They still won't quit! National Review: What Does "Covert" Mean?

[usregimechange]

What Does "Covert" Mean?

Valerie Plame Wilson said in her testimony that she continued to be "covert" while working at Langley — long after her assignment overseas — because she had been covert while working overseas. Her analogy was to a general in the army. A general, she said, remains a general even if he is rotated from combat overseas to a post in the U.S.

This seems pretty silly to me. It conflates RANK with STATUS. The better analogy, I think, would be to a DEA or FBI undercover agent. When the agent is on the undercover assignment, he/she is "covert"; when the agency ends the U/C assignment and transfers the agent (often to a supervisory position), the agent is no longer covert, even though aspects of the former assignment remain closely guarded...

BUT, that doesn't mean his or her day-to-day responsibilities are any longer covert. The agent, for example, walks in and out of headquarters everyday, like hundreds of other people, because there is no longer any imperative to conceal his/her connection to the agency.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/

:eyes:

[robinlynne]

1. the head of the cia says the lady was covert. so fuss all you (they) want.

the pretty lady herself says she was out of the country on a secret mission during the last 5 years.
so there.
nah.

[malaise]

19. Bingo n/t

[Nikki Stone1]

2. They have no leg to stand on. But they have a stupid readership

that believes things like this

[papau]

3. She went overseas as a covert agent, but Victoria Toensing claims by having a desk in the

US she was not covert as was intended under the Bill that protects covert agents - and say she knows this because she wrote the bill.

The problem of course is that how she understood the words is not how the Congress understood those words when they passed the bill - and the court goes both by Congress's understanding - plus the plain English meaning of the words - and not by the stray thoughts that were in Victoria's head as remembered by Victoria 25 years later.

[Kagemusha]

4. There is a simple counterpoint.

Not every US agent who does covert work overseas, lives overseas. For example, it is possible to make overseas trips while working under a covert cover, such as working for a private corporation in business of an international nature, such as a front company which was known as Brewster-Jennings, and make use of this cover to keep the work for the CIA and Uncle Sam, secret. The purpose of keeping the agent's identity secret is therefore to enhance that agent's ability to gather intelligence without the other side knowing. After all, if you run every spy out of the nearest embassy, the bad guys just watch everyone who works at the embassy - it makes finding spies a whole lot easier. Conversely, if you want to make a particular spy much harder to detect, you don't have that person work at the nearest embassy - makes the enemy's job far tougher.

But saying this in public would be describing methods and sources and methods are traditionally withheld.

[Monkeyman]

6. Bingo

[WinkyDink]

5. That is part of Bushco's evil: To reduce language to a minimum, and to make definitions malleable.

But, truth to tell, I see that all the time: people declaring their own definitions for words.

[left is right]

7. does any one know if the outing of Plame

has lead directly to any deaths? And, shouldn't, even just one, such death be proof enough for the wing nuts that she was covert?

[Poiuyt]

10. I don't think the CIA would ever reveal that information

[southerncrone]

8. Please get them a freakin' dictionary!

[americanstranger]

9. 'The Corner' is the 2nd-largest gathering of imbeciles on the internet.

The largest, of course, being Fweeperville.

I don't read many Rightie blogs, but I regularly check The Corner, because they are sometimes so completely and stunningly stupid I find it hard to believe they get paid for what they do.

- as

[Old and In the Way]

11. I read the FR live thread on the Plame hearing today.

These people are so delusional...they are going down with the ship. They have so much faith invested in Bush they'll never believe the reality. I remember when Nixon went down...the same people refused to face the reality. Sad really.

[riverdeep]

12. Did it also ever occur

to this individual, that she could also have been used for future assignments? There's no indication she was 'retired', and she would have been a resource in the future if her cover hadn't been blown. Wait a minute, aren't these the people usually argueing for security and defense of our country at any cost? What the hell?

[merh]

13. Waxman calls on the White House Chief of Staff to explain

why they didn't investigate the outing of covert CIA agent Plame.

Friday, March 16, 2007
Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity
Waxman Questions White House Security Practices

Rep. Waxman asks White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to explain why the White House failed to conduct any investigation following the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA employment. The letter follows the testimony of the Director of the Office of Security at the White House, James Knodell, that the White House Security Office did not follow the investigative steps prescribed by Executive Order 12958.
http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316154127-11403.pdf

He opened the hearing by advising that the CIA had limited what could be discussed openly. The CIA says she was covert and asked that the DOJ/FBI investigate her outing.

Guess there are a lot of folks on the right that are in a state of denial. :shrug:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

15. This may answer a few questions as to why...

Andy Card beat feet. He saw them gaming on the investigation and said "Fuck this. I have had quite enough of this ricky-tick bullshit".

[BushOut06]

14. I think she would be in a position to know - don't ya think?

If I was a covert agent, don't you think that I might be aware of my status? I friggin hate these repugs and their circle-jerk logic.

[BlooInBloo]

16. I'm tellin ya - The Onion's days are numbered.

[TahitiNut]

17. Well, the CIA will correct their flawed policies. See ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=433514&mesg_id=433514

:evilgrin:

[Garbo 2004]

18. Ah, but while at her "desk job" at Langley she still went overseas using assumed IDs

as part of her work. And Valerie Wilson's employer of public record was not the CIA, but Brewster-Jennings. That means she was still a NOC.