Lee1776

Join Date 08/2004

Was Plame outed by a "Who's Who in America" book?

Intersting twist?

This article came out in the "Minneapolis Star Tribune"

'Who's Who' could be source for CIA leak
Anne E. Kornblut, New York Times
August 2, 2005 LEAK0802

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One of the most puzzling aspects of the CIA leak case has had to do with the name of the exposed officer. Why did syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak identify her as Valerie Plame when he exposed her link to the CIA in July 2003 when she had been known for years both at the intelligence agency and in her personal life by her married name, Valerie Wilson?

Novak offered a possible explanation for the disconnect on Monday, suggesting in his column that he could have obtained Wilson's maiden name from the directory "Who's Who in America," which used that name in identifying her as the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador.

Novak did not explicitly cite the directory as his source. Nor was it his first public reference to the "Who's Who" listing. In a column in October 2003, three months after he had first disclosed Valerie Wilson's name and her role, Novak cited the published listing as evidence that Wilson's identity was "no secret."

But in drawing renewed attention to the published listing, Novak seemed to suggest more directly than ever that the scrutiny that has focused on which of his sources had provided him the name might have been misplaced and that he might well have figured it out by himself.

Any request that he should have withheld Wilson's name from his column of July 14, 2003, would have been "meaningless" once he had been told she was married to Joseph Wilson, Novak wrote on Monday, because she was openly listed in the directory. But Novak also wrote that he would never have used Valerie Wilson's name had anyone from the CIA told him that doing so would endanger her or anyone else.

The special counsel in the leak case has been trying to determine whether government officials violated federal laws about the handling of classified information when someone leaked Wilson's identity and CIA role to reporters.

The fact that Novak identified her as Valerie Plame had seemed to some observers to narrow the field of possible suspects in the leak case, because she had not used that name since her marriage in 1998.

A State Department memorandum, drafted in 2003 and taken on board Air Force One the week before Novak's column ran identifies Wilson by her married name rather than Plame. If not for the "Who's Who" directory, it is not clear how Novak would have decided to identify Wilson as Plame rather than the name she commonly used.

In the "Who's Who" directory for 2003, personal information about Joseph Wilson includes his origins in Bridgeport, Conn., and the names of his previous wife and his four children. His current wife is listed as Valerie Elise Plame, and their date of marriage, April 3, 1998. There is no mention of her employer.

A few questions must be asked about this article.

1. Why is a New York Times writer needing to post his article in the "Minneapolis Star Tribune"? Why did the New York Times carry this story?

2. If Valerie Plame-Wilson is so deep under cover, then how did a Who's Who listing get her name?

3. Could this be the reason why Novak is not in jail, while other reporters are? Sometimes you don't need secret informers to find a name.

That's just a few thoughts from me. (Anything to move talk of this subject away from another poster)

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Not sure it really matters if it didn't say she worked for the CIA. Isn't the issue was that she was named as a CIA "agent"?

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Not sure it really matters if it didn't say she worked for the CIA. Isn't the issue was that she was named as a CIA "agent"?

But some people around here continue repeatedly to say that Rove called her by name. That is one of their main points. If Rove said Valerie Wilson or wife of Ambassador Wilson, that would mean that Rove only knew Valerie as Wilson, not a covert agent named Plame. But he knew her only as Ms. Wilson who is very active in Washington society, far from being covert.

If you want to call it splitting hairs, go on ahead. But when you appear in "Who's who in America" your not really doing a good job of hiding your identity very hard.

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

i think--after reading novak's column and the statement by former cia spokesman bill harlow which apparently inspired it--novak is running scared and willing to say just about anything to convince ? (he aint convincing me nor do i expect much of anyone else) he wasn't advised several times not to expose wilson's wife.

as far as the who's who thing goes, you gotta remember it's a vanity publication. in other words, the kinda thing that's great for building a cover.

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"If you want to call it splitting hairs, go on ahead. But when you appear in "Who's who in America" your not really doing a good job of hiding your identity very hard."

No, I think you are missing the point. MANY people who end up working for the CIA are very visible. It isn't the fact that no one knows your name that keeps you safe, it is that they don't know you are really gathering intelligence for the CIA.

Regardless, the CIA had deemed her cover 'blown' some time before, and that's why she wasn't out doing her thing. Granted, she apparently still had the status, thus the continuation of this silliness...

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I personally don't have the list sitting on my shelf, but I bet the prosecutor has reviewed it, checked the date out and her maiden name is there.

You may not accept his excuse KB, but the prosecutor obviously does because Novak is not in jail.

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You realize that very visible people have worked for the CIA, right? Down through history some very well-known people, performers even, have spied for one country or another. The point isn't that people knew her name. The point is she was referenced as being employed for the CIA.

I think its bogus and that it is a Rove hunting party. Wilson said he was out to get Rove two years ago. You can't face the situation without understanding it, though. Lots of people knew who she was. Many thought she was a "consultant".

It isn't getting your name published that blows your cover, it is people knowing you are a spy. I don't believe she WAS a spy, frankly, and I don't believe there was a cover to blow here. Unless the who's who thing listed her as working for the CIA, though, it really doesn't prove anything.

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Novak and Cooper released in their articles that Wilson's Wife (Valerie Plame) was working the CIA in the WMD department.

But it was Wilson himself that screamed about her losing her cover. It seems as Bakerstreet says, that as long as know one knew she was a spy, she still had her cover. Does that mean that Wilson was the people that finally blow her secret agent cover?

The whole world only knew that she worked at the CIA as an annalist, until Mr. Wilson opened his mouth to scream political foul.

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Again, if anyone knew that she worked for the CIA, it isn't verifiable enough to end this investigation. For you to say that it was common knowledge presumes that people knew. So far, I haven't seen any evidence that it was known.

If you can find any instance where she was referred to as working for the CIA, whether covert or not, before Novak's story, I think it would be of keen interest.

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