# Was leaking Valerie Plame's name actually illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271 "2007-03-16T22:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/21 "2007-03-18T11:29:57Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] While I think it was stupid, I doubt that it has done any harm, there are layers of espionage that are overt rather than covert - and it is pretty obvious that she was ‘connected’. [/QUOTE] …The firm of Brewster, Jennings and Associates was exposed as a front company for the CIA thanks to the Plame leak. Do you not consider this harm to the CIA? > **[Brewster Jennings & Associates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Jennings_%26_Associates)** > > Brewster Jennings & Associates was a front company set up in 1994 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a cover for its officers. The most famous is Valerie Plame, a "covert employee of the CIA" whose then-classified status was published in a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak later said that his initial primary source was then-United States Deputy Secretary of State (2001–2005) Richard Armitage, though Armitage disagreed with Novak as to the extent of > Acco... ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/22 "2007-03-18T12:46:28Z")
[QUOTE=Banquet Bear] …The firm of Brewster, Jennings and Associates was exposed as a front company for the CIA thanks to the Plame leak. Do you not consider this harm to the CIA? > **[Brewster Jennings & Associates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Jennings_%26_Associates)** > > Brewster Jennings & Associates was a front company set up in 1994 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a cover for its officers. The most famous is Valerie Plame, a "covert employee of the CIA" whose then-classified status was published in a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak later said that his initial primary source was then-United States Deputy Secretary of State (2001–2005) Richard Armitage, though Armitage disagreed with Novak as to the extent of > Acco... [/QUOTE] Hmm… > [@](#): > > A spokeswoman for Dun & Bradstreet, a New Jersey operator of commercial databases, said Brewster Jennings was first entered into its records on May 22, 1994, but wouldn’t discuss the source of the filing. Its records list the company, at 101 Arch St., Boston, Massachusetts, as a “legal services office,” which could mean a law firm, _with annual sales of $60,000, one employee, and a chief executive identified as "Victor Brewster, Partner._" That is pretty thin cover - I would have expected something a bit more substantial. Cheapskates ! Let me repeat, what they did was spiteful and stupid, but I doubt it did any harm to anyone. Try this for size, ‘Khruschchev Remembers’ (c) 1971 Little, Brown and Co Inc - translated by Strobe Talbott - UK edition Andre Deutsch [Strobe Talbott - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_Talbott) Shared a house with Bill Clinton at Oxford when a Rhodes Scholar > [@](#): > > He was the Deputy Secretary of State from 1993 until 2001. He has also been a friend of Bill Clinton since their days as fellow Rhodes Scholars at the University of Oxford, where he translated Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs into English. Now those ‘taped memoirs’ stink like heck to me, definitely a setup job - that is two influential publishers and one former president who go back a long way with a precocious ‘translator’ - one who could not emulate the style of an aged apparatchnik (not easy for a 25 year old kid). All obvious and public knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/23 "2007-03-18T17:01:54Z")
Odd that 2 days and 22 posts later, still no mention whatsoever of Richard Armitage. Seeing as how [he was the actual person to leak the information](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533384/site/newsweek/), you would think his name might have been mentioned in a thread on this topic in a forum dedicated to fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/24 "2007-03-18T18:12:23Z")
[QUOTE=flex727] Odd that 2 days and 22 posts later, still no mention whatsoever of Richard Armitage. Seeing as how [he was the actual person to leak the information](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533384/site/newsweek/), you would think his name might have been mentioned in a thread on this topic in a forum dedicated to fighting ignorance. [/QUOTE] FYI The WH began leaking before Armitage ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/25 "2007-03-18T18:14:33Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Hmm… That is pretty thin cover - I would have expected something a bit more substantial. Cheapskates ! [/QUOTE] IIRC, she was working amongst foreign academics, not really trying to go directly up against foreign CI guys. A pretty woman at the faculty parties… ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/26 "2007-03-18T19:02:16Z")
[QUOTE=PatriotX] FYI The WH began leaking before Armitage [/QUOTE] Cite? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/27 "2007-03-18T19:13:31Z")
[QUOTE=flex727] Cite? [/QUOTE] To start, a simple easy to find one that everyone who is interested in the case should read, the Libby indictment > **[Department of Justice | Homepage | United States Department of Justice](https://www.justice.gov/)** > > Official website of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ’s mission is to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal... 1. On or about **June** 23, 2003, LIBBY met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. During this meeting LIBBY was critical of the CIA, and disparaged what he termed “selective leaking” by the CIA concerning intelligence matters. In discussing the CIA’s handling of Wilson’s trip to Niger, LIBBY informed her that Wilson’s wife might work at a bureau of the CIA. 21. On or about **July** 10 or July 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House (“Official A”) who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip. LIBBY was advised by Official A that Novak would be writing a story about Wilson’s wife. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/28 "2007-03-18T19:15:49Z")
> **[libby-fitzgerald-affidavit-20060203.pdf](https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/libby-fitzgerald-affidavit-20060203.pdf)** Page 3 (4 of 38) paragraph 6 & footnote 3 from paragraph 6:While the initial reporting regarding Ms.Plame’s employment was in a column by syndicated columnist Robert Novak, **the investigation of unauthorized disclosures is not limited to disclosures to Novak**.3 footnote 3In seeking to determine the sources for these disclosures, and the motives for the disclosures, the investigation also necessarily has sought to determine whether, as was reported in the Washington Post in September 2003, administration officials called a number of other members of the media in order to reveal information about Ms. Plame. **The investigation has focused primarily on disclosures pre-dating July 14, 2003, the date of Novak’s column.** ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/29 "2007-03-19T08:33:01Z")
[QUOTE=PatriotX] IIRC, she was working amongst foreign academics, not really trying to go directly up against foreign CI guys. A pretty woman at the faculty parties… [/QUOTE] I’ll bet they rumbled her - academics tend to know about spooks, for a start IME some retire there - and of course there are talent spotters. I should imagine a number of foreign academics, a crowd on the diplomatic circuit and of course the CIA are all very annoyed - although the first two groups would probably welcome her presence back at the shindigs. What puzzles me is why the WH would want to piss off the CIA - maybe there is a bit more to it ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271/30 "2007-03-19T17:23:29Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] I’ll bet they rumbled her - academics tend to know about spooks, for a start IME some retire there - and of course there are talent spotters. I should imagine a number of foreign academics, a crowd on the diplomatic circuit and of course the CIA are all very annoyed - although the first two groups would probably welcome her presence back at the shindigs. What puzzles me is why the WH would want to piss off the CIA - maybe there is a bit more to it [/QUOTE] Sure, but they’re not likely to send someone to follow her home to the States and check up on what she does in her daily life or bug her phone lines or any of the other things that someone with govt resources might choose to do. Lots of folks have many “bit more to it” they offer, yet understandably and unfortunately they don’t / can’t ever back any of it up. One of the more popular rumors is that Plame was involved in looking into the Niger/uranium forgeries. Who knows? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-leaking-valerie-plames-name-actually-illegal/396271.md?page=1)