United States Code: outing a covert operative

[scottcsmith]

The USC is pretty clear on this issue. You'd think something would have been done by now, re: Valerie Plame.

http://tinyurl.com/2sspt

[BOSSHOG]

1. Great Point Teammate

and thank you for your service. The USC would be the "rule of law" right? The glue that holds this country together according to conservatives? Not only that but with Ashcroft justice and the patriot act one would have assumed Novak would have been sent to GTMO to have the names of the White House leakers tortured out of him. I guess Novak's a conservative enabler and apologist for the bush administration. I guess bush and his administration does not care about the national security of this country. I guess I'm a bush hater for many reasons. Anyone who thinks I'm a bush hater for my beliefs obviously is a constitution hater.

For a little bit of justice, check out www.bustbob.com.

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. That is very clear. I wonder how come they can't jail anyone

We all know where to start looking - around Rove's office would probably yield some good leads...

"Lick Bush" Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[rfranklin]

3. The Freepers are claiming that...

"Plame worked at a desk and everyone knew she worked for the CIA."
Therefore, no damage done, it's all political. Heard it this morning from a CSPAN caller.

[BOSSHOG]

4. Talking Points implanted in their brains!

Hillary murdered Vince Foster. If a dumbass freeper believes that everyone knew plame, then its okay that the white house have people call up "journalists" and punish political enemies. People who believe plame worked at a desk and everybody knew her believe I am a bush hater, ergo they are a constitution hater. Please spread the word about your thoughts.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I've heard that many a time as well

I didn't know she worked for the CIA. So, I guess "everybody" does not know.

[Stephanie]

7. That's the Talking Points - totally false.

I heard it from a C-Span caller, I heard it from a coworker. LIES. As usual.

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1101031027-524486,00.html

Oct. 27, 2003
NOC, NOC. Who's There? A Special Kind of Agent
The unmasking of Valerie Plame sheds light on the shadowy world of NOCs, spies with nonofficial cover
By MICHAEL DUFFY AND TIMOTHY J. BURGE

It's not every woman who runs a background check on a guy who's asking her out on a date. But if you were a secret agent working undercover, you would be extra careful too. In 1997 Valerie Plame was being courted by a man who had served as a U.S. diplomat in nine countries, many in Africa, and possessed about as high a security clearance as any spy could hope for, but Plame was taking no chances. It was only after several months of dating Ambassador Joseph Wilson that Plame, supposedly a private energy analyst, revealed the name of her true employer: the CIA. Hearing this, Wilson had a question... Click here to purchase the full article

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http://slate.msn.com/id/2089062/

<snip>Nonofficial cover. NOCs (the word rhymes with "rocks") are the most covert CIA operatives. They typically work abroad without diplomatic protection (often they pretend to work for some commercial enterprise). If these spies are caught, there's no guarantee that the United States would admit their true identities. When using official cover could put a spy's life and work at risk, NOC is the only alternative.

Why is it such a big deal that someone outed Valerie Plame? For starters, it's a felony. And Plame was also reportedly a NOC with years of experience investigating weapons of mass destruction. If this is true, her discovery could compromise intelligence operations she was involved with around the world, which would explain why she maintained her nonofficial cover even when she was back in the United States. "Hard target" countries like China and North Korea often keep records of every known meeting between Americans and their scientists and officials. Almost certainly, those lists would have been frantically reviewed when Plame's identity was revealed, and any sources she recruited could have been exposed.

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http://truthout.org/docs_03/123003A.shtml
Bush's Worst Enemy
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 30 December 2003

<snip>Wilsons' wife is named Valerie Plame, and she has worked for the CIA for years. Plame is not an analyst or a secretary. Plame is what the CIA calls a NOC, which stands for "non-official cover." A NOC designation means that Valerie Plame was working under such deep cover that she could not be associated with the American intelligence community in any way, shape or form. Plame worked out of a CIA front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates while she performed her service to America's defense. Her service? Valerie Plame ran a clandestine global network designed to track any person, group or nation that might try to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

Not long after Wilson's editorial ran in the Times, individuals within the Bush administration cold-called several journalists and informed them that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. One of these calls went to Robert Novak, who wrote about it in his column. "Wilson never worked for the CIA," wrote Novak on July 14, "but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

This revelation, and the subsequent firestorm that followed, had a number of effects. Most prominently, it annihilated an intelligence network dedicated to keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. It destroyed the viability of Brewster Jennings & Associates as a front company, thus wrecking the work of every other agent who worked from there. It put the lives of Plame's informants within her network in mortal peril; when an agent gets blown, foreign intelligence agencies - especially ones in unfriendly countries - tend to erase the people that agent associated with as a matter of national security. It put Plame's life in peril as well; those same foreign intelligence services would prefer Plame be dead for revealing sensitive data about their activities.

"They couldn't resist letting Novak and those others know my wife worked with CIA," said Wilson on Monday. "Did they know she was a clandestine operator? The number of people in the administration who knew what my wife did for a living is very small. Only those who had means and motive could have done this, someone who has keys to our most precious national security secrets along with a political agenda. It occurred right at that nexus of policy and politics."
Why do this? Agents within the Bush administration destroyed a network dedicated to what is roundly broadcast as this administration's main mission: Keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. According to the rhetoric, this was why we invaded Iraq.

"I operate from the assumption," said Wilson on Monday, "that the reason for doing this was to discourage others who were talking to press - and there were many - from coming forward more openly. The message was 'Be very careful: Do a Wilson on us, and we will do a Plame on you.' Its one thing to be political and put up with this crap. I'm used to it, after having been around for so long. But it's another thing for an analyst to deal with threats like this. Analysts aren't used to dealing with pressures like this. This act may have discouraged many of them from coming forward. I don't know to be sure, but have been far less insider stories about what we were hearing, stories of Cheney pressuring CIA analysts and the like, than there were a few months ago. There are far fewer unattributed sources talking about it. What they did to my wife was a political act to discourage others from coming forward."

[Mel]

9. did you hear the jerk

that said she was a 'secretary' and how they hadn't heard anybody had been killed so what's the big deal? How blind can people be? They really need to push their selves away from the poop sandwiches the Reich is feeding them.

It amazes me how little people really think things through! Plame, isn't the only one that this screwed things up for it pretty much blew all of her contacts. The thing is people could be dead from it already or an operation blown that could of stopped future deaths and we would never know about it.

[Stephanie]

6. Thanks for that! This is not proprietary, so I'm posting a big chunk

Sec. 421. - Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources

(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent

Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(b) Disclosure of information by persons who learn identity of covert agents as result of having access to classified information

Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identify of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents

Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual's classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(d) Imposition of consecutive sentences

A term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment

Sec. 422. - Defenses and exceptions

(a) Disclosure by United States of identity of covert agent

It is a defense to a prosecution under section 421 of this title that before the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged, the United States had publicly acknowledged or revealed the intelligence relationship to the United States of the individual the disclosure of whose intelligence relationship to the United States is the basis for the prosecution.

(b) Conspiracy, misprision of felony, aiding and abetting, etc.

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), no person other than a person committing an offense under section 421 of this title shall be subject to prosecution under such section by virtue of section 2 or 4 of title 18 or shall be subject to prosecution for conspiracy to commit an offense under such section.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply

(A) in the case of a person who acted in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, or

(B) in the case of a person who has authorized access to classified information.

(c) Disclosure to select Congressional committees on intelligence

It shall not be an offense under section 421 of this title to transmit information described in such section directly to the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate or to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives.

(d) Disclosure by agent of own identity

It shall not be an offense under section 421 of this title for an individual to disclose information that solely identifies himself as a covert agent

Sec. 423. - Report

(a) Annual report by President to Congress on measures to protect identities of covert agents

The President, after receiving information from the Director of Central Intelligence, shall submit to the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives an annual report on measures to protect the identities of covert agents, and on any other matter relevant to the protection of the identities of covert agents.

(b) Exemption from disclosure; date of initial submission

The report described in subsection (a) of this section shall be exempt from any requirement for publication or disclosure. The first such report shall be submitted no later than February 1, 1983

Sec. 424. - Extraterritorial jurisdiction

There is jurisdiction over an offense under section 421 of this title committed outside the United States if the individual committing the offense is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (as defined in section 1101(a)(20) of title 8)

Sec. 425. - Providing information to Congress

Nothing in this subchapter may be construed as authority to withhold information from the Congress or from a committee of either House of Congress

Sec. 426. - Definitions

For the purposes of this subchapter:

(1) The term ''classified information'' means information or material designated and clearly marked or clearly represented, pursuant to the provisions of a statute or Executive order (or a regulation or order issued pursuant to a statute or Executive order), as requiring a specific degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national security.

(2) The term ''authorized'', when used with respect to access to classified information, means having authority, right, or permission pursuant to the provisions of a statute, Executive order, directive of the head of any department or agency engaged in foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities, order of any United States court, or provisions of any Rule of the House of Representatives or resolution of the Senate which assigns responsibility within the respective House of Congress for the oversight of intelligence activities.

(3) The term ''disclose'' means to communicate, provide, impart, transmit, transfer, convey, publish, or otherwise make available.

(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

(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.

(5) The term ''intelligence agency'' means the Central Intelligence Agency, a foreign intelligence component of the Department of Defense, or the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(6) The term ''informant'' means any individual who furnishes information to an intelligence agency in the course of a confidential relationship protecting the identity of such individual from public disclosure.

(7) The terms ''officer'' and ''employee'' have the meanings given such terms by section 2104 and 2105, respectively, of title 5.

(8) The term ''Armed Forces'' means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

(9) The term ''United States'', when used in a geographic sense, means all areas under the territorial sovereignty of the United States and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

(10) The term ''pattern of activities'' requires a series of acts with a common purpose or objective

[drdigi420]

8. And yet, Clinton was impeached for lying about a blowjob

Republikkkans give hypocrites a bad name.