Al Reid wrote:
"John Emmons" wrote in message ...
What specific date and time was Ms. Plame brought in, so to speak, from
being a "covert" agent?
Seems that I've read and heard on various news shows that she may well have
been working on covert operations even while based at CIA headquarters.
Could it be that there is more to what she was doing than has been made
public as of yet? They aren't all running around like James Bond you know.
Of course I'm sure that a few folks here on usenet know more about her
status than the federal investigators do...
John Emmons
You are missing what "Covert Agent" means under the statute.
(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;
Both (1) and (ii) must be true in order for the statute to have been violated.
Do you suppose she might have gone abroad on CIA business during the
five
years prior to Novak's article? Do you suppose that if she did, she
is not allowed to say so?
To _which_ statute do you refer? I do not see that in:
TITLE 50 CHAPTER 15 SUBCHAPTER IV § 421
§ 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.
See:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/h...1----000-.html
So where did you find the definition of covert agent.
And again, criminal liability is only one issue. Violation of National
Security Policy is another. The persons involved plainly cannot be
trusted with access to classified information. It seems likely that
Bush has continued to allow them to have such access.
--
FF
Go to the bottom of the page and continue reading the statute. The definitions are at the end.
As far as her going abroad on CIA business, her husbands book and other sources seem to indicate that she settled down to raise a
family and had not traveled abroad in the 5 years preceding the disclosure. It also seems to me that if one said "Joe Wilson's
wife" and one comes up with "Valerie Plame", it must not have been a very good secret.