What kind of an operation could a CIA agent be part of where their identity as a CIA agent was part of the operation?

Only type of operation I can think of is one in which she was passing what she believed to be phony state secrets to the enemy. The passing of the plans for a nuclear triggering device to Iran “Operation Merlin” would be right up Soro’s and Co’s. alley.

“Martha Honey” and “John Kerry” and “Center for Policy Studies”

“Dana Priest” and “William Goodfellow” and “Center for International Policy”

“William Goodfellow” and “Joe Wilson”

“Center for Internation Policy” and “Institute for Policy Studies” and “Fenton Communications”

This whole thing comes around once a year or so.

Look at it from a different perspective. If Valerie had not been related to Wilson and said “hey, I know someone who would be perfect for the job” and got Wilson selected, we would have never heard a peep about it and Wilson would have been some discredited has-been by now.

There is more to this Wilson/Plame thing than meets that eye that has still not been uncovered but I would look closer at Wilson’s connections with people associated with various clients of Fenton Communications.

Arguing about the definition of “covert” with respect to the IIPA, CIA operational practice, or the accounting category of which account Plame was embezzling out of is silly. Fitzgerald is still claiming that Plame’s employment by the CIA was “classified.” We know the information that appeared in Novak’s column came from Richard Armitage, who got it by reading it in the INR report. We know that the person who put it in the INR report got it from the INR staffer who was at the meeting on Feb 19, 2002 where Valerie Plame identified herself as a “CIA managerial type” and identified Joe Wilson as her husband, as a former ambassador, and as the person that the CIA wanted sent to Niger to check out yellowcake intel. We know that Valerie Plame, an agent of the US Government, did not affirmatively protect her employment status at that meeting. Therefore, we know, because of the definition of classified as established in Executive Order 13292, that the information that appeared in Novak’s column was not classified. Because the information that appeared in Novak’s column, when traced back through the chain of custody to its source, was unclassified on Feb 19, 2002.

The executive order puts the burden upon the government to designate what information is classified and holds harmless any employee who treats information as unclassified if the government never communicated that the information was other than unclassified. When classified information is divulged (in error or otherwise) without its classification designation, the executive order establishes procedures for getting it back under cover, contingent upon whether it is possible. (Information not yet disseminated widely and/or noticed can often be collected up, and recipients notified of its status.) There was a 15-month gap between Valerie Plame disclosing her status to the INR meeting-goer and the INR meeting-goer passing it on in the report that Armitage read and passed on to Woodward, Novak and maybe others. There is no sign that Valerie Plame, the CIA, or any US government employee made any attempt at all to undo the release of “classified” information to the INR staffer at the Feb 19, 2002 meeting. So, according to the laws and regulations of the US government, we must conclude that her employment status was not classified after Feb 19, 2002. Clearly Plame’s employment status was classified earlier, and the exact point at which it became unclassified is unclear. But we can conclude with certainty that it was before Feb 20, 2002.

Which Libby’s lawyers were not allowed to even argue in Judge Reggie “La-la-la I Can’t Hear You” Walton’s court.

But I just realized something, “as if for the first time” in Waxman’s statement.
Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
Clinton’s Executive Order 12958 was superceded, in March, 2003, by Bush’s Executive Order 13292. I looked at that and thought that either it was a simple error, or that this was Waxman and/or Hayden expressing contempt for the president and his authority by pretending that the superceded order was still in effect.

I’m now wondering if this is not a “what the meaning of ‘is’ is” lie about Plame’s status. If, as I claim we can conclude, Valerie Plame’s CIA employment was not classified (ignore covert — she can’t be covert if her employment isn’t classified) at any time after Feb 19, 2002, then Plame’s CIA employment was never classified under EO 13292. If the point at which her employment status became declassified was after Clinton issued EO 12958 on April 17, 1995 (which seems quite plausible), then it is technically absolutely true that “Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.”

Posted by: cathyf | March 22, 2007 at 09:11 AM

here

Was there a time prior to this article when Novak mentioned that Harlow said she would never be sent overseas again? I have checked back and could not find such a quote from him. If Harlow was giving out this much background on her then I seriously doubt she was “covert.”

There is such a wealth of info that it is very possible I just missed it.