# Bush Administration Outs Wilson's Wife as CIA Operative: Cool or Uncool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 17, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165 "2003-07-17T15:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/1 "2003-07-17T15:33:42Z")
In the manner of the inimitable **december** , I’m gonna link to a couple of blogs for this story; I don’t think it’s hit the mainstream press yet (and perhaps it’s not that newsworthy). Anyway, apparently Robert Novak, in his [Monday column](http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030714.shtml) about former diplomat Joseph Wilson (the guy who was supposedly sent to Niger to evaluate the Iraq-buying-uranium claim, and found it inaccurate), wrote the following: > [@](#): > > Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. If Plame’s wife _is_ an operative, she is–rather, was–undercover; her day job’s as “an energy analyst for a private firm.” (quoted from [here](http://www.calpundit.com/archives/001679.html)) The liberal rag _The Nation_ picked this up, and [had this to say:](http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823) > [@](#): > > Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security–and break the law–in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others? > > …The sources for Novak’s assertion about Wilson’s wife appear to be “two senior administration officials.” If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what’s known as “nonofficial cover” and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson’s wife is such a person–and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her–her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.” And this blog here – [http://markarkleiman.blogspot.com/2003\_07\_01\_markarkleiman\_archive.html#105842569188142684](http://markarkleiman.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_markarkleiman_archive.html#105842569188142684)’ – gives a pretty good articulation of why, if senior administration officials **did** talk to Novak about Wilson’s wife, this is (to say the last) kinda worrisome: > [@](#): > > If Wilson’s wife isn’t a CIA agent, her ability to do her actual job (she works for a consulting firm) has been compromised, as have her personal relationships. The lives of people she has met with abroad, who might be suspected of having given her sensitive information, have been put at risk. Perhaps she has been put at risk, too. > > If she _is_ a CIA agent, her life has certainly been put at risk, and the lives of her foreign sources have been put at grave risk. That reduces our ability to collect intelligence in the future. Of course, on this hypothesis her career is over, now that her cover has been blown. In addition, whoever gave Novak the information (though not Novak himself) is guilty of a felony punishable by five years in prison. > > If Novak was given the information he claims to have been given as he claims to have been given it, those are the only two possibilities: it was a vicious, and largely pointless, act of cruelty, or it was a vicious, and largely pointless, act of cruelty that also compromised intelligence sources and methods and constituted a federal offense. So what’s the verdict? Is this worth looking into? Assuming administration officials gave Novak that information, is it okay for them to have done so? Cool or uncool behavior? ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/2 "2003-07-17T16:34:23Z")
Not remotely cool. Worthy of investigation. If this was truly (as it appears to have been) done to send a message to the intelligence community that “loose lips sink careers”, then it’s hard to imagine starker arrogance than the kind which protects political appearances in favor of protecting national security. On the other hand, if this was merely unsanctioned rank incompetence on the part of the two “senior officials”, such blatant disregard for secrecy must be contained and corrected, or if the allegation is false, and was made in order to personally damage the Wilsons, then at the very least the Wilsons are entitled to seek redress. ---
**Author:** ![CTB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CTB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/3 "2003-07-17T17:15:11Z")
Uncool and illegal under the [Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/421.html?DB=uscode)I. This is not a partisan issue, this is a national secuirty issue. If senior members of the administration released this information, they must face trial, and hopefully jail time. People can die because of leaks like this. Of course this may all be a ploy by that prince of liberal punditry, Robert Novak.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/4 "2003-07-17T18:19:08Z")
Do we know that these alleged “two administration officials” were part of the _Bush_ administration? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/5 "2003-07-17T18:22:39Z")
You’re right, **Shodan** … …they were probably _French_ officials! Sly Frog devils. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/6 "2003-07-17T18:34:33Z")
What other administration would they be a part of? He didn’t say past administration officials. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/7 "2003-07-17T19:18:10Z")
Okay. So, two questions: 1. Anyone want to defend the actions of the senior administration officials, stipulating a) that they did provide lifelong Democrat Novak with that information, and b) that they _were_, in fact, officials of the Bush administration? 2. Should this be getting more play in the media than it is right now? Will it? ---
**Author:** ![CTB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CTB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/8 "2003-07-17T19:59:09Z")
1. there is no justification. And **Shodan** , could you kindly suggest other administrations which dear Bobby might be referring to? 2. Not bloody likely unless a member of those lemmings we call democrats make a stink. And given past performance, that ain’t too likely. An interesting question: What if Novak is lying about the source, or is writing something that he was not meant to know about? The article in “The Nation” (when did that become a “rag”? Liberal yes, but hardly a rag or blog.) states: > [@](#): > > Journalists are protected from prosecution, unless they engage in a “pattern of activities” to name agents in order to impair US intelligence activities. So Novak need not worry. So Novak is cleared unless he does it more than once? I did not find that anywhere in my link given above, but I could not find the entire act on the web. Anybody have any details about that aspect? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/9 "2003-07-17T20:06:28Z")
## quote: ## Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The above quote stops short of saying that the officials said that the wife was an Agency operative, only that she suggested sending him to Niger. This may be needlessly picky, but it implies that either her position is common knowledge, or Novak is the one who spoke out of school. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/10 "2003-07-17T20:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Finagle \* > \*\*quote: > The above quote stops short of saying that the officials said that the wife was an Agency operative, only that she suggested sending him to Niger. This may be needlessly picky, but it implies that either her position is common knowledge, or Novak is the one who spoke out of school. \*\* If there ever was a case of looking for the silver lining, this is it. Who, {B]Finagle\*\*, do you suppose told Novak that Ms. Wilson was a CID type. Do you suppose Novak had independent knowledge of that even though she has a nominal day job? Don’t you think that the “unnamed sources” let that slip as well? ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/11 "2003-07-17T21:52:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gadarene \* > **. . . Anyone want to defend the actions of the senior administration officials, stipulating a) that they did provide lifelong Democrat Novak with that information. . .** QUIBBLE ALERT! Robert Novak is hardly a lifelong Democrat, to my knowledge. He frequently offers a conservative viewpoint to the various political discussion shows he appears on. Also, the cite provided links to the website [townhall.org](http://townhall.org), a collection of various strongly conservative pundits who sit around agreeing with each other. (OK, that last one was kind of cheap, since IIRC Novak was one of the few 'Pubbies to oppose the Iraq war.) ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/12 "2003-07-17T21:54:16Z")
Spavined Gelding – so on the basis of the **inference** that it was the officials that spilled the beans, you’re willing to buy into the whole chain of reasoning in the above quotes, namely that the administration \* deliberately \* blew the cover of a CIA operative to send a message? OK, it’s not impossible, but wouldn’t you like a bit more evidence? Like, that the Ms. Wilson actually is a CIA operative? That Novak didn’t know this beforehand? That this was a deliberate spill of information? The train of reasoning cited in the OP is so full of inference and hypotheticals that no responsible journalist would run with it unless they could get more information. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/13 "2003-07-17T22:58:33Z")
**Finagle** , did you read the Nation story linked to in the OP? Both Wilson and David Corn claim Novak himself says the administration officials told him about Mrs. Wilson: > [@](#): > > _(from the article):_ > > Novak tells me that he was indeed tipped off by government officials about Wilson’s wife and had no reluctance about naming her. “I figured if they gave it to me,” he says. “They’d give it to others…I’m a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it’s accurate. I generally use it.” And Wilson says Novak told him that his sources were administration officials. Which makes the basis for believing this was a deliberate outing a bit stronger than an inference. ---
**Author:** ![CTB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CTB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/14 "2003-07-17T23:55:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airblairxxx \* > **Robert Novak is hardly a lifelong Democrat, to my knowledge.** Sorry **Airblairxxx** , didn’t mean to whoosh you. You are quite correct that Novak is a conservative pundit, in fact one of the most conservative out there (discounting wastes of space like Coulter, Savage, and Limbaugh). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/15 "2003-07-18T00:43:40Z")
> [@](#): > > And some government officials have noted to TIME in interviews, (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. From [Time](http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html) Magazine. So, the Bush Administration told anyone who would listen. Period. Game, Set, Match. A hatchet job. From Wilson’s interview with Time > [@](#): > > In an interview with TIME, Wilson, who served as an ambassador to Gabon and as a senior American diplomat in Baghdad under the current president’s father, angrily said that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Africa. “That is bulls\_\_t. That is absolutely not the case,” Wilson told TIME. “I met with between six and eight analysts and operators from CIA and elsewhere [before the Feb 2002 trip]. None of the people in that meeting did I know, and they took the decision to send me. This is a smear job.” ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/16 "2003-07-18T01:15:45Z")
Has anyone established that Mrs. Wilson is in fact an _undercover_ analyst for the CIA? Lots and lots of analysts work for the CIA quite openly, and the mere fact that she works for a private firm hardly prevents her from consulting with the agency. While I certainly wouldn’t put it past the Bushies to do something like the complaint in The Nation, I just wanted to point out that it’s far from established that’s really what happened. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/17 "2003-07-18T01:29:40Z")
What is this: Novak is not conservative enough? He is only on Crossfire taking the side opposite mad dog Carville. He one of few conservatives I respect. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/18 "2003-07-18T02:01:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by minty green \* > \*\*Has anyone established that Mrs. Wilson is in fact an _undercover_ analyst for the CIA? Lots and lots of analysts work for the CIA quite openly, and the mere fact that she works for a private firm hardly prevents her from consulting with the agency. > > While I certainly wouldn’t put it past the Bushies to do something like the complaint in The Nation, I just wanted to point out that it’s far from established that’s really what happened. \*\* Good point-a great aunt of mine was a secretary for the CIA. I don’t know if she worked for any serious higher ups, though. I guess I could ask my grandfather or my dad. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/19 "2003-07-18T11:17:34Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by **minty green** :_ > > Has anyone established that Mrs. Wilson is in fact an _undercover_ analyst for the CIA? Lots and lots of analysts work for the CIA quite openly, and the mere fact that she works for a private firm hardly prevents her from consulting with the agency. Well, one must infer (see **Finagle** , here’s what an inference looks like) that Mrs. Wilson does not advertise her alleged service to the Agency, when we have Wilson quoted as below: > [@](#): > > _(from the Nation article again):_ > > Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.” Now, Wilson may be overdramatizing the potential damage, but it’s hardly likely he’d make such a claim if his wife’s CIA connections were public. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165/20 "2003-07-18T11:56:53Z")
I still would like to know if this really happened, who the alleged officials are, and when Novak found this out. How long has Plame been with the CIA? Is she really deep cover? People keep blaming “some government officials” or “adminstration sources” or whatever. Who specifically is this? Is it Bush and Cheney? Is it some low level staffers who want to sabotage someone else’s work? Is it someone during the Clinton administration, and Novak sat on it until now? Is this something he overheard at a cocktail party, and figured it sounded better if he attributed it in a mysterious way? I would like some confirmation that Plame is really employed by the CIA. All this third-hand rumor isn’t getting us anywhere. Regards, Shodan [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-outs-wilsons-wife-as-cia-operative-cool-or-uncool/189165.md?page=2)