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Let me walk you through this.
Unknown official informs Rove, Scooter Libby and so on that "Joe Wilson's wife" is a CIA employee covering weapons of mass destruction but does NOT tell them that she is Non-Official Cover (NOC). Rove, Libby etc. go spread the word that Wilson's wife is CIA and that this is nepotism, a private political agenda, this is not to be believed, President's enemies in the CIA trying to undermine the case against Saddam Hussein and vigilance against the Arab Atom Bomb threat, etc etc.
Because Rove, Libby etc. do not KNOW that she is undercover, and do not care enough to find out for themselves, they shield themselves from knowingly divulging her undercover status. (In other words, don't ask, don't tell, and everyone's ok!) This also applies to the reporters who will actually do the divulging to the public on double-deep cross my heart background.
A lot hinges on who this unknown official is, and whether what Rove and Libby did is sufficient for the purposes of charging them with felony conspiracy, which qualifies them for being charged with leaking the identity themselves because they conspired with the person who leaked it to THEM, because THEY were obviously not authorized to get this information in the first place. NOC means no one's supposed to know that she works for the CIA **AT** **ALL**.
Hope this clears things up. :)
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