Monday, March 13, 2006
Plame's Identity: Not Much of a Secret
The Chicago Tribune did what no other media source has done to date: investigate whether Valerie Plame was indeed "undercover" when her name was leaked to the media.
As the paper finds, her identity was a thinly veiled secret if at all.
Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled
In short, Plame had no "secret cover" when she did work for the CIA - and for more than 5 years before he name was "leaked" she was not even undercover anymore.
No leaking of the name of an undercover officer, no crime.
The MSM, except for the Chicago Tribune, missed this one, as usual.
The Chicago Tribune did what no other media source has done to date: investigate whether Valerie Plame was indeed "undercover" when her name was leaked to the media.
As the paper finds, her identity was a thinly veiled secret if at all.
Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled
The question of whether Valerie Plame's employment by the Central Intelligence Agency was a secret is the key issue in the two-year investigation to determine if someone broke the law by leaking her CIA affiliation to the news media.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald contends that Plame's friends "had no idea she had another life." But Plame's secret life could be easily penetrated with the right computer sleuthing and an understanding of how the CIA's covert employees work.
When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."
A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as "pleasant, very well-read, bright," said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA.
According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under "diplomatic cover" are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike.
"If you were in an embassy," said a former CIA officer who posed as a U.S. diplomat in several countries, "you could count 100 percent on the Soviets knowing."
In short, Plame had no "secret cover" when she did work for the CIA - and for more than 5 years before he name was "leaked" she was not even undercover anymore.
No leaking of the name of an undercover officer, no crime.
The MSM, except for the Chicago Tribune, missed this one, as usual.
