A little more about the letter designators tha KOS is talking about

[kurtyboy]

Of course, this referes to the WSJ revelation that Plame's name was preceeded by a two-letter designator, in brackets.

This sort of classified government document generally has the classification of each paragraph marked in a parenthetical at the beginning of the paragraph: (U) for "Unclassified", (C) for "Confidential", (S) for "Secret", (TS) for "Top Secret", and (TS/SCI) for "Top Secret/Special Compartmented Information". Each page bears at the top and bottom of the page the classification of the most highly classified paragraph on the page. And then the whole document is prominently marked with the classification of the most highly classified paragraph in the document.

It would be virtually impossible for someone who actually viewed the document not to see that it is classified.

by lysias on Tue Jul 19th, 2005 at 05:54:42 PDT

more...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/19/134031/241

What lysias at Kos reports is true. Additionally, when something is as tightly controlled as a NOCs identity, access to the compartment is usually given a codename and/or program number. The compartmental codenames may give no clue as to the programs within, or they may--if you have inside knowledge. At any rate, in order to even view infomation classified into such a compartment, you have to sign a special non-disclosure agreement, just for that compartment/program.

The codenames themselves may be classified. I'll make one up--Cheese-Eater. Material in a document classified in the Cheese-Eater program would appear in a document like this, followed by a paragraph that is far less sensitive:

(TS/CE) Mickey Mouse, returning from a May trip to Gabon, assures us that the Prime Minister has no plans to reduce the nation's goat herds.

(S) Operationally, we should take careful aim at ...blah blah blah...

If anyone on AF-1 viewed this document and wasn't "read in" to the compartment--even Ari Fleisher--then the person(s) responsible for exposing the document have violated their NDA and are subject to disciplinary action. With violations of this nature (With SCI), violators are often stripped of their security clearance altogether, and more often than not lose their jobs.

Ironically, I am not so sure someone like Karl Rove would have signed a NDA for such a compartment. He may well wriggle out of one of the laws--but it still looks very bleak for him.