THE REAL VALERIE PLAME....The Washington Post has a good profile of Valerie Plame today. Dana Priest and Richard Leiby seem to have dug up a fair amount of interesting background about her. She was a spy AND after a bout with postpartum depression became a speaker and volunteer to mobilize resources for crisis interventions.
Her activities during her years overseas remain classified, but she became the creme de la creme of spies: a "noc," an officer with "nonofficial cover." Nocs have cover jobs that have nothing to do with the U.S. government. They work in business, in social clubs, as scientists or secretaries (they are prohibited from posing as journalists), and if detected or arrested by a foreign government, they do not have diplomatic protection and rights. They are on their own. Even their fellow operatives don't know who they are, and only the strongest and smartest are picked for these assignments.
Absent this explanation, I would have had no idea what "nonofficial cover" means. This might explain the confusion (or deliberate Novakian doubletalk) over whether or not she was "covert."
Basically, it sounds like the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
A few months after delivering the twins in January 2000, Valerie Wilson "had a serious bout of postpartum depression and she'd had a terrible time getting help," Wittenberg said. "She didn't want any other woman to have to go through that."
"She's affected hundreds and hundreds of people's lives. . . . She's helped them," said Wittenberg, who added that Valerie Wilson had authorized him to talk about her.
He and others at the foundation knew her as someone willing to help anytime. She gave speeches to medical groups about the need for better screening of new mothers and mobilized resources for crisis interventions. Wittenberg said the foundation's hotline has helped save depressed mothers from killing themselves and their children.
"We've been very proud of her -- no question," she added. Valerie's mother, Diane Plame and her husband, who is 83 and a World War II veteran, are "very angry" about the disclosure and fearful for their daughter's safety.
They spoiled it. They more than spoiled it -- they brought a lot of harm," Diane Plame said, referring to the leakers and to Novak. "For people to come out and say this would cause no harm, what kind of IQs do they have?"
No one has ever called the "Prince of Darkness", Robert Novak a genius. The question here "Is he an undercover "White House political operative" himself?
I would like to know more about the Novak-CIA call. Could the CIA have stopped Novak from publishing her name? If so, why didn't they? Their seems to be two possibilities.
(1) Incompetence (they just didn't know they had to use stronger magic words to make Novak stop) or (2) Intentional misconduct (they wanted to burn the White House, so they let it go).
If Novak's account is right, the CIA action still isn't nearly as serious as the origial leak, but I'd still like to see it investigated and fixed.
