Unsolved Mysteries - Was Valerie Plame "Covert"?
When last we looked, the question of whether Valerie Plame was covert as defined by the relevant statute was clearly and emphatically *NOT* answered by Henry Waxman's show hearing, the whooping of lefty bloggers notwithstanding. Instead, I argued that her status was a subtle and untested legal question which had probably not been researched by the CIA Counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, or anyone else. Based on the latest from Bob Novak, I appear to be right:
On March 21, Hoekstra [Ranking Republican on the House Intel Committee] again requested the CIA to define Mrs. Wilson's status. A written reply April 5 from Christopher J. Walker, the CIA's director of congressional affairs, said only that "it is taking longer than expected" to reply because of "the considerable legal complexity required for this tasking."
The CIA Counsel does not have a firm opinion, as of March 2007, whether Ms. Plame had covert status under the IIPA? That is deeply significant - if they don't know now, there is no reason to think they knew in July 2003 when they filed a referral to the DoJ (Conyers letter) for an investigation into an "unauthorized disclosure of classified information", *not* disclosure of a covert officer.
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