed Plame/Wilson, he should have had allarms going off in his head. This man was not as stupid as Bush, after all.
To feign as if “well, who would know?”, while shrugging their shoulders is disengenuous to the max. It just doesn’t work that way. Libby DID find out, IMHO, whether he sought her status himself, or some fact came up that told him.
I had a Top Secret Crypto clearance for a while in the Army a long time ago, and NOTHING that pertains to what is going on in sensitive areas – names, documents, data, dates, job titles – NONE of it was ever to be discussed with those “on the outside”.
I didn’t work with spooks, but IMHO, if someone works in an area where operatives work, the assumption would ALWAYS be that the person is some level of spook, until it was known otherwise. Assumptions otherwise would only be made by some incompetent doofus.
AP –
From the AP, in support of your argument – but stronger, maybe – is this from the AP on Oct 17th: http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/valerie_plame_/2005/10/ap_reports_plame_was_still_in_the_directorate_of_operations.php