Newsweek:Valerie Plame was Covert Agent

If you've ever seen the Tom Cruise version of Mission:Impossible (the 1996 film, not the TV Series or Sequels). Or the film The Recruit with Colin Farrell, then you just might know what a NOC (Non Official Cover) Officer is. They're the Spies. The entire plot of M:I revolved around the theft of the NOC-list. (The identities and covers of all current NOC's around the world) They're the people who when they get caught overseas doing what they're supposed to do - "The State Department will disavow all knowledge" of their actions. They're our 007's. Mata Hari. All that stuff.

According to Newsweek, that's what Valerie Plame was - a NOC.

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion.

Apparently the only reason Libby wasn't charged with violating the Intellence Agents Identities Act in the Fitzgerald Indicment is because he couldn't determine whether Libby knew she was a NOC. The truth is he might have, infact he should have since he was informed by Vice President Dick Cheney that Mrs. Wilson worked on WMD's for the CIA's Directorate of Operations, which is where the Spies are employed, not they Analyst (who work for the Directorate of Intelligence).

Valerie Plame, the NOC, was disavowed by the Bush Administration, and all she did was mention to her bosses that her husband knew the Prime Minister of Niger. Everything that happened after that point was result of their decisions and the actions of All the President's Punks not Plame or Wilson's.

Vyan