LA Times: Plame was an undercover agent

[FauxNewsBlues]

Novak said the CIA asked him not to disclose Plame's name, "but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else," and that he was led to believe that she was "an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives."

Novak was wrong on those accounts, according to the CIA. "We wouldn't file a crimes report (if the case didn't involve an agent undercover)," a U.S. official said.

A 1982 federal law specifically prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of the identity of a clandestine intelligence officer. Nobody has been prosecuted under the law, according to Steven Aftergood, director of the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

U.S. intelligence officials declined to discuss details of the case, but said exposing an operative's identity is a serious breach with unpredictable consequences. It not only deprives the operative of being able to work undercover in the future, but threatens to expose her sources, some of whom might be risking their lives to share secrets with the CIA. Outing an officer also places in jeopardy any CIA operative who replaced her in her overseas "cover," often a diplomatic post at a U.S. embassy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-leak30sep30,1,7004579.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[otohara]

1. Not A Glorified Secretary as Rep Kingston Suggested

KINGSTON: But I think that's relevant. We need to know if she was a spy or if she was a glorified secretary. - Crossfire 9/29

[Metatron]

2. I was outraged

when I heard him say that - utterly sexist, rude and ignorant.

[Nevernose]

3. What's Bob's security clearance, I wonder?

The CIA didn't tell Novak she was an undercover agent? Why ever not?

...and that he was led to believe that she was "an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives."

[MiniMoog]

4. because it is a felony, even for the CIA to confirm

They never confirm or deny.

I think the "analyst" label is being floated, printed and used as deniability because, well...Plame WAS an analyst. For an engineering firm. That was her cover.

MiniMoog