While all the attention has been on Cooper's email to his bureau chief where he summarized his conversation with Rove, it could very well be that Rove DID actually name Valerie Plame to Cooper. In fact it's more likely than not and the information in his article mentioned here seems to confirm it.
Consider that on July 17, 2003, Cooper co-wrote "A War on Wilson?" in Time which included the following:
"Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched to Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, which is used to build nuclear devices."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.htmlNotice that in this article he didn't just use "Wilson's wife," but actually named her citing "some government officials." He didn't source the name, Valerie Plame, to Novak but instead confirmed that Novak was sourced by the same officials with the same information.
Placing a conversation in an email to an editor doesn't mean that the words used were verbatim or represent a transcript of what was actually said. Cooper may not have felt it necessary to actually name her in that email, or more importantly Rove probably indicated her covert status ergo the reason to mention the "double super secret background."
While Cooper stated to his bureau chief that he was going to check with the CIA it doesn't seem plausible that they told him ... oh sure you're talking about Valerie Plame and she sent Joe to Niger ... she's covert ya know so keep that info under you hat in your double super secret background file ...
It's also interesting to hear today's GOP spin that "Karl Rove Discouraged a Reporter from Writing a False Story Based on a False Premise." (GOP Talking Points
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Exclusive_GOP_talking_points_on_Rove_seek_to_discre_0712.html)
Hmmm so it really seems that Cooper got Rove's message. That July 17th, 2003 Time article titled "A War on Wilson," is preambled with "Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection" and starts out with this short paragraph:
"Has the Bush Administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps."
Waves of lies just keep washing ashore. I can't wait till this spin which has reached tornadic levels drops the lot of them into a Kansas prison after they click their ruby slippers and say "there's no place like home." I heard Gannon just loves to see those ruby slippers on KKKarl ...