Oh, now take a look at this. (Rove really might be a genius)

[The Doctor.]

Match this; NSA '47 Title VI. SEC. 606. <50 U.S.C. 426>;

"(4) The term "covert agent" means—


(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency—
(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and

(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or..."
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/laws/iipa.html
{emphasis mine}

With this;"June 1997 – Joseph Wilson returns to Washington DC as Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. At about the same time, Plame also moves back to the United States (Wilson, Politics 240), in part because the CIA suspects her name was leaked to the Russians in 1994.* (Vanity Fair, Jan. ‘04)."
http://www.factcheck.org/article337.html
*emphasis mine

Now... look at the dates...

It was 1997 when Plame was recalled to the US.
More specifically, it was June.

When did Rove allegedly leak this info?

He may be a malicious, vindictive, megalomaniacal monster... (what's not to like?)

But if he was that on top of the law to time it within a month (thinking he'd be clear of it)... ya' gotta give him credit.

{oe}- Ok... more than a month.

[kestrel91316]

1. If she wasn't covert, how did the CIA get away with ..........

filing a complaint about her outing, and how did Fitz manage to waste 2 years and milions of dollars investing something that wasn't even a crime??

[FreedomAngel82]

24. And why did they have

a big huge "S" on the document as well?

[Wetzelbill]

2. I hope Fitz nails him on something... please let justice happen!

If he is this good, then give the devil his due.

[ncteechur]

3. former CIA Larry Johnson cleared this up today--she was a NOC

[lovuian]

5. if she wasn't covert then why the TOP TOP Secret label on the

memo... She was a NOC and Rove is a freakin IDIOT arrogant like all men who have absolute power... It corrupts them absolutely!!!O

[goforit]

8. Great question!

And to think Fitz did this just to shoot the breeze.

LOL!!!

[goforit]

6. NOC has what responsibilities?

[nankerphelge]

17. whatsa noc?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. An agent with

Non-Official Cover.

As opposed to a diplomat who has official cover and the protection of the US government. In other words, if a foreign country catches you...they get to kill you.

[flyarm]

19. NON OFFICAL COVER...

ONE OF OUR MOST SECRET OF Agents..and most valuable..they are the least protected ..out of country they are not protected and if caught they can be killed , imprisoned ..or just made to disappear by foreign nations..they have no geneva convention protection..so they are the most valuable agents we have ..and the ones who take the biggest risk of all for our nation!

[goforit]

4. Now.....may I ask you, you think Fitz has overlooked this?

I think he may have something quite bigger.

[The Doctor.]

14. LOL! Of COURSE he has something 'bigger'...

We lost a national security asset.

We lost Brewster Jennings and associates.

Go on a Right-wingnut site and ask if this leak has cost us an asset... then watch what happens!

No, I believe Rove thought he was quite a bit smarter than he really is.

OOPS!

[Tommymac]

7. Heard this spin debunked already.

She was a NOC.

[babylonsister]

9. Larry Johnson knew Valerie P through his CIA

schooling and never connected the two until this mess. The point of that is their identities were sacred and not to be messed with. So why did this entire admin, despite the top secret clarifications, do it?

[wiggle-room]

10. What? I don't get it.

Surely he's alleged to have leaked the info after 1997. What does anything that happened before 2002 have to do with it?

Seriously? I don't get it.

[rodeodance]

12. I think Rove is smart/intelligent--he just uses his smarts the wrong way.

[rzemanfl]

11. Fitzgerald did not get to where he is by missing things a first

year law student would pick up on. I think that Plame/Wilson's inability to completely defuse this persistent argument is what folks are talking about when they say she can't fight back because she still works for the CIA.

[Booster]

13. I have no doubt she was not only secret, but top secret. But even

if she was sitting at a desk, outing her also outed Brewster-Jennings & Assoc., which was the name of the covert operation investigating WMD's in the Middle East. Outing this entire group of people wasted millions of dollars it took to set them up, etc. Nah, that excuse ain't gonna fly. They did this for pettiness regarding Valerie, but I believe Cheney really wanted Brewster-Jennings to stop investigating so he wouldn't have to go to jail.

[The Doctor.]

16. Post that argument on a Right-wingnut site and watch the spit fly.

They really have no clue what this is all about... national security.

The investigation into the outing of Mohammed Naem Noor Khan should be pursued as well.

[flyarm]

20. i think valerie was investigating something that got too close to cheney

like a cheney deal with the energy group..i think its bigger than any of us can imagine..three appelate judges said it was big and detrimental to our national security..i think it all leads back to cheney..we are looking inside the box and i think its really outside the box..i think she was ready to expose a wmd deal with cheneys fingerprints all over it!

and Brewster-Jennings & Assoc., was a 13 yr investment by our cia and government ..thats 13 yrs of agents and operative who were then outed! all over the world!

[wli]

26. this is my default assumption

I'm not sure where the whole Saddam/WMD deal fits in with it, but that's clearly fraud too.

[RagAss]

15. My guess is he

didn't know anything about this law. I bet Tenet gave him these legal details regarding agaents.

[flyarm]

21. i think tenet and powell are the key witnesses to outing and

are fitzgeralds top witnesses against this administration!..and rove and cheney!

[IdaBriggs]

22. Her 1999 W-2s were issued from her "covert" company.

According to the IRS, she was "undercover" during 1999.

Sorry, Rove -- you are TREASONOUS TOAST!!! :)

[jsamuel]

23. Geez... LOOK AT THE "OR"s YOU ARE CONFUSING IT!

If you read it, she is B (ii) at LEAST. Which qualifies the law.

------------
(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency—

(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and

(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or

(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and—

(i) who resides and acts outside the United States as an agent of, or informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency, or

(ii) who is at the time of the disclosure acting as an agent of, or informant to, the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; or

(C) an individual, other than a United States citizen, whose past or present intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information and who is a present or former agent of, or a present or former informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency.

[atre]

27. Bingo

We have a winner.

[rzemanfl]

28. Not so, no FBI connection. The five year issue is in the defintions

but it's a safe bet that Fitzgerald read them.

[Zen Democrat]

25. Yeah, Nixon was a "genius" too, they say. Big deal.

It's more of an "evil" genius. That's the kind of genius who takes a baseball bat to a boxing match. Some call that genius ... I call it thuggery.